著者

山田 昇

出版者

佐野日本大学短期大学

雑誌

佐野日本大学短期大学研究紀要 = Sano nihon university college bulletin (ISSN:24340707)

巻号頁・発行日

no.30, pp.1-11, 2019-03-31

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It is said that there were in Japan nearly 600 occurrences of the legend of “Abandoning an elderlyperson in the mountains”. According to this legend, which is not always clear in folk studies, in agriculturalsocieties of low productivity, the amount of food and other circumstances led to the abandonment of theelderly who had lost their ability to work.In modern society too, frequent occurrences of old people dying in solitude, or being murdered bysomeone who has tired of giving them care, are a phenomenon which can be thought to have a link to thistradition of abandonment. There is a big difference between the background of the medieval period, inwhich the legend was mainly created, and that of present society, in which“ abandonment” is nowoccurring, so the two cannot be understood in the same way. However, in this paper, I will present points ofcommonality that seem to exist between them.