芥川龍之介におけるヨハネ - 「西方の人」＜11　ヨハネ＞を中心として -

Abstract

The Man of the West, Ryunosuke Akutagawa’s work in his later years, can be said as Akutagawa’s argument on Jesus. Jesus in the Bible was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River before he started a formal missionary work. The task of John the Baptist, as a pioneer of Jesus, given by the Lord was to prepare for Jesus’ way. However, in The Man of the West, there are parts mentioning about John the Baptist. Since these parts seem to reflect Akutagawa’s peculiar conception,the purpose of this study is to contemplate what these parts mean correlated with Jesus. While John the Baptist was doing missionary works in Jordan River and Judea wilderness, he was arrested and imprisoned because he criticized immoral royal marriage and contemporary world. When John the Baptist heard about Jesus’missionary works in the prison, he sent his disciple to Jesus, and asked “Are you the one John said was going to come, or should we expect someone else?” (Matthew 11:3). However, Akutagawa distorted this question as “Are you Christ, or am I?”in 11thchapter,<John>. Then, Akutagawa described that Jesus "cold-heartedly"answered to this question. This is because Akutagawa regarded John the Baptist as realist, while Jesus as romanticist living with idealism. In fact, despite there was a difference in circumstances between John the Baptist and Jesus who were in the relationship of servant and master, since John forgot his task and asked question filled with jealousy as if he and Jesus were in the same level, “Akutagawa’s Jesus”felt displeasure. While, in the Bible, John the Baptist was a martyred prophet after completing the Lord’s task, this study seems to reveal that Akutagawa merely regarded him as not only a person needed to express the notion about “Akutagawa’s Jesus” but also an ordinary person not freed from jealousy, one of the innate human feelings.