- 著者
-
米地 文夫
Fumio Yonechi
ハーナムキヤ景観研究所
- 出版者
- 岩手県立大学総合政策学会
- 雑誌
- 総合政策 = Journal of policy studies (ISSN:13446347)
- 巻号頁・発行日
- vol.14, no.2, pp.133-147, 2013-05-01
宮沢賢治は石川啄木の短歌に強い影響を受けたが、啄木の北へ走る電柱列の歌も、賢治の童話「月夜のでんしんばしら」に影響を与えた。「月夜のでんしんばしら」は停車場近くの線路で電信柱の列が兵隊になり歩き出す話で、電気総長が号令をかけていた。汽車が来ると電信柱に戻る。従来は電気と鉄道の童話とされていたが、シベリア出兵の日本軍、特に花巻で演習をした盛岡駐屯の工兵隊などの出動を素材にしたことがわかった。賢治作曲の彼らの軍歌はオペラ「カルメン」の「アルカラの竜騎兵」の曲と日本陸軍のラッパの曲とを基にしている。作品に工兵のほか竜騎兵や擲弾兵など19 世紀の欧州の古風な兵種名が登場するのは、ロシアに攻め込んだナポレオン軍の敗退をシベリア出兵に重ねたからで、トルストイの小説「戦争と平和」やハイネの詩「二人の擲弾兵」などを念頭に置いている。電気総長は当時の日本陸軍の実質上の最高指揮官である上原勇作参謀総長をモデルにしている。この作品が書かれた1921 年には上原の指揮の下で日本陸軍はシベリア出兵を行っていた。既に出兵の大義は消失し、革命勢力の優勢が決定的になるにつれて撤退は必至となっていた。「月夜のでんしんばしら」は一見、幻想的な童話にみえるが、実はシベリア出兵を継続する日本軍部への批判の込められた作品だったのである。Kenji Miyazawa was strongly influenced by tanka written by Takuboku Ishikawa. Takuboku's tanka about telegraph poles running toward the North also infl uenced Kenji's fairy tale, "The Telegraph Poles on a Moonlit Night." In this fairy tale, a line of telegraph poles along the tracks near a station transform into a rank of soldiers and start marching under the orders of the Chief of Electricity. When a train comes, the soldiers return to being telegraph poles. Up to now, this fairly tale was considered to be a story about electricity and railroads. However, it was later discovered that the tale is based on the mobilization of the Japanese troops dispatched to Siberia, particularly, the Corps of Engineers stationed at Morioka, which were engaged in exercises in Hanamaki. This Corps of Engineers' war song, composed by Kenji Miyazawa, was based on Bizet's opera Carmen Suite Les Dragons d' Alcala and the Japanese Army's trumpet songs. With the introduction of old-fashioned names for soldiers from 19th century Europe, such as Dragoons and Grenadier Guards as well as the Corp of Engineers, and the dispatching of Japanese troops to Siberia, Kenji duplicated the defeat of Napoleon's army which attacked Russia, bearing in mind Tolstoy's novel, War and Peace, and Heine's poem, Die beiden Grenadiere. The Chief of Electricity was modeled after the Chief of the General Staff , Yusaku Uehara, who was functionally the captain general of the Japanese army at that time. In 1921, when this piece was written, Japanese army troops were dispatched to Siberia under the command of Uehara. At that time, the reason for mobilization had already become unclear and as the predominance of the revolutionary force became decisive, retreat from Siberia was inevitable. Although "The Telegraph Poles on a Moonlit Night" is primarily an illusionary fairy tale, it is also a piece criticizing the Japanese army which continued to dispatch troops to Siberia.