Studies on Minakata Kumagusu

No.5, March 2003 (362 pages)

[Japanese page] <9>

• Contents

• Summaries

Cover illustration: Minakata Kumagusu's letter to Koaze Shiro How to buy: See Japanese page [for domestic order] or Overseas order Info on SMK top page.

Contents

I

Minakata Kumagusu's "Ecology" <1>

...................... TAMURA Yoshiya

An Eyesight of Stigma: Minakata Kumagusu arguing the body

...................... HARADA Ken'ichi

On Minakata's Waning Memory Capacity <2>

...................... UNDO Hitoshi

Minakata's Studies on Konjaku-Monogatari-Shu during Taisho Period IV

...................... KOMINE Kazuaki

II

New Sources on Minakata Kumagusu in the British Library and Victoria & Albert Museum, 2002

...................... MAKITA Kenji and MATSUI Ryugo

Expedition Report: Minakata Kumagusu in Lansing and Ann Arbor

...................... YOKOYAMA Shigeo, NAKANISHI Sumi, and MATSUI Ryugo

Minakata Kumagusu's choice of Michigan Agricultural College: A Comment on New Sources

...................... TAKEUCHI Yoshinobu

III

Ogasawara Yoshio's Letters to Minakata

...................... OGASAWARA Kenzo, ed.

Nakamura Kokyo and Kumagusu: Letters and Comments

...................... YASUDA Tadanori, ed.

A History of Posthumous Memorial Events Dedicated to Minakata Kumagusu II

...................... NAKASE Hisaharu

VI

Content List of "Kayo Zuihitsu", Book Seven

...................... YOSHIKAWA Toshihiro, ed.

Kumagusu's Unpublished Writings in the Drafts of "Zoku Zoku Minakata Zuihitsu"

...................... HARADA Ken'ichi, ed.

Correspondence between Minakata Kumagusu and Takagi Toshio

...................... IIKURA Shohei, ed.

Minakata's Letters to Koaze Shiro in 1928 (Jan - Jun)

...................... Minakata Kumagusu Honji no kai in Tokyo, ed.

*

In Memory of Mr Gotoh Shin <3>

...................... YASUDA Tadanori

Editors' postscripts

Summaries

[Top of this page]

• Part I consists of four papers. Tamura reconsiders on Kumagusu's tendency towards 'Ecology'. Harada examines various aspects of Kumagusu's obsession on the body. Undo probes Kumagusu's technique of memorization and his way of dealing with his waning capability of memorization. Komine successively scrutinizes the traces of Kumagusu's reading of Konjaku-Monogatari on the copy in his Library.

• Part II is the section for overseas expeditions. Makita and Matsui found six new sources on Kumagusu's last two years in London. Nakanishi, Yokoyama and Matusi followed Kumagusu's trails in Lansing and Ann Arbor, Michigan, and located the sources which substantiate Kumagusu's own story on his days there. Takeuchi's comment sheds a new light on Kumagusu's choice of Lansing.

• Part III includes three presentations of documents regarding Kumagusu. Letters from Ogasawara Yoshio, an old friend of Kumagusu's since their childhood, were edited and transcribed by his own son. Letters from Nakamura Kokyo, the editor of "Hentai Shinri" magazine, make clear various aspects of the communication between the psychiatrist and the philosopher, including their plan of publication for Kumagusu. Nakase's retrospect of commemoration activities of Kumagusu has been completed now.

• Part IV presents four unpublished documents written by and to Kumagusu. "Kayo Zuihitsu", or Essays besides the regular courses, is Kumagusu's reading memoranda. These notebooks are of considerable importance in examining the formation of Kumagusu's thoughts though tremendously hard to decipher. The drafts of "Zoku Zoku Minakata Zuihitsu", which was to be Kumagusu's fourth book, were once handed to the publisher but eventually never printed, with many new writings of Kumagusu left unseen to the public until today. The correspondences between Takagi Toshio and Kumagusu show a number of new and interesting topics in the history of Japanese folkloric studies, and are no less important than those of Yanagita Kunio and Kumagusu. Kumagusu's letters to Koaze Shiro (Series 2: 1928 Jan-Jun) reveal a philosophical basement of his study on the myxomycetes (mycetozoa).

(Summarized by the editor)