미야자와 겐지의 소년소설 <구스코 부도리의 전기> 연구

Abstract

Miyazawa Kenji, born in Japan in 1896, wrote poetry and fairy tales until he passed away at the young age of 37 in 1933. During his lifetime, he was committed to missionary activity as a devote Buddhist. In addition, he was a teacher for an agricultural school, a researcher for farm-land improvement, and a scientist. The young adult novel The Life Story of Gusuko Budori was released in 1932, just a year and a half before Miyazawa Kenji died. The Life Story of Gusuko Budori is a medium-length biography of a hero that depicts The Life Story of Gusuko Budori from his childhood to the moment he faces death. As a manuscript from Miyazawa Kenji’s early creative activity, The Life Story of PennennennennenㆍNenemu became the prototype for The Life Story of Gusuko Budori. In The Life Story of PennennennennenㆍNenemu, the change, process, and characteristics in the life of Miyazawa Kenji are well revealed. This study uses The Life Story of Gusuko Budori as a central axis to examine the novels relationship with The Life Story of PennennennennenㆍNenemu Gusuko ultimately revealing how Budori’s life is representative of the life of fairy tale writer Miyazawa Kenji. The author’s rural activity and frustration in his works were based on both the ghost story fantasy written in his mid-twenties (The Life Story of PennennennennenㆍNenemu) and the real world re-written right before Miyazawa Kenji passed away (The Life Story of Gusuko Budori). This study examined 27 years of Budori’s life. He was born the son of a firewood gatherer, suffered the bitter experience of his family’s disintegration due to a famine, then achieved an education through diligent study, and chose death in order to solve cold-weather damage while fulfilling his duty as an engineer and scientist. Budori’s life deeply involves the creatures that form the modern times in Japan such as factories, schools and science, and is representative of mankind’s quest to solve the elementary problem dubbed ‘life’. In other words, it is what is delivering preciousness in proceeding with living, proceeding with following life, and proceeding with continuing life. That is to say, on the other side of Budori’s death, a longing for survival in mankind is contained. Through considering The Life Story of Gusuko Budori, a quest was performed that Miyazawa Kenji was just a person who looked squarely and transcended the realistic world and dreamed of a reform by borrowing the power of science with the looks of practicing as a religious person and who strived to overcome the modern times through a fairy tale in the face of having confronted frustration and limitation in real life while experiencing with the whole body the rapidly-changing period in society called the modern times, simultaneously even with exploring a human being’s essential problem with cherishing the primitive mentality.