女性에 대한 「穢れ」관념의 성립과 역사적 변천과정

Abstract

This study examines the gegare: women are unclean issue as groundwork for Japanese women’s lack of status and submissive roles in the modern era. I reviewed the overall background and process of the establishment of such ideas as san-ye: uncleanliness by childbirth and hyeol-ye: uncleanliness by menstruation throughout the entire period. As a result, I discovered that over time women’s status and roles were reduced as the ancient law system, Ritsuryo, were introduced, Shinto was systemized and a medieval patriarchy was established; in the meantime, the ideology behind gegare for women was strengthened and became permanent. In particular, the two teachings, yeo-in-o-jang-seol: women have five disabilities and byeon-seong-nam-ja-seol: women cannot attain Buddhahood until they are reincarnated as men, in medieval Buddhism created the perception that women were inferior to men and formed a foundation for female discrimination. The conventions of gegare such as san-ye and hyeol-ye and related ominous concepts were used as excuses for religious misogyny and the exclusion of women by Buddhism. Women were restricted from entering holy places in the name of yeo-in-geum-je (女人禁制), and discrimination systems against women were gradually enlarged as Confucianism was adopted as the ruling ideology by the Shogunate regime 17~19century another instance of the growth of discrimination systems against women. Meanwhile, the Buddhist scripture hyeol-bun-gyeong, which was accepted and popularized in Japan, became the basis for a folk religion espoused by some monks and citizens and spread nationwide as yeo-in-seong-bul, which functioned to relieve women. Meanwhile the scriptural doctrine that women are ritually and religiously ominous became an accepted cultural norm in Japanese society, serving as momentum for continued female discrimination.