Birthplace of Kunio Yanagita

Kunio Yanagita is the pride of Fukusaki Town, the birthplace of folklore. The birthplace of Yanagita, who pioneered and established the new academic field of "Japanese folklore," sits on a lush mountainside overlooking the townscape below. The house is a so-called "T-shaped" traditional Japanese house, with a width of five bays, a depth of four bays, an earthen floor, a three-tatami room, a four-and-a-half-tatami room parlor, a four-and-a-half-tatami storeroom, and a three-tatami kitchen. Yanagita is said to have said, "My house is the smallest in Japan. It is fair to say that my desire to study folklore was sparked by the fate of the smallness of this house."