Tono is the setting for the Legends of Tono, often dubbed the Grimms' Fairy Tales of the East. The book, compiled by leading folklorist Yanagita Kunio about 110 years ago, consists of the wondrous folktales Yanagita heard from Tono-native Sasaki Kizen. On Journeys in Japan, Jonathan Senior travels north to Iwate Prefecture and a remote hamlet where the pages of the Legends of Tono come to life.