「シルバー川柳」に見る日本の高齢者の心象風景

Abstract

This study, centered on ‘Silver Senryu’ which portrays the honest opinions of elderly people, analyzed it from the perspective of vocabulary and themes and observed the phase of imagined scenery reflected in the hearts of the elderly people in their daily lives. In addition, ‘aging’, ‘wife’, ‘forgetfulness･delusion’ and ‘death･afterlife’ which are commonly selected as themes were observed to see how the respective themes were expressed in images and their characteristics and tendencies were discussed. As a result, first of all, with regards to ‘aging’, aging is approached in many forms. One can describe ‘aging’ in such ways as the things that were usually done without any difficulty in the past suddenly become difficult in the daily life; or, one is surprised at oneself when one looks into the mirror; or, one becomes aware of the sensuous difference from the young generation and others. Next, with regards to ‘wife’, the difference in the values between spouses was revealed. From the husband’s point of view in that the wife may seem cold or may bemoan the husband’s apathy but it could also be seen in the look of a sweet husband staring at the back of the wife with eyes filled with kindness. Moreover, in terms of ‘forgetfulness･delusion’, it could be seen in attitude of one suffering from the declining memory and attempting to adapt by coming up with in various ways. Furthermore, with regards to ‘death･afterlife’, although ‘lingering affection’ and ‘anxiety’ were seen, there were works that portrayed the look of a person who was not lazy about preparing for one’s death or that penetrated the coldness between generations with acuity. As such, in the contents recited in Senryue, a part of the diverse and true emotions of elderly people which cannot be learnt from attitude surveys or public surveys were seen.