Introduction

Kumagusu Minakata, a world-renowned naturalist Japan has ever produced, came back to Japan in 1900 after 14 years of unique study experience abroad mainly in America and England. He settled in Wakayama Prefecture, his birthplace, until his death in 1941, particularly lived in Tanabe City for 37 years from 1904 to 1941.

Kumagusu devoted his entire life to studies of natural history and folklore, and contributed a number of articles to the British science magazine ‘Nature’ and the British folklore magazine ‘Notes and Queries.’ He was also actively involved in anti-shrine-consolidation protests and the nature conservation movement in Japan. He was worshipped as “a great scholar with no degree” and loved by the locals who called him Minakata Sensei (the teacher) or Minakata-san (Mr. Minakata), while branded by some as an oddball.

More than 60 years after his death, Kumagusu’s achievements and life history has been made clear by a number of books and papers including ‘the Complete Works of Kumagusu Minakata’ and ‘the Diary of Kumagusu Minakata,’ and the research is still ongoing.

In this section we will trace the life of Kumagusu to understand who he was and what he had pursued; his concern of natural environment and conservation, and his innovative approach presently known as ecology.

Childhood & Years in Tokyo

Kumagusu Minakata was born in the castle city of Wakayama on April 15, 1867, the second son to a hardware dealer Yahei Minakata, 39, and wife Sumi, 30, and was raised with three brothers and two sisters.

Since childhood, he had had extraordinary interests in the natural world and demonstrated a marvelous memory. As early as at the age of seven he transcribed an encyclopedia. To develop his talent, Yahei, a self-made man, sent Kumagusu to the newly opened Wakayama Middle School (now Toin High), which was unconventional for a merchant family those days. Kumagusu’s thirst for knowledge was growing bigger as he at home recited the Chinese classics and transcribed the books that he had learned off by heart at a collector’s place.

That he transcribed Wakan Sansai Zue, an encyclopedia of 105 volumes, and Honzo Komoku, illustrated books of flora, in over five years is an extremely famous episode from this period. At school, however, he remained a low achiever. He was such a kid that finished lunch earlier and observed a frog or a crab in the empty lunch box.

After finishing middle school, he came to Tokyo in March 1883 and the following year entered the Preparatory School of Tokyo University. Among the colleagues were Shiki Masaoka, Soseki Natsume and Bimyo Yamada, who later became eminent figures of Japanese literature. Again Kumagusu was not interested in school and spent more time outside the university transcribing books in libraries, visiting zoos and botanic gardens, and collecting artifacts, animals, plants and minerals. At the news that Miles J. Berkeley, a world-famous British cryptogamist, and an American botanist Moses A. Curtis had collected 6000 species of fungi including slime molds, Kumagusu decided to produce an illustrated book that would cover more.

What with this and that, he didn't study much at university. In February 1886, following a failure at the end-of-year exam, he came home and told father that he would go to America, Initially opposed Yahei finally gave in to his son's enthusiasm and let him go.

Years in America

Kumagusu got aboard the City of Beijing at Yokohama in December 1886. Next month the ship arrived at San Francisco and he soon entered Pacific Business College just to experience American life because business was by no means his favorite subject.

In August 1887 he moved to Lansing via Chicago and was enrolled at the Michigan State School of Agriculture, where he was immersed in his study. One night in November 1888, however, he was in trouble for a drinking binge with a couple of Japanese and American friends in the dorm. He took the responsibility alone to save others from expulsion and early next morning left for Ann Arbor.

Kumagusu met bright Japanese students in Ann Arbor, home of the State University. While keeping company with them, he stayed away from university and studied on his own by reading books and collecting plants in the mountains, particularly cryptogams including fungi and lichens. In October 1889 he read a biography of Conrad von Gesner, a Swiss naturalist and a leading figure of modern biology, and swore he would become Japan’s Gesner, which was when his quest for the wonders of cryptogam began.

When he heard from William W. Calkins, a retired American colonel and a collector of lichen, that many undiscovered plants were in Florida, Kumagusu was ready to go. With two microscopes, books, a pistol, insect catchers as well as a medicine box and a plants press that he had just bought in Ann Arbor, Kumagusu came to Jacksonville in April 1891. He collected plants and animals while staying at Jiang, a supportive Chinese vegetable storekeeper. After three months’ collecting plants and animals enthusiastically he moved to Key West, the southernmost city in US, then to Havana in Cuba in mid September.

After a month in Havana a Japanese circus rider suddenly visited him. That encounter brought him to a new adventure of traveling in Port-au-Prince in Haiti, Caracas and Valencia in Venezuela, and Jamaica with the circus working as a mahout’s hand, and enabled him to collect precious fungi and lichens in the West Indies.

