著者

浜下 昌宏 Masahiro HAMASHITA

雑誌

女性学評論 = Women's studies forum

巻号頁・発行日

vol.12, pp.127-148, 1998-03

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The story of "Dojoji"can be traced back to about one thousand years ago. At first it must have been only a legend, then a Buddhist priest adopted it in a collection of stories for Buddhism teachings. Even at this stage, there have been discovered several versions of the story different from one another in detailed descriptions, e.g. descriptions of the heroine. Handed down from generation to generation, it now has many versions in Noh and Kabuki. Thus,as a genre of artworks, the story has varied in many ways, and we generally know it as the love romance of "Anchin and Kiyohime." In this paper, I firstly show the genealogy of the story of "Dojoji" from legend to artistic forms of work, and analyse motifs inherent in the story such as the serpent, the metamorphosis, the woman and the monk, the Kumano region, the strong passion of the woman for love, flight and chase, and the bell of the Dojoji temple. Then, I emphasise the horrible elements in the story such as the atmosphere of the dark Kumano mountain forest, the mystic custom of worship of Gods of Kumano by pilgrimage, the sudden courting from a woman of the lodging on the way, unbelievable rage of the woman against the young priest for his "treachery,"the terrific figure of the serpent, the decisive pursuit by the woman to the end, and the killing of the man by burning and melting the bel. Finally, I inspect the various metamorphoses of the woman by examining the development of the legend into artistic forms of art, minute descriptions of the heroine and also a performance by an actor, in particular, that of Kabuki. By playing the role of the woman, an actor can show many facets of the character of a woman, typically embodied in the lady in the story of "Dojoji."