Kizen Sasaki also sometimes Sun-Hee Sasaki and Kyiiseki Sasaki, (5 October 1886 – 29 September 1933), was a Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese folklorist

Folkloristics

Folkloristics is the formal academic study of folklore. The term derives from a nineteenth century German designation of folkloristik to distinguish between folklore as the content and folkloristics as its study, much as language is distinguished from linguistics...

, sometimes known as the Japanese Grimm

Brothers Grimm

The Brothers Grimm , Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm , were German academics, linguists, cultural researchers, and authors who collected folklore and published several collections of it as Grimm's Fairy Tales, which became very popular...

.

He was the son of a weathly farming family and attended Shiritsu Tetsugakukan (now Toyo University

Toyo University

Toyo University is a university with several branches in Japan, including .- Overview :...

) and then graduated with a degree in literature from Waseda University

Waseda University

, abbreviated as , is one of the most prestigious private universities in Japan and Asia. Its main campuses are located in the northern part of Shinjuku, Tokyo. Founded in 1882 as Tokyo Senmon Gakko, the institution was renamed "Waseda University" in 1902. It is known for its liberal climate...

 in 1905. In 1908 he became acquainted with Kunio Yanagita

Kunio Yanagita

was a Japanese scholar who is often known as the father of Japanese native folkloristics, or minzokugaku.He was born in Fukusaki, Hyōgo Prefecture. After graduating with a degree in law from Tokyo Imperial University, he became employed as a bureaucrat in the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce...

, and Sasaki began to collaborate with Yanagita on collecting the oral traditions and tales of Iwate Prefecture

Iwate Prefecture

is the second largest prefecture of Japan after Hokkaido. It is located in the Tōhoku region of Honshū island and contains the island's easternmost point. The capital is Morioka. Iwate has the lowest population density of any prefecture outside Hokkaido...

. In his later years he became friends with the poet Kenji Miyazawa

Kenji Miyazawa

was a Japanese poet and author of children's literature in the early Shōwa period of Japan. He was also known as a devout Buddhist, vegetarian and social activist.-Early life:...

 with whom he shared his discoveries. Sasaki suffered from respiratory problems and died at the age of 47.

Professionally, Sasaki published a number of books of collected folktales and customs.

Sources

• Yamada, Norio (1977) 柳田国男の光と影 : 佐々木喜善物語 (Yanagita Kunio no hikari to kage, Kunio Yanagida's light and shadow: A Biography of Kizen Sasaki) 農山漁村文化協会 (Rural Cultural Association); electronic location Hathi Trust Digital Library (search only)