著者

田村 悦子

雑誌

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

巻号頁・発行日

no.273, pp.1-25, 1971-03-30

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The Ise Monogatari, or "Tales of Ise," a collection of more than one hundred short tales, mostly tales of love, each containing one or more Japanese short poems (tanka) as its core, written not later than the tenth century, has long been one of the best read classics in Japan. The Ise Monogatari was enjoyed not only in a simple book form, but also in a picture scroll form or in the form of the illustrated Ise Monogatari. One of the oldest extant specimen of the illustrated Ise is that formerly in the collection of Mr. Hara, Yokohama, supposed to have been made in the latter Kamakura Period or in the fourteenth century. To our deep regret Mr. Hara's scroll is not in its integrity but is a mere gathering of ten fragments, among which eight are of picture and two are of text. Therefore it is not necessarily self-evident which tales of the Ise these fragments of picture illustrate. Carefully examining the composition, human figures, scenes, etc. of the picture fragments, Miss Tamura points out, by interesting reasoning, the tales of Ise they illustrate, sometimes in contradiction to the older interpretations by such art historians as Mr. TANAKA Issho, Miss SHIRAHATA Yoshi, MUGAISHI, etc., and, even when Miss Tamura's interpretation agrees with the older interpretation, greatly reinforcing the latter. Miss Tamura's interpretations are as follows:-Fragment1: Text 2: Picture** 3: Picture*** 4: Text 5: Picture**** 6 & 7. Picture***** 8: Picture****** 9: Picture******* 10: Picture********Ise Tale I*XXIII, middle part IV XXVII XLI or XXIII, latter part IX LXIXVXIVOlder interpretations I I or XXXIII, middle part IV XXVII XXVII or XXIII, first part VIII or IX XXVIIVXXIII, middle part or XIV In addition, Miss Tamura supposes that the ornamental drawings on the sheets of paper for the text are also based on the Ise Monogatari itself. The artistic value of Mr. Hara's Picture Scroll of the Ise Monogatari may be said to have been multiplied by this essay. *The tale numbers are according to the Tempuku text of the Ise. **A man, concealing himself behind the shrubbery in the garden, anxiously watches his wife in the house whom he suspects of infidelity because she gladly sends him going out to visit his secret mistress's house. Assured of her chastity, however, he renews his love towards her. ***A court noble laying himself on the dilapidated veranda of the mansion from which his love disappeared just one year ago, sees melancholily the moon and the plum-blossoms in full bloom and weeps for her. ****The kitchen door of a country-house with a household vegetable garden outside. Inside the door mortar and wooden pestles are seen. By the side of the garden cloth is fulled on tenterhooks in the sun. Careful picture, a basketworm hanging down from a twig and a snail creeping on a vegetable leaf. (In the kitchen at the right, Miss Tamura supposes, the secret mistress referred to in the note ** is ladling boiled rice herself to the disappointment of her lover.) *****Court nobles on horseback with a retinue travelling together at the foot of a high mountain crowned with eternal snow, evidently Mt. Fuji. ******A gentle lady and two waiting maids sitting in a triangle behind curtains in a noble mansion. (The lady, Miss Tamura supposes, is the virgin princess priestess of the Grand Shrines at Ise, who is meditating on her last night's adventure with the Imperial messenger.) *******A court noble attempts to steal into the grounds of his beloved one's mansion through a gap in the earth-wall, only to find the gap strongly guarded by two armed servants placed by her aunt. ********A court noble shared the bed with a country woman, but left her house too soon. composed a poem to the following effect:- I will steep the cock in the tub full of water, For he crowed too early, Making my lover take his leave before dawn.