著者

坂本 満

雑誌

美術研究 = The bijutsu kenkiu : the journal of art studies

巻号頁・発行日

no.262, pp.1-16, 1969-12-25

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In a Buddhist temple called Ryūkōin in Sano City, Tochigi, there is a woodden figure traditionally known as Kateki. It was recovered in the 1920's and was found to be a figure of Desiderius Erasmus Rotterdamus by the studies of Izuru Shimmura and Naojirō Murakami. The Ryūkōin had been the family temple of the Makino Clan, the lineage of the feudal lord of the area. And, in the voluminous book of pedigrees of various families Kansei Chōshū Shokafu, completed in 1812, it is written that Narisato Makino (died 1614), a feudal lord of the clan, brought back a figure of Kateki after joining the Bunroku War in Korea. This must correspond to the figure in the Ryūkōin. This is because no other image of Kateki is known, and also, it was not unusual for Western goods to be called Korean importations in Japan during the period in which Christianity was prohibited. On the other hand, the study of Murakami has clarified the fact that the statue was a figure of Erasmus of Rotterdam which had been originally placed at the stern of the Dutch ship De Liefde which drifted ashore on the east coast of Kyūshū on April 29, 1600. Shimmura further assumes that Narisato obtained it in his late years when he was one of the three heads of the infantry of the Shogunate stationed at Edo Castle. Kateki (Ch. Huo-ti) is a legendary innovator of ship building in China along with Kyōko (Ch. Huo-hu) and these two names are almost always referred to inseparably in Chinese dictionaries. But in Japan Kateki alone is mentioned: in several texts for nō dramas, as Shimmura has pointed out, only his name is seen, and under the influence of nō texts his name was cited in an Edo Period chantey for special occasions. Therefore, it is not strange that this figure of Erasmus, originally placed at the stern of a ship, was given the name of Kateki. De Liefde, which had formerly been called Erasmus, left Rotterdam for the Far East together with four other ships in 1598. Twenty-two months later only De Liefde reached its destination and thereby opened the commercial relationship between Holland and Japan which lasted a longtime. But only twenty-four of the crew were alive when it arrived in Japan and three of the survivors died the next day. The ship reached Japan after numerous hardships. During such difficult sailing, the crew members must have recalled the patron saint of sailors, Saint Erasmus, the same name as the figure at the stern. This saint was believed in by Italian, Spanish and Portugese sailors. The worship of the saint by sailors is not mentioned in the writings of the humanist of Rotterdam. But there is a fairly good possiblity that the habits of south European sailors had been introduced to northern countries, since Spain and Portugal monopolized long-distance navigation in the sixteenth century and it is known that in some cases south European sailors joined the crews of English or French ships. It is also said that a chapel of Saint Erasmus in Westminster Abbey was a religiously important shrine for sailors. Legenda Aurea, which contains the story of the life of Saint Erasmus in its supplement, had been severely criticised by Catholics and Protestants since the middle of the sixteenth century for its absurdity. The English navigator of De Liefde, Willian Adams (Japanese name: Anjin Miura), was a rationalist who did not believe in superstitions and miracles and in this respect he was just like Erasmus of Rotterdam and Ieyasu Tokugawa. But, generally speaking, sailors are not rationalists. The writer, in Part I of the present paper, proposes the possibility that the sailors who survived the difficult voyage with De Liefde attributed their good fortune to Saint Erasmus and so gave special meaning to the figure of Erasmus of Rottersdam at the stern. This interpretation by the sailors may have given further meaning as patron saint of sailors to the name of Kateki, in addition to his original significance as an innovator of ship building. In Part II of the paper, which will be published in No. 263 of this journal, the writer furher discusses the nature of the figure itself. After introducing portrait works of Erasmus of Rotterdam in Europe by quoting the studies by G. Marlier, E. Treu and J. Huiginga, the writer criticises the theory of E. Major and E. Treu that the figure in question was originally a statue made for welcoming the visit of Felipe II to Rotterdam and the theory of F. Kossman that the figure is its copy. E. Treu claims that the now damaged left hand of the figure of the Ryūkōin had held a quill pen, but traces in the carving show that it apparently held a thick book, a form ordinarily given to the portraits of Erasmus. From the right hand of the figure hangs a scroll but it seems to be too small to hold the written name of the ship as Treu says. Since it is strange to carry such similar things in both hands and this is not seen in painted portraits of Erasmus, the present writer presumes that the characteristics of the figure resulted from it being a direct orindirect imitation of the wooden statue that had been erected in Rotterdam in 1549 or the stone statue that had been rebuilt in 1557. The writer, at the end of the paper, introduces a rather free copy of the Ryūkōin figure of Erasmus made by a carpenter who lived near the temple, in October of 1905 and given to the temple by a believer. The figure was not then recognized as Erasmus. This copy has crystal eyes and holds a Buddhist sacred ball in its left hand. Its physical features, which include its proportions, are completely Japanese. This naive folk-art type of work has not attracted people's attention, but this is, so to speak, the only real Kateki figure now known and the figure of Erasmus who was "naturalized" in Japan.