著者

白石 太一郎

出版者

国立歴史民俗博物館

雑誌

国立歴史民俗博物館研究報告 (ISSN:02867400)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.112, pp.3-24, 2004-02

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小論は、歴博の基幹研究「地域社会における基層信仰の歴史的研究」に関連して実施した奈良県の中世以来現在まで利用が続く墓地の調査成果に基づいて、中・近世の大和における墓地の利用形態の変遷、すなわち墓地景観の変遷過程とその意味を考察したものである。奈良盆地では、現在も複数の大字、すなわち近世村が墓郷を形成し、大規模な共同墓地である「郷墓」を営む場合が多い。その多くは、墓地としては中世の中頃までには成立しており、中世後半には五輪塔などの石塔が盛んに造立された。これらの郷墓では近世初頭以降、墓郷を構成する複数の村ごとに墓域を分割するとともに、遺骸埋葬地と石塔造立地を異にする両墓制的な墓地利用が行われたと想定される。これに対し奈良盆地の東南方の宇陀地域では、墓地は現在も大字単位に営まれるのが基本であり、ごく最近まで両墓制的慣行が行われていた。またこの地域は中世墓地の発掘調査例が多いが、それら発掘例では火葬ないし土葬の埋葬を行った上に石塔が立てられており、単墓制の墓地であった。それらの多くは在地武士層の一統墓であり、豊臣政権の支配の確立とともに廃絶したものと想定される。一方現在まで継続して利用されている墓地は、ほとんどすべて近世に成立したものであり、中世から近世へ続く墓地はほとんど見いだせない。宇陀地域では、中世の在地武士層の血縁的な一統墓から近世の地縁的な村落墓地へと大きく転換しているのである。盆地部の郷墓は宇陀の中世墓地とは異なり、すでに中世の段階から地域の共同墓地であった。おそらく平安時代には成立していたと想定される地域の葬地をもとに、一三世紀頃に律宗の僧侶などによって葬送祭祀のための講の組織化が進められて「惣墓」となり、さらに新しく成立した近世村を基本的構成単位とする「郷墓」に変化したものと想定される。また盆地部でも宇陀でも、近世初頭前後に単墓制から両墓制へという大きな変化が共通してみられるが、これは遺骸の処理を村で行い、祖先祭祀のための石塔の造立を家で行うという矛盾が生み出したものにほかならない。このように大和では、中世から近世にかけて墓地の景観自体が大きく変化している。こうした墓地景観の大きな変化は、宗教的・信仰的要因、血縁から地縁へという社会の大きな変化や家の成立といった社会的要因、さらに近世的支配の成立とそれにともなう村の確立といった政治的要因などが複雑に作用した結果にほかならない。This paper considers changes in the types of use of graveyards, that is, the process of change in their appearance that occurred in Yamato during the Medieval period and Early Modern period. The study is based on the results of studies of graveyards in Nara Prefecture that have been in use from the Medieval period through to the present day carried out in relation to one of the National Museum of Japanese History's basic research themes "Historical Analysis on Basic Beliefs in Local Societies".Even today, there exist in the Nara basin many instances in which several large villages from the Early Modern period encompass a local graveyard and run it as a large communal graveyard. Most of these were established as graveyards by the middle of the Medieval period, and during the second half of the same period the erection of gravestones that were five-tiered stone monuments that symbolized the five main elements (earth, water, fire, wind and air) of esoteric Buddhism became common. It is assumed that some time after the beginning of the Early Modern period, these communal graveyards were divided into separate graveyards for each of the villages and that in the early stage of that period the adoption of a dual grave system became common whereby a distinction was made between the burial area where the remains of the dead were buried and the gravestone area. Still, it is no easy task to locate materials for examining the way in which these graveyards were used during the Medieval period.In contrast, in the Uda district in the southeast of the Nara basin it is normal even today for graveyards to be operated in the earlier form of a communal graveyard, and until very recently the dual grave system was customary. There are many examples of archeological surveys of medieval graveyards in this region, which have shown that a single grave system had been adopted whereby remains were either cremated or buried and a gravestone erected over the site. It is believed that these were family burial plots of the samurai class and that they disappeared with the rise to power of the Toyotomi regime. However, nearly all the graveyards that are in operation in the region today were established during the Early Modern period, so that virtually no graveyards that continued operating from the Medieval period into the Early Modern period can be found. In other words, a huge change took place in the Uda region as the family graves of the samurai class from the Medieval period came to be replaced by graveyards that served local villages.Communal graveyards in the Nara basin area differ from the medieval graveyards of Uda in that by the Medieval period they were already local communal graveyards. This probably is due to the creation of communal graveyards that came about with the systemization of funeral services as a result of efforts by priests of the Buddhist Ritsu Sect around the 13th century centered on local burial grounds thought to have been established during the Heian period. It is believed that these later became local graveyards that were a fundamental structural unit of Early Modern villages that became established under a new system of control Even though both the Nara basin area and Uda underwent a huge change over to the dual grave system from the single grave system around the beginning of the Early Modern period, this can only be the product of a contradiction that was created by the disposal of remains being taken care of in the village while gravestones for worshipping ancestors were built at family homes.As seen by the above, the appearance of graveyards itself was subject to huge change in Yamato from the Medieval period to the Early Modern period. In conclusion, this paper argues that these huge changes were caused by the complex interaction of factors related to religion and folk beliefs, social factors that saw a huge social change occur when groups based on blood ties were replaced by groups based on residence and the establishment of the Ie system, as well as political factors in which the formation of the regime in the Early Modern period was accompanied by the establishment of villages.