著者

丹羽 みさと

雑誌

大衆文化 = Popular culture

巻号頁・発行日

pp.30-38, 2008-03-25

著者

丹羽 みさと

出版者

国文学研究資料館

雑誌

国際日本文学研究集会会議録 = PROCEEDINGS OF INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON JAPANESE LITERATURE (ISSN:03877280)

巻号頁・発行日

no.35, pp.157-164, 2012-03-31

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Okamoto Kidō wrote the play 'Oshichi' on the request of the shinpa actor Kawai Takeo. It appeared in the 'Bungeikurabu' in October 1911 and was performed at the Hongō-za theatre the following month. The theatre was located in present day Hongō 3 chō-me, Bunkyō-ku and it was close to the Oshichi's parental 'greengrocer business at Hongō 2 chō-me' where the play itself was set. It was confirmed that Kidō referred to the works on Oshichi by Kino Kaion and Baba Bunkō but the locations of their plays were Komagome or just Hongō and were not set in Hongō 2 chō-me as Kidō specified. Why did Kidō choose that specific place? It would be related to the audience.Many students of Daiichi Kōtō Gakkō (the First High School) and Tokyo Teikoku Daigaku (Tokyo Imperial University) were the audience of the Hongō-za theatre. There is a scene where the servant of Oshichi's parents goes out to take orders at Kaga- yashiki which was the place where Daiichi Kōtō Gakkō and Tokyo Teikoku Daigaku were situated at that time. The reason why Kidō created this scene, which had nothing to do with the main plot, would be to create a sense of unity between the stage and audience by dint of using a familiar place to them. Similarly, considering the closeness between the locations of the greengrocer at Hongō 2 chō-me and the theatre, the setting of the play seems also to have been a device to create a sense of spatial unity.The device of creating a sense of unity in this play was not only its geographical factors. Although the play depicts a love between Oshichi and Kichizaburō, the actor who plays the role of Kichizaburō never appears. Instead of the actor, a doll which looks like the embodiment of Kichizaburō symbolically makes an appearance throughout the play. Considering the fact that the main spectators were the students of Daiichi Kōtō Gakkō and Tokyo Teikoku Daigaku and they were just the same generation as Kichizaburō, the absence of the actor was used as a device so they could concentrate on Oshichi and her story.Kidō's 'Oshichi' crossed the settings of the play and the place where it performed each other and it unified a real and a fictitious world. In that sense, it is unique among the other Oshichi stories. It may safely be said that the originality of Kidō's conception should be valued.