御伽草子に見る異類婚姻譚 ─文学研究と昔話研究の接点から─

Abstract

Kunio Yanagita柳田国男, a scholar of Japanese native folkloristics, named those folktales that human marries nonhuman Iruikonintan異類婚姻譚 in his book Mukashibanashi to Bunngaku『昔話と文学』. Yanagita calls nonhuman husband as Iruimuko異類聟 and nonhuman wife as Iruinyobo異類女房. These terms that Yanagita uses have been accepted widely in the area of folkloristics. In Keigo Seki関敬吾’s Mukashibanashi no Rekishi『昔話の歴史』, Iruinyobo is classified into three types: nonhuman wife who is originally from sea(海神の乙女), from forest(杜の乙女) and from sky(天津乙女). And in Seki’s book Iruinyobo is also assorted into seven types according to the ending of stories: ① the child between human and nonhuman finally became the progenitor of a tribal or the emperor of a country始祖･誕生型, ② nonhuman wife finally became the guardian angel of a village氏神型, ③ they break up離別型, ④ they become rich致富型, ⑤ nonhuman girl is adopted by someone as their daughter養女型, ⑥ difficult tasks have to be accomplished before getting married難題求婚型, ⑦ happiness is finally procured幸福な婚姻型. However, in Japanese literature scholar Teiji Ichiko市古貞次’s book Tyusei Syosetsu no Kenkyu『中世小説の研究』, he classified the tales in Otogizoshi『御伽草子』and those stories in which bird, beast, insect, fish or vessel appears are called Iruisyosetsu異類小説. In Iruisyosetsu, human‐animal marriage is named Kaikondan怪婚談 and 16 pieces of tales including Tsuru no Soshi『鶴の草子』and Nezumi no Soshi『鼠草子』 are assorted into five types: birds, beasts, fish, insects and plants. Ichiko also classified the tales by nonhuman’s gender. However, he did not adopt the terms that Yanagita created. Although Japanese literature scholars and folklorists use different terms to call human‐animal marriage tales and their classifications, Kaikondan怪婚談 actually equals to Iruikonintan異類婚姻譚. Therefore nowadays both of these two types of terms can be seen in the papers of Otogizoshi. Based on the research results of the areas of Japanese native folkloristics and Japanese literature, this paper takes a tale in Otogizoshi‐‐Urashima Taro『浦島太郎』as a research example. It is a well‐known folktale about a man marring a female turtle. According to Yanagita’s classification system, it is a story of Iruinyobo異類女房. However it can also be classified as the story of captive animal finally repaid someone’s kindness after being released放生譚･報恩譚, the story of visiting a strange country異郷訪問譚, the story of becoming god after being born again転生譚･本地譚. In addition Buddhist concepts and Taoist concepts can be found on the base layer of the story. Thus, a conclusion can be made that the features of Medieval Period are reflected on the Iruikonintan. After analyzing other tales in Otogizoshi, we know that Seki’s classification system of Iruinyobo or nonhuman wife can also be applied to them, and at the same time the features of Medieval Period can also be seen in the tales. In this paper, although Iruimuko or nonhuman husband is not being discussed, we need to put the tales of human marring nonhuman in Otogizoshi from the perspective of the history of the world. Here are some books that represent the level of current research. The first are Koji Inada稲田浩二’s Nihon Mukashibanashi Tsukan Kenkyuhen I & II『日本昔話通観　研究編1 日本昔話とモンゴロイド』,『日本昔話通観　研究編2　日本昔話と古典』. And the second is Toshio Ozawa小澤俊夫’s Sekai no Minwa『世界の民話─ひとと動物との婚姻譚─』which does not focus on the study of classification system, but put Otogizoshi in a global perspective. In Ozawa’s research, we also can see the features of Medieval Period in Otogizoshi, especially in the tales of Iruinyobo.