Yanagita Kunio: Master of Japanese Folklore and Legends

Yanagita Kunio (Courtesy the National Diet Library)

Yanagita Kunio’s childhood home in Fukusaki, Hyōgo Prefecture. (© Hyōgo Tourism Bureau)

A view of the Tōno Basin in Iwate. (© Pixta)

In people’s homes, Oshirasama is typically represented by two dolls made of mulberry wood about 30 centimeters high. One is carved with a horse’s head and one with that of a girl. They would be taken out of a box during festivals and draped with cloth garments before worship. The photograph shows a pair of Oshirasama dolls worshipped as a silk culture deity at a residence in Rikuzentakata, Iwate. (© Iwate Prefectural Museum)

Yanagita Kunio in front of his house in Setagaya, Tokyo, in October 1956. (Courtesy the National Diet Library)