| Exhibition 6: Later Years |
The Sino-Japanese War broke out in 1937. As the war escalated, the people’s life was impoverished. Kumagusu was not an exception. The loss of his old friends gave him an additional blow. He gradually ruined his health and stayed in bed. Although collapsing many times, however, he continued to work for the completion of Nihon Kinpu (the illustrated manual of Japanese fungi; drawing pictures), writing notes and giving advice to his colleagues.
In December 1941, soon after the Pacific War had erupted, Kumagusu was in a critical condition. On the 29th of December he murmured, “I can see purple flowers blooming on the ceiling” and closed his 75 years life filled with ups and downs. The maverick scholar who had won international recognition was laid to rest peacefully at the Takayamadera Temple in Tanabe City overlooking the Kashima Island.
Achievements of Kumagusu
Young Kumagusu leaped out into the wider world when Japan was going through a metamorphosis from a feudal state into a westernized modern country. He went to America then to UK searching for a place where anybody, regardless of class, could study freely. He found it in the British Museum, where he put his heart and soul into research while buried in hundreds of books, arts and crafts and antiquities from the East and the West.
With the publication of ‘the Constellations in the Far East’ in Nature as a start, he contributed a total of 50 theses including ‘The Antiquity of Finger Print Method (Boin Ko)’ to the British science magazine and hundreds of articles and essays to a folklore magazine ‘Notes and Queries.’ This large number of articles shows he won an important place in the British academia.
He was blessed with an extraordinary memory and manipulated more than 10 languages. In addition, plenty of experience of copying books enabled him to master how to scrutinize empirical documents and the methods of comparative cultural studies, which was the basis of his unbounded capacity in writing. ’Junishiko: A Study of Twelve Animals of Chinese Zodiac,’ one of his most important works, is the example.
After coming back to Japan he wrote a number of articles in quick succession for Japanese journals and magazines, some of which had just started publication. In addition the discussions about historical evidence from the East and the West between Kumagusu and Kunio Yanagita, as shown in their abundant correspondence, had a great influence to the birth and the development of Japanese folklore studies.
‘The Illustrated Book of Bionomics of Japanese Fungi,’ one of his greatest achievements and the embodiment of his admiration mixed with rivalry to Curtis and Berkeley, made a huge contribution to the development of the study of fungi and thus deserves international recognition. It covers 4,500 species with 15,000 pictures. Although the entries were 500 less than planned, the book also introduced his extensive research on fungi, slime molds and algae including Minakatella longifila Lister, enigmatic behavior of slime molds and parasitic algae on fish.
His advocacy of anti-shrine-consolidation protests had its roots in his deepest anger towards the loss of inhabitants’ spiritual hubs and the extinct of the landscape with which people felt an affinity. The ecological relation between nature and human beings, which Kumagusu looked at through the studies of biology, folklore, ethnology and religion, is still something we should always keep in mind.
Late Shinzo Koizumi, chancellor of Keio University and an admirer of Kumagusu, paid his tribute: “We should write it in the academic history in Japan that a maverick scholar acquired such extensive knowledge and accomplished such great achievements.”The Minakata Kumagusu Museum introduces the life and achievements of Kumagusu through the exhibitions of his memorabilia, related materials and books.
Kumagusu in his last moments
| Year | Age | Time | Personal Events | Historical Events |
| 1941 | 74 | Tanabe |
Died on December 29. | Outbreak of WWII in the Pacific region |
| 1945 | After his death | End of the war | ||
| 1963 | 22 | After his Death |
The monument of a poem composed by Emperor Hirohito was erected. It reads: “Through the rain I see the dim figure of Kashima in the distance, which reminds me of Kumagusu who was born in Wakayama.” | |
| 1965 | 24 | Minakata Kumagusu Museum opened in Shirahama-cho. | ||
| 2000 | 69 | Daughter Fumie died. | ||
As a Folklorist
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Minakata Kumagusu Museum Foundation |
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