著者

小島 明子 Akiko KOJIMA

出版者

鳴門教育大学

雑誌

鳴門教育大学研究紀要 鳴門教育大学 編 (ISSN:18807194)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.34, pp.142-152, 2019

---

Covering a period of about 200 years in chronological order, Eiga Monogatari is a tale (monogatari) that relates the history of the imperial family and their maternal relatives, the house of Fujiwara. The central theme of the tale is the political splendour (eiga) of Fujiwara no Michinaga, which has been vividly portrayed. This paper focuses on volumes 1−4 of the book, which trace the movements of Michinaga's ancestors, the Kujo-ryu, down the generations, up to the point where Michinaga takes power. In addition, the author attempts to clarify the tale's methods of historical description. In doing so, the author of this study has succeeded in pointing out a number of distinctive descriptive features in the tale. First, there is the technique of picking out three important members of the same generation from the numerous other people in their family and depicting those three in a comparative manner. Second, we mention the technique of stressing the characterisation of the three specified individuals by placing historical events in a finely delineated annual chronology. Third, we observe that individuals are portrayed on the basis of a view of history which requires those deemed worthy of governmental authority to display qualities such as respect for the intentions of their lineal ancestors and filial devotion (koshin),while those individuals who fail to meet these requirements are weeded out of the story. The above-mentioned points may be regarded as an important new approach towards elucidating the description of history throughout all the 40 volumes of Eiga Monogatari.