Local Studies

...The activities of the Local Society, which was founded in 1910 by Nitobe Inazo, Yanagita Kunio and others, are noteworthy in this respect. The Local Society rejected the overemphasis on central culture and the superficial adoption of modern science, and sought to uncover living indigenous values ​​through field research in local areas. It even published a magazine called Local Studies, which included reports on research in various regions. Yanagita, who focused on European folklore studies, which were generally not of much interest in Japan at the time, elucidated the actual state and significance of Japanese folk culture and developed his own folklore studies. Nitobe, inspired by the morphological analysis of ancient settlements and farmland in Meitzen, attempted to establish agricultural science as a local study. ...

*Some of the terminology that refers to "local research" is listed below.

Source | Heibonsha World Encyclopedia 2nd Edition | Information

…1910年以来，新渡戸稲造柳田国男らが結成した郷土会の活躍が，この点で注目をひく。郷土会は，中央文化への偏重や近代科学の表面的な摂取を退け，郷土の実地調査をもとに生きた土着の価値を掘りあてようとする集いで，各地の調査報告を収録した雑誌《郷土研究》も発刊されるにいたった。当時，日本では一般には関心の浅かったヨーロッパ民俗学に注目した柳田は，日本における常民文化の実態とその意義を解明し，独自の民俗学を大成したし，マイツェンの古集落や農地の形態分析に示唆を得た新渡戸は，〈地方（じかた）学〉としての農学の樹立を企てた。…

※「《郷土研究》」について言及している用語解説の一部を掲載しています。

出典｜株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典 第２版について | 情報