Abstract: The Legends of Tōno, published in the year Mingzhi 43 (1910), is the classic and maiden work of Yanagita Kunio who was the father of modern Japanese folklore. From The Legends of Tōno, Yanagita Kunio founded the “one country folklore” by his own hands which has been proud by the Japanese. On the other hand, as the model of folk literature, The Legends of Tōno has been laid on a very high status. In the both hands, The Legends of Tōno has been regarded as the local oral literature tradition of Tōno village in the Northeast area of Japan. Even the Chinese writer Zhouzuoren who was the first people read this book in Japan thought it was simply the work. about Japanese folklore. In this thesis, it will first discuss the relationship between the text of The Legends of Tōno and Chinese culture to find the clue about the influence from Chinese culture. Then it will discuss about Yanagita Kunio’ s Chinese culture accomplishment. On theses basis, it will analyze where did some of the stories get their materials and how the Chinese legends and folk custom came into Japan and how they were changed. Some of the stories in The Legends of Tōno are not only concerned about the influence from olden Chinese culture but also concerned about the China- Japan relationship in the modern times. Especially the “Mountain Men” image in the story formed a kind of allusion with the colonial history between Japan and China. By researching the model of “Mountain Men”, Tanagita Kunio’s complex attitude to the Japanese colonism will be showed. As on many levels how the The Legends of Tōno found its materials from Chinese culture will be showed in this thesis, the common opinion that the The Legends of Tōno is purely the Japanese folk tradition will be refuted.
