Human Pillars and Other Folklore Essays

Minakata Kumagusu's best-known short folklore essay, 'The Matter of Human Pillars', gathers the world's tales of people built into walls, bridges and castles, and takes on the Japanese scholars who denied they had ever existed. Around it stand six shorter pieces from the learned journals: a worldwide survey of curses, the vanished Edo-period trade of 'women pilgrims', salt taboos, the meeting in London with a Japanese juggler who had met a castaway in Peru, and a quarrel over the names of the god Bishamon.

This edition is a complete, unabridged New English Translation made directly from the Japanese, with endnotes identifying sources, persons and period terms.

AI-assisted translation.