古典文学における理想的な女性像の変化―『源氏物語』に対する認識の変容を中心に―

Abstract

After being introduced to Japan in the late ninth century, The Biographies of Exemplary Women did not receive much attention, but was widely read in the early modern times. By analyzing the changes in the concepts of the Tale of Genji in women’s training books of the Middle Ages and Modern Age, this paper discusses the changes and reasons for the ideal image of women. In women’s training books of the Middle Ages, the portrayal of women in the Tale of Genji was regarded as an ideal female image. While encouraging the learning and recitation of the Tale of Genji, women who were able to learn and recite the Tale of Genji were also portrayed as ideal female figures. However, in the early modern times, Confucianism represented by Tujihara Gennpo, Yamazaki Annsai and Kaibara Ekikenn, the Tale of Genji positioned the Tale of Genji as obscene books for because these books would lead women to the wrong path. As a correct example of etiquette, Chinese women’s training books have become popular which advocated for new ideal female images such as “three obedience and four virtues”, “serving father-in-law”, “serving husband”, and “taking husband as heaven”. Compared to the ideal image of women depicted in women’s training book of the Middle Ages, this has undergone significant changes. It is precisely these changes in perception of the Tale of Genji, or the changes of the ideal image of women, that is one of the reasons why ancient Chinese women’s teaching books became popular in Japan’s early modern times.