日本古典文学における＜蛍＞－平安時代を中心に－

Abstract

In this article, we analyze the process in which the concept of firefly forms its inherent image and yields various types of expression in the literature during the Heian period. The concept of firefly as represented in WAKA-poems has been established as a poetry-word which gives rise to the impression of passionate love due to the logic of expression in WAKA-poems, though the word has also been affected by the notion of firefly as the metaphor of star and light in KANSHI-poems. Fireflies were introduced to stories in various ways. In Isemonogatari, fireflies were represented as the image of the spirit of a dead woman or that of the spirit of a man in passionate love. In Utsuhomonogatari, where women were lit up by the light of fireflies, fireflies were represented as the image of men’s passion. In Genjimonogatari, fireflies were closely related to the development of the story, the theme of the story, and so on. Most of them were associated with the love of Hikarugenji, implying the progress of his love and serving to describe his heartbreak. In particular, the fireflies represented in Hotarunomaki served to topicalize Hikarugenji’s passion towards Tamakazura. In post-Genjimonogatari proses, the description of fireflies is hardly attested. In the world of WAKA-poems, too, works featuring fireflies are restricted to the types of poem previously attested, most particularly love-themed poems. On the other hand, in Shinkokinshu, a selection of poems during the medieval era, fireflies were featured in distinctive ways (e.g., as a metaphor of Buddhism). In medieval proses, however, fireflies were hardly represented, except that poems featuring fireflies created during the Heian period were revisited based on people’s interest in narratives.