日本人の霊魂観 ―近世怪異譚理解の前提として―

Abstract

Since ancient times, the Japanese have created many stories about spirits and supernatural beings. Today, as well, we see great interest in such stories. When we look at the history of research on stories of spirits and supernatural beings, until the end of the Edo period, owing to the influence of Confucianism, such writings were not considered to be an orthodox subject of study by literary scholars—with the exception of Hirata Atsutane. In the Edo period, although Inoue Enryo collected tales of supernatural beings, his work did not contribute significantly to the study. The first person to bring stories of spirits and supernatural beings into the field of modern research was the folklore specialist Yanagita Kunio.Yanagita defined yurei; spirits that attached themselves to humans, and yokai; spirits that were attached to places, but there were also some exceptions, such as the yurei (spirit) of Okiku (a woman attached to a house) in the story “Sara Yashiki”. In early times Japanese believed that the spirits of the dead remained close to the living and watched over their descendants and they were not thought of as fearful beings. The conception of spirits changed to a more fearful one with advent of Buddhist teachings and the spread of the custom of cremation and the thought that the dead body and the soul went along with the body that one had during one’s lifetime to the world beyond. The idea of a fearful world of hell came to be emphasized, and the belief in “vengeful spirits of the dead” became prevalent. In the Edo age, stories of spirits and supernatural beings became a popular theme in various genres of literature, the theater, and the visual arts, responding to their success in the publishing business. In spite of the appearance of some masterpieces that conspicuously featured grotesque elements, people didn’t view spirits and supernatural beings in a simplistic manner. Literature on supernatural beings expressed a variety of perspectives; dealing with spirits as entertainment, interpreting the existence of spirits, and serving as a “camouflaged” form of social criticism of the times.