In 1906 the government imposed the regulations nationwide under which all shrines in a village or a town should be merged into one. The Wakayama government particularly pushed hard the enforcement of the regulations within the prefecture. In Japan there used to be a shrine in each community, however small, which was the centripetal force to unite the people, the provider of recreations and the object of worship, and with very few exceptions they all stood in deep forests.

Kumagusu was worried that the regulations would not only ruin historical buildings and antiquities but, by cutting trees, also damage the scenery and the undiscovered natural life on the premises. He contributed an opinion to every edition of a local paper Muro Shinpo. He also sent objection letters to major papers in Tokyo and Osaka and asked for the support of leading researchers, including Jinzo Matsumura, a notable botanist and professor of Tokyo University, to whom Kumagusu wrote long letters criticizing the deeds done by the central and prefectural governments. Kunio Yanagita, a folklorist and a counselor of the Cabinet Legislation Bureau, supported the campaign by disseminating copies of the letters as Minakata Nisho (two letters) to those who concerned.

In August 1910 Kumagusu was arrested for trespassing when he threw a bag of specimens into a meeting held in Tanabe Junior High School (now Tanabe High). Although drunk, he did it out of rage when rejected to talk with one of the attendees, a government officer who was in charge of the promotion of the regulations. During 18 days in jail pending trial he read books and hunted slime molds in the building. When released, he refused to leave saying: “This place is quiet with no visitors and cool. I want to stay longer.”

As his enthusiasm moved public opinion, the irrational regulations gradually lost momentum. In 1920, 10 years from the arrest, the regulations were confirmed useless by the House of Peers and abolished. Ultimately, Kumagusu’s efforts saved a couple of forests, but a number of shrines and forests had become extinct during the decade. He then approached various social movements and public bodies in charge of the national heritage list in order to promote protection of the precious environment and heritage sites including Kashima Island in Tanabe Bay. His battle continued until later years, which is why he is called a pioneer in ecology today.

In February 1911 Kumagusu published ‘The Mountain God Loves Stonefish’ in the Journal of the Anthropological Society of Tokyo, which was when the correspondence between him and Yanagita, father of Japanese folklore studies, began. Their discussions through letters made a significant contribution to Japanese folklore studies in the early stages.

In July 1914 Kumagusu’s reputation was spread nationwide following a newspaper report on the announcement by Walter T. Swingle, head of the Office of Crop Physiology and Breeding Investigation of US Department of Agriculture, that they would officially invite erudite Kumagusu to the US government. Dr. Swingle had already contacted Kumagusu privately. A series of reports by a journalist Nichinan Fukumoto entitled ’Detekita Kaya (the emergence of Kaya)’ were also very influential. Dr. Swingle came over to Tanabe in May 1915 to announce the appointment to him in person. Against his original intention, Kumagusu declined the offer because of a family matter.

Going to Tokyo

In April 1916 Kumagusu obtained a property, now the Minakata Residence, under the ownership of Tsunegusu. The large garden turned to be an open-air laboratory to observe plants, frogs and turtles. The study was the place for writing and microscopic research on plants. The godown was organized into the stacks containing a number of books and materials.

He wrote research papers about folklore one after another based on his studies of natural science and the shrine consolidation dispute that he had previously published in newspapers and journals.

As he got more publicity, more scholars and celebrities came to visit Kumagusu. He also got busier with his writing. As the result he more often stayed and conducted his studies of plants at home. This change gave him a chance to discover the famous Minakatella longifila Lister, a new genus of slime mold named by Gulielma Lister, president of the British Mycological Society, from a persimmon tree in his garden in 1917.

With the support of the governor of Wakayama and friends, Kumagusu completed the prospectus for the Minakata Botanical Institute, whose promoters were 30 big names including those from the political and literary worlds; Takashi Hara, Shigenobu Okuma, Yorimichi Tokugawa and Rohan Koda. In March 1922 he came to Tokyo for the first time in 36 years and stayed for five months until August to raise money. He visited notable figures in politics and academia including Prime Minister Korekiyo Takahashi. He eventually collected considerable sums but they were less than prospected.

He continued his fund-raising campaign in Wakayama. The famous ‘Resume’ was written then responding to a request from Yoshio Yabuki, deputy branch manager of Nihon Yusen, Osaka, whom Kumagusu had asked for donation. The resume, written on a 7.7m long paper using fine strokes, is one of the autographs of extreme importance to understand the real Kumagusu and perhaps the first and the longest resume in Japan in light of the volume and quality of information it contains.

In March 1925 Kumaya became ill and went into a hospital in Wakayama city. After taking son home to recuperate, Kumagusu shut the gate against all visitors. It lasted for three years until Kumaya was moved to a hospital in Kyoto in May 1928.

Fair success of the fundraising in Tokyo was offset in a way by an unfulfilled promise of Tsunegusu, one of the major promoters of the project. He didn’t provide 20,000 yen, his part of donation, which caused a rift between the two brothers. Kumagusu also got trouble making a living because of expensive medical bills. In order to lessen the financial burden Kumagusu published three books in 1926. The books, compilations of research papers previously published in journals, gave the reader an insight into his arguments consistent throughout the years and revealed again his erudition, which aroused the admiration of the public.