In January 1892 he returned to Jacksonville and worked on the plants he had collected in Florida and Cuba at Jiang's. When Jiang wound up the business in August, Kumagusu moved to New York for his cherished dream to be realized. In September he put an end to six years in America and got aboard the City of New York bound for UK.

Years in London

Across the Atlantic Ocean the ship arrived at Liverpool. Coming to London Kumagusu visited Yoshikusu Nakai, branch manager of the Yokohama Shokin Bank, an old friend of the Minakata family from Wakayama. The man handed him a letter from Tsunegusu, one of his younger brothers, about their beloved father’s death. Kumagusu was totally devastated.

He lived in downtown London where rents were cheap. While working on herbaria and exchanging specimens and letters with William W. Calkins and Allen, he visited the British Museum, the South Kensington Museum and other galleries. He then was introduced to a Japanese Oriental antique dealer Kataoka Prince.

In August 1893, Kumagusu read in Nature magazine, his favorite since the time in US, a thesis entitled ‘Five articles about the composition of constellations,’ the questions in which inspired him to write a reply. Kataoka Prince, who had noticed the erudition of the shabbily looking man, introduced him to Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks, the first keeper of British and medieval antiquities and ethnography at the British Museum. Kumagusu visited the museum more often to ask advice from Sir Wollaston.

Using a fragmented dictionary borrowed from the landlady, he completed an article entitled ‘the Constellations in the Far East’ in 30 days. The article was published in ‘Nature’ and he suddenly became famous among the intelligentsia. He contributed regularly to the magazine after that and also started writing for ‘Notes and Queries.’ He continued to write a number of articles and letters to the magazines after going back to Japan and won a reputation worldwide as an authority on the Oriental studies.

His rising reputation opened the door to friendships with notable figures including Frederick. V. Dickins, registrar of London University, as well as people from the British Museum including Sir Robert K. Douglas, director of the Oriental Books Section and Charles H. Reed, the successor to Franks.

He visited the British Museum almost every day. While immersing himself into reading of rare books of all ages from the East and the West, particularly in the fields of archeology, anthropology, folklore and religion, he copied them onto notebooks. A collection of 52 thick notebooks from this period called ‘London Extracts’ is kept in the Minakata Residence and the Minakata Kumagusu Museum. The pages are densely covered with tiny letters he put in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Greek and Latin.

Douglas, who had been impressed with his extensive knowledge, offered Kumagusu a job at the British Museum, but he declined the offer in light of freedom. Instead, he helped make a catalog of the books and manuscripts of the library and conduct historical research on the Buddhist statues of the museum using his expertise that had been accumulated through reading and transcribing of a large number of books including classics and encyclopedia since childhood.

One of the highlights in London was getting to know Sun Yat-sen, father of the Chinese Revolution. Kumagusu put it in his diary how they hit it off straight away on first acquaintance at the Douglas’s office in the British Museum in March 1897 and quickly developed a friendship through visiting each other and talking till late almost every day. The descriptions, though very brief, reveal the closeness between two friends. Their company lasted only four months until Sun had to leave London for Asia in early July.

Meeting with Horyu Toki, who later was the chief abbot of the Koyasan Temple, also deserves special mention. Kumagusu and Toki, much senior to him, opened up each other and exchanged frank opinions about religion. They wrote to each other until later years.

Many famous figures from Japan visited Kumagusu in London. They all were astonished at his erudition and shocked at his total disinterest in daily life. Although highly regarded by some scholars, Kumagusu sometimes experienced discrimination because of his ethnicity, the cause for his frequent reckless behaviors leading up to the departure from the British Museum in December 1898.

Frequent delay of money expected from the family in Japan forced him to make ends meet. He undertook a job to translate the titles for the calligraphy collection at the South Kensington Museum and sold Ukiyoe with his friends. High hopes of becoming an assistant professor at the soon-to-be opened Japanology program in Cambridge or Oxford were gone when the plan was turned down. Forced into straitened circumstances, he made a decision in despair to leave UK, where he had spent eight years. In September 1900 Kumagusu got on board Awa Maru at the port on the Thames and went home.

The First Year back home

In October 1900 Awa Maru arrived at Kobe after a 45 days voyage. Tsunegusu was shocked to see his elder brother appear in a shabby suit made of flimsy fabric like a mosquito net. He also was astounded Kumagusu had come back with tons of books and specimens but no degree. Kumagusu found temporary shelter at the brother’s in Wakayama after 14 years abroad.

After a while, Kumagusu heard that Sun Yat-sen was in the Yokohama settlement as a political refugee and wrote him. In February 1901 Sun came over to Wakayama. Although the first reunion in four years was disturbed by the police shadowing, Sun was happy to take risks to see the old friend from the time in London. At parting Sun left his favorite panama and afterwards sent him a reference letter addressed to Tsuyoshi Inukai, his guardian in Japan and later was Prime Minister. The letter, never used, is kept in the Minakata Residence and the hat is on display in the Minakata Kumagusu Museum.

Their friendship survived for a while; Sun sent specimens of lichen from Hawaii and Kumagusu wrote back, but ultimately they drifted apart and never met again. After Sun's death, Kumagusu expressed his sorrow in the reminiscence and wrote: "Friendship changes like seasons."

Years in Nachi

In October 1901 Kumagusu left Wakayama by boat for Katsu’ura, where he lived at the branch of Minakata Sake Distillery, run by brother Tsunegusu, until October 1904.In Nachi he spent all his time collecting fungi and algae around the region. One day, when collecting lichen at the Ichino-taki Falls, he met a young man, Shiro Koaze, a shipping company worker, who as a disciple was going to help Kumagusu with research on slime molds all his life. Koaze sent specimens from every port he called as well as offered financial support. Koaze, together with his close friend Shigeru Uematsu, backed Kumagusu both materially and spiritually.

He was very active in Nachi; collected insects and plants, made microscope slides and colored illustrated manuals, read hundreds of books, completed a draft for the English translation of ‘Hojoki: The Ten Square Feet Hut,’ which co-authored with Frederick V. Dickins, and proofread ‘Primal Text of Japan’ also written by Dickins. He also resumed writing for ‘Nature’ and ‘Notes and Queries.’

Embraced by the wildlife in the Kumano Mountains, Kumagusu, based on his extensive knowledge of the world, studied interaction between the spiritual with the material world and participated in heated debates on nature and life, including religious one with Horyu Toki. He also completed‘The Origin of the Swallow-Stone Myth (Ensekiko),’ a study he had planned at the end of the time in UK, which is considered as the pinnacle of his research presented in English.

Settled in Tanabe

After three years stay and a total of 21 months research on plants in the Kumano region, Kumagusu left Katsu’ura in October 1904 and walked to Tanabe while collecting specimens on his way. On arrival he immediately fell in love with Tanabe he thought was “a quiet place with nice people, cheap commodities and beautiful weather and the scenery.” He decided to settle, rent a house and started an easy life. He often invited friends and had parties at nearby luxury restaurants and teahouses; hired Geisha girls, drank, sang Dodoitsu and Otsue, his favorite party pieces, and played strange performances.

In the fall of 1905 Kumagusu donated 46 specimens of slime molds to the British Museum. Arthur Lister, president of the British Mycological Society, had them introduced in the Journal of Botany, vol. 49, as ‘The Second Report of Japanese Fungi,’ following the first report on the specimens sent by Prof. Miyoshi of Tokyo Imperial University. This article, which led Kumagusu to a new world of friendship with Lister and his daughter Gulielma, was a milestone in his career towards a world-class slime molds researcher who gave a lecture to Emperor Hirohito in June 1929.

In July 1906 at 40 Kumagusu married to Matsue, 28, the fourth daughter of Munezo Tamura, chief priest of the Tokei Shrine. Tamura, a former samurai of the Kishu-Tokugawa clan, was also a Sinologist whose knowledge of the Chinese wisdom had influenced Matsue’s upbringing. Her late marriage, for a woman in those days, was due to her devotion to father and the destitute family she had supported by teaching sewing and flower arrangement. In July 1907 the couple had Kumaya. At first sight of his baby boy Kumagusu wrote: “Stayed awake till dawn watching my baby” and expressed the joy of becoming father.

After the birth of Kumaya the marriage was rocky. After Matsue turned to parents few times, he gradually reduced alcohol. He kept in his diary every detail of Kumaya, how he moved and talked, which shows his deepest love and expectations for son. Kumagusu usually woke up at 11 am and worked at home from sometime in the afternoon till 5 o’clock next morning sorting specimens, drawing pictures, conducting research, reading and writing. While weaving, Matsue, together with a housemaid, was very nervous about the care of weepy Kumaya. Their daughter Fumie was born in October 1911.

Kumagusu resumed copying books around in 1909. The extract of Daizokyo, scriptures owned by the Horinji Temple, which took full three years, was a particularly demanding job. “To read is to copy. You’ll forget when you just read it, but you’ll never forget when you copy it.” He propagated this belief and put it into practice by himself. The extracts from this period called ‘Tanabe Extracts’ consist of 61 volumes

On top of the contributions he had made to British journals and magazines since homecoming, Kumagusu started writing for journals and newspapers in Japan. Using a lot of citations was his signature style of research papars but first-hand folklore evidence and antiquities were also included. His extraordinary memory and archives accumulated through interviews with people meant there.

Anti-Shrine-Consolidation Protests

In 1906 the government imposed the regulations of shrines consolidation under which all shrines in a village or a town should be merged. The Wakayama prefectural government pushed hard the enforcement of the regulations. 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 around them. 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 appealed to leading researchers for support, 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, then a counselor of the Cabinet Legislation Bureau and later was father of Japanese folklore, 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 including the Kashima Island in Tanabe Bay. His battle continued until his last years, which is why he is called a pioneer in ecology today.

In February 1911, when ‘The Mountain God Loves Stonefish’ was published in the Journal of the Anthropological Society of Tokyo, Kumagusu received a letter from Yanagita. It was when the correspondence between two, which were going to make a significant contribution to the study of Japanese folklore, began.

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 invite Kumagusu to US. Dr. Swingle came over to Tanabe in May 1915 to announce the appointment in person. Although having intended to accept the offer, he finally declined it 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 a place for writing and microscopic research on plants. The godown was organized into the stacks containing a number of books and materials. He published research papers about folklore one after another based on the previous research papers of natural science already published in newspapers and journals and the articles about the shrine consolidation.

The more scholars and celebrities he received and the busier he became with his writing, the more often he had to stay home and conduct his botanical research in the backyard. This change enabled him 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.

It was around this time that the governor of Wakayama Prefecture and his friends finished the planning of the Minakata Botanical Institute. The prospectus was drafted by Chozaburo Tanaka and promoted by 30 big names including those from the political and literary worlds, for example, Takashi Hara, Shigenobu Okuma, Yorimichi Tokugawa and Rohan Koda. Kumagusu came to Tokyo for the first time in 36 years and spent five months to raise money. Day after day he visited notable figures in politics and academia including Prime Minister Korekiyo Takahashi asking for support. He finally collected a considerable but less than the prospect amount of money.

He continued his fund-raising campaign at home. The famous ‘Resume’ was written then responding to a request from Yoshio Yabuki, deputy branch manager, Nippon Yusen, Osaka, whom he 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 longest resume in Japan and the first resume ever known 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 theses previously published in various 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.

Emperor Hirohito and Kumagusu

Emperor Hirohito, also a biologist, had shown a strong interest in slime molds since he was the Prince Regent. As the Prince, he had read ‘A Monograph of the Slime Molds’ written by Gulielma Lister and expressed Dr. Hirotaro Hattori of the National Biological Research Institute his wish to see the specimens. Having learned the rumor, Shiro Koaze approached Kumagusu and his friends from Tokyo University. In November 1926 the team prepared and presented Prince Hirohito with a collection of 90 specimens of 37 genera of Japanese slime molds. It bore the signatures of Koaze as the presenter and Kumagusu as the selector.

In March 1929, all of a sudden, Dr. Hattori secretly visited and requested Kumagusu to give a lecturer on slime molds to Hirohito, then Emperor, in his future royal visit to the Wakayama region. Kumagusu telegraphed his acceptance. With no precedent for a commoner giving an imperial lecture, he soon became the center of the public attention and extremely busy preparing specimens.

On the first of June 1929 the rain had started in the morning. Kumagusu headed for the Kashima Island in a frock coat he had bought in America and kept for years. After taking the Emperor for a walk in the woods on the island, Kumagusu, while showing specimens, gave a 25-minute lecture, on board the royal ship Nagato, on slime molds and marine life to His Majesty. He also presented the Emperor with gifts including 110 specimens of slime molds kept in empty taffy boxes. A chamberlain recalled: “Rumors of his eccentricity had made me doubt about his capability but my worry turned out to be utterly groundless when I met this well-mannered and polite man. He was a gentleman who had experience of living abroad as well as a traditional Japanese who showed a respect for the Imperial Family.”

It was the most glorious day in his life. In the afternoon Kumagusu took pictures of him and Matsue in their finest attire at a studio and shared the happiest moment with his relatives and close friends by giving sweets he had received from the Imperial Household.

Next year, in commemoration of the Emperor’s visit to Kashima, a monument was erected on the edge of a dense wood near the point where His Majesty had landed. Inscribed on the monument is a poem Kumagusu wrote hoping that the island would be protected forever by the benevolence and the power of the Emperor:

In May 1962, more than 30 years later, Their Majesties The Emperor and Empress visited southern Wakayama again. Inspired by a view of Kashima from a hotel room on the Shirahama Beach the Emperor composed a poem:

Through the rain I see the dim figure of Kashima in the distance

Which reminds me of Kumagusu who was born in Wakayama

The poem is inscribed on the monument erected in front of the Minakata Kumagusu Museum overlooking the Kashima island.

In Last Few 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 (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 Constellations in the Far East’ as a start, he contributed a total of 50 theses to ‘Nature’ 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. Discussions of historical evidence from the East and the West between 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.