  V1184 Tau is a young variable for long time monitored at optical wavelengths.
Its variability has been ascribed to a sudden and repetitive increase of the
circumstellar extinction (UXor-type variable), but the physical origin of such
variation, although hypothesized, has not been fully supported on observational
basis. To get a new insight into the variability of V1184 Tau, we present new
photometric and spectroscopic observations taken in the period 2008-2015.
During these years the source has reached the same high brightness level that
had before the remarkable fading of about 5 mag undergone in 2004. The optical
spectrum is the first obtained when the continuum is at its maximum level. The
observations are interpreted in the framework of extinction driven variability.
We analyze light curves, optical and near-infrared colors, SED and optical
spectrum. The emerging picture indicates that the source fading is due to an
extinction increase of DeltaA_V about 5 mag, associated with a strong infrared
excess, attributable to a thermal component at T=1000 K. From the flux of
H(alpha) we derive a mass accretion rate between 10^-11 -5 10^-10 M_sun yr^-1
s, consistent with that of classical T Tauri stars of similar mass. The source
SED was fitted for both the high and low level of brightness. A scenario
consistent with the known stellar properties (such as spectral type, mass and
radius) is obtained only if the distance to the source is of few hundreds of
parsecs, in contrast with the commonly assumed value of 1.5 kpc. Our analysis
partially supports that presented by Grinin (2009), according to which the
circumstellar disk undergoes a periodical puffing, whose observational effects
are both to shield the central star and to evidence a disk wind activity.
However, since the mass accretion rate remains almost constant with time, the
source is likely not subject to accretion bursts.
