著者

窪 徳忠

出版者

東京大学東洋文化研究所

雑誌

東洋文化研究所紀要 (ISSN:05638089)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.9, pp.127-216, 1956-03

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In various sections of Japan, a number of popular beliefs and practices are centered around the day of metal and the monkey (koshin) in the old Chinese cyclical caldndar.Until recently it was generally thought that this cult was imported from China during the Edo period, but of late Japanese students of ethnography have propounded the theory that it is an indigenous Japanese phenomenon.In Chinese Taoism one finds the idea that in each person's body there live three noxious insects which try to shortened the person's life.On the day of metal and the monkey the insects are supposed to ascend to heaven and recount all the person's evil deeds to the god of life.The Chinese believe that if one stays up all night on the night of the day in question, the insects will not be able to go up to heaven, and one's life will accordingly be lengthened.Furthermore, there are various medicines and superstitious methods designed to exterminate the insects.The present author believes that the theory of the three insects as well as the methods of eliminating them were brought to Japan at an early date and became the basis of the Japanese koshin cult.An examination of Japanese koshin practices as seen in Oyabu, Mihama-machi, Mikata-gun, Fukui Prefecture, reveals a certain number of customs related both to Shinto and Buddhism.People stay up late at night somewhat as in China, but all in all there is little suggestion of the three insects, and one might be prone in this instance to suspect a Japanese origin.On the one hand, practices in other areas as well as statements in early Japanese documents make it virtually impossible to dissociate the Japanese koshin cult from that of the three insects.To illustrate this point, the author has in the present article enumerated around eighty Chinese methods of exterminating the insects and has compared them with means of extermination seen in Japanese texts.It is clear that the Japanese methods are almost entirely based on those of China.The Japanese cult as it appears today is completely different from the Chinese.The reason is that this foreign relgious element has been totally assimilated into Japanese culture.The author regards this development as excellent example of acculturation.