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2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

A Study of Frederick William Henry Myers: The Connection with Kumagusu Minakata

Research Project

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Project/Area Number 26770015
Research Category

Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)

Allocation TypeMulti-year Fund
Research Field Philosophy/Ethics
Research InstitutionRyukoku University (2015)
Waseda University (2014)

Principal Investigator

KARASAWA Taisuke  龍谷大学, その他部局等, 研究員 (90609017)

Project Period (FY) 2014-04-01 – 2016-03-31
Keywords南方熊楠 / マイヤーズ / SPR / 那智山 / 心身論
Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this research, I studied Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death Vol. 1 & 2 and its author Frederick William Henry Myers (1843-1901). Kumagusu Minakata (1867-1941), an influential Japanese folklorist and naturalist, was strongly influenced by this book. The main contents and results of the research are as follows.
First, I investigated the member lists of the Society for Psychical Research at the Cambridge University Library. Thereby, I was able to discover the first Japanese member of the Society, and identify the house where Myers resided. This house was the important place where Myers conducted a lot of psychical experiments. Next, I read carefully the aforementioned book and identified some sections which Minakata referred to or quoted in his diaries or articles and translated them into Japanese. Thereby, I revealed that most of Minakata’s psychological statements about his dreams and supernormal phenomena were influenced by this book.

Free Research Field

哲学・倫理学

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Published: 2017-05-10  

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