The Tiger: History, Legend and Folklore

In 1914, for the New Year number of the magazine Taiyō, the naturalist and folklorist Minakata Kumagusu began a cycle of essays on the twelve zodiac animals. The first, on the tiger, ranges from the names and natural history of the beast to tiger histories, Buddhist tales, folk customs and medicine, drawing on Chinese chronicles, Sanskrit sutras, travelers' reports and village gossip from his native Kii. Digressive, learned and often funny, it shows one of the most remarkable minds of modern Japan at play.

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.