146 0 0 0 OA 『ギルガメシュ叙事詩』の新文書 : フンババの森と人間
85 0 0 0 OA 古代の死生学から未来へ:『ギルガメシュ叙事詩』を読みなおし続ける
The ‘Standard Version’ of The Epic of Gilgamesh, which is conjectured to have been established in the 11 century BC in Ancient Mesopotamia, originally consisted of eleven tablets, not twelve. It was well known in Mesopotamia that when a story was written on a set of tablets, the end of each tablet would have had a ‘catch-line’ identical to the first line of the next tablet. We can find these ‘catch-lines’ on each tablet of this epic showing us which tablet should follow.It is easy to interpret the epic as the unsuccessful journey of Gilgamesh, as M. Eliade did in his book: Histoire des croyances et des idées religieuses 1, 1976, 92. However, the ‘Standard Version’ of the epic was, in the present author’s view, a unique literary piece in which the editor seems to have concealed a number of devices, tricks, and riddles. The first step in solving the riddles seems to be to recognize the six lines at the end of the 11th tablet as ‘catch-lines’, which become a clue to decoding the message indicating that one should back to the same wording on the 1st tablet, in the preface written by the editor. This means that one must read the story repeatedly, always going back to the beginning, in order to identify and solve the riddles step by step in a continual reading of the whole work.The epic was probably a special piece that functioned primarily as a text book for the long-term training of the āšipu, the Mesopotamian shaman, and his professional circle of colleagues and candidates for āšipu, such as scribes, diviners, and physicians. Secondly, the epic which has been beloved by many as a popular work until our time, would have been helpful in the individuation process of human beings, as Rivkah Schärf Kluger has argued: “In the hero myth in particular, there is one character, the hero, who is the actor in a continuous sequence of events. The hero can, therefore, be consid28 ered as the anticipation of a development of ego-consciousness, and what he goes through in the myth as an indication of the process of moving toward the wholeness which is implicit and innate in the psyche; in the individual, the individuation process” (R. S. Kluger, The Archetypal Significance of Gilgamesh: A Modern Ancient Hero, 1991, 17).
17 0 0 0 OA 子どもが語る物語の力 ―学校に妖怪が生まれるとき―
- 著者
- 前川 美行
- 出版者
- リトン
- 雑誌
- 死生学年報 = Annual of the institute of thanatology
- 巻号頁・発行日
- vol.10, pp.187-206, 2014-03-31
In this paper, the author discusses “Gakkou no Kwaidan” in relation to the psychological development of schoolchildren. Originally, “Gakkou no Kwaidan” were tales of the supernatural circulated by word of mouth among schoolchildren. After Toru Tsunemitsu, a junior-high-school teacher, collected and edited them into a book in 1990, a boom of new “Gakkou no Kwaidan” publications arose and continued through the 1990s. The author points out, however, that the boom of newly published tales reduced school children’s primitive power of narrating these stories themselves.In this article, the original tales of the supernatural in school, “Gakkou no Kwaidan” will be the focus. Why do children tell “Gakkou no Kwaidan?” Why do they like narrating the tales? The author explains two reasons for this. The first is from the viewpoint of “the sense of self” in childhood, and the second is from the viewpoint of the special space of school where children are experiencing life together.First, many researchers in developmental and clinical psychology have stressed a turning point in an 8-10 year old child’s sense of self. It is a fundamental restructuring of the self. After that occurs, they begin to be aware of the existence of “another me” (an objective self) in themselves. The author proposes that sometimes this can emerge in a mysterious and/or supernatural form.Furthermore, the author explains the significance of the power of narration. Children experience various feelings in school life such as delight, happiness, sadness, distress, rage, loneliness and so on. Unfortunately, there is also severe bullying at some schools that many children go through which can wound them deeply. In this case, narrating tales of the supernatural in school can give children reassurance, and has a great power to bring peace to 206 them and others who have been injured. In other words, the narration of such stories could be seen as a requiem of sorts.In conclusion, the author emphasizes the power of narrating “Gakkou no Kwaidan” and people should be careful not to underestimate or reduce the positive power this may have for children.
10 0 0 0 OA 人の胚の研究に慎重でなければならない理由 : 人間の尊厳の異なる考え方
In rationalizing the approval of scientific research on human embryos, comparisons to abortion are often brought up. In discussing the bioethical question concerning “life’s beginning,” we note that, since 1960 in both Europe and America, the debate surrounding the morality of abortion has been carried on with battle-like intensity. And the accumulated debate points have determined the general scheme of the public understanding of the issue. In short, the focus of that debate centers on whether or not embryos and fetuses a human life forms (life as individuated human beings) worthy of the highest level of respect.In Japan, the debate over this issue has not been very lively and, in fact, there the issue is not taken to be one with any definite significance. One reason for this is that among those supporting abortion rights in Japan there is also concern for the things being emphasized by the community of persons with disabilities. On the one hand, within anti-abortion groups in Japan, there are some who have not developed powerful oppositional movements such as those of religious organizations like the Catholic Church.Although the commandment that “one must not kill humans without just cause” is acknowledged in Buddhism, Shinto, and Confucianism as well as in Japanese folk culture, rhetoric explaining the foundation for this belief differs greatly from that found in the western Christian cultural sphere. In this way, a religious culture different from western Christian thought exists in Japan, and when the notion of “dignity of human life” is used in Japan, it reflects a religious culture with different nuances than those evoked in the West. With view to the difference of religious culture between the West and Japan, the author proposes to use the concept of “the dignity of coexisting 128 life” in considering the reasons that we must refrain from the use of human embryos. This was an attempt to liberate the values and spirituality that accompany the idea of “dignity of human life” from the notion of respect for the human as an individual. Presently, the fact that differences in value systems and spirituality in relation to “human dignity” have a large influence on bioethical considerations is causing apprehension. Because cultures are different, great differences in the judgment of individual problems arise, and the number of such problems that must be solved is considerable. If so, it could be said that we are coming to a point where we must seek out some understanding based on a standard shared by all of us in the human race. The value systems and notions of spirituality based in particular religious cultures confront one another and are based in diversity. We must work hard to advance the dialogue between different cultures in order to reach agreements on various issues of bioethics.
7 0 0 0 OA 昔話『蛇婿入』にみる心の変容 : 殺された蛇の視点から
The Japanese folklore tale “Hebimukoiri” has various versions that have been classified into different types of tales such as “Odamaki-gata,” ”Mizukoi-gata,” and so on. It is a story that has undergone much symbolic transformation as it has been handed down orally over a long period of time. The story is alive and continues to develop because of people’s changing social, cultural, and psychological lives. At the same time, it includes a significant psychological theme for not only people of old, but also for people living nowadays. In this article, the author analyzes how the initiation of the “inner woman” occurs in