宮沢賢治の『四又の百合』の“百合”と“四”の探求

Abstract

Kenji Miyazawa’s fairy tales are characterized by figurative expressions, allusions, unexpectedness, religion, and morality. His works are based on his knowledge of a wide range of fields, including religion, philosophy, history, mineralogy, plant ecology, astronomy, and natural science. Kenji’s unique concept toward being religious is based on religion. This study focuses on ‘Lily’ and ‘Four’ from the title 『The Four-Forked Lily』 by Kenji Miyazawa, who is knowledgeable on a series of Buddhist sutras. The characters in 『The Four-Forked Lily』 include Yeoraejeongbyeonji, King and Daishin, villagers, and children in the forest. The relationship between these characters plays a significant role in setting the stage in the fairy tale. There are four locations: the place where Yeoraejeongbyeonji is, the place where people are waiting for Yeoraejeongbyenji, the river running through these two locations, and the forest where the children are. Moreover, by focusing on the lily that has four leaves, he pursues a mathematical mystery. The author is attempting to realize the Buddhist ideal world in the real human world, and with the key words, ‘lily’ and ‘four,’ in mind, he explores the world from this richly Buddhism-colored perspective. The locations shown in many of Kenji’s fairy tales are divided into reality and unreality. The real world in『The Four-Forked Lily』is divided into the tangible, visible physical world and the intangible, invisible mental world. The unreal world is a fantasy world, a world where Yeo-rae lives, and a different location where children reside. On the surface, the fairy tale contains one real world, consisting of three groups, and one unreal world. The real world is where Yeo-rae does not exist, and is in contrast with the world across the river. The real-world space overlapping with the intangible world is a different one, where children reside. The physical spaces of 『The Four-Forked Lily』consist of an island, a castle, a river, a forest, etc., while that of the Buddhist existence, Yeo-rae, is a pluralistic space. The two-dimensional and three-dimensional worlds belong to the world of fiction and non-fiction. The two-dimensional world is a virtual world of fantasy, and the three-dimensional world is a visible, real world where humans reside. The four-dimensional world includes the world of the spirits, the intangible world, where humans exist after death. You can go back and forth between the two-dimensional and the three-dimensional worlds, with the Himukya River located in between. The river intersects the three-dimensional world and the four-dimensional world. 『The Four-Forked Lily』is divided into a two-dimensional virtual world and a three-dimensional real world, physically divided by a river. In the forest, a two-dimensional world, some people may find lilies and others may not under the same circumstance. Space is a mental world. The two-dimensional world, where Yeo-rae resides, the three-dimensional world where the king exists, the river that forms the boundary, and the forest are different worlds. Barefoot children in the forest remind us of the existence of the boundary between the real world and the afterlife, or the existence of the afterlife. The term “barefoot” signifies the afterlife, as previous research suggests. After embracing Beophwagyeong, Kenji projects himself into a child, and separates the place where the barefoot child and lilies exist. The forest is interpreted as space where both the visible and the invisible worlds coexist. Visibility is determined by the possibility of spotting lilies. Containing a variety of figurative expressions and double-structured forms, Kenji’s fairy tales can be illuminated and interpreted from multiple angles. This research studies the number four in the spatial structures of the setting: Kenji’s fairy tales and its relevance to religion, the relationship between the characters in 『The Four-Forked Lily』, Kenji’s thoughts and Buddhist consciousness in 『The Four-Forked Lily』, the role and location of the lily, and Kenji’s intention in the use of the term, four-forked.