日本古典文学における不倫の恋 - 『源氏物語』と『とはずがたり』を中心として -

Abstract

This paper examines the narrative functions and moral meaning of ‘illicit love’ in two Japanese classics, The Tale of Genji and The Confessions of Lady Nijyo, an autobiographical piece of work written by a late‐Kamakura‐period courtly lady under a strong influence of The Tale of Genji, with a brief historical overview of how ‘illicit love’ was regarded in the pre‐modern Japanese society. Historically, ‘illicit love’ or adultery was called ‘mittsu’ or ‘kantsu’ in pre‐modern Japan. In the Heian era, it was not considered as immoral as it would be in later periods, although the parties to a liaison might have suffered by guilt. However, when the family system was established later in the age of militarist government, ‘illicit love’, which could produce an offspring outside marriage and thereby fatally undermine the patrilineal system, came to undergo severe social sanctions. The sanctions got even severer in the Edo period, when the practice of ‘Megatakiuhi’ was introduced. This was a form of legal revenge for an illicit relationship which allowed a betrayed samurai husband to kill his wife and her lover for himself. The Tale of Genji depicts many forms of what modern readers may call ‘illicit love’. Above all, both the liaison between Hikaru Genji and Fujitsubo and one between Kashiwagi and Onnasannomiya form a main story, but with different bearings. The former helps establish Hikaru Genji as ancient hero in that the child born out of it becomes emperor and brings glory to his father. In contrast, the latter calls readers’ attention to the grave consequence of human attachment or obsession through Kashiwagi’s tragic death. He is devastated by the exposure of the affair and dies in agony still with a strong attachment for Onnasannomiya, thus denying himself a chance to go to Buddhist Paradise. The love affair between Ariakenotsuki and Nijyo in The Confessions of Lady Nijyo, which also ends in the death of Ariakenotsuki, can be read as a free and intertextual response to the above romance between Kashiwagi and Onnasannomiya. Here a courtly lady called Nijyo wins a favour with Gofukakusain, ex‐emperor, while secretly involved with liaisons with Yukinoakebobo, a courtier, and more importantly, with Ariakenotsuki, the ex‐emperor’s half‐brother and high‐ranking Buddhist priest. Their liaisons are not strictly that kind of ‘illicit love’ which would suffer social sanctions, as Nijyo is only a mistress, not an empress, and in fact Gofukakusain connives at her affair with Ariakenotsuki. The liaison between Ariakenotsuki and Nijyo, however, is represented as if it were ‘illicit love’ by being narrated on the pattern of the one between Kashiwagi and Onnasannomiya and bears a similar, and heavier, moral significance. As a venerable priest, Ariakenotsuki is prohibited from an attachment to a woman, and this makes their liaison even more sinful. The ‘illicit love’ in The Confessions, while echoing the case of Kashiwagi, thus raises the issue of human obsession more deeply and seriously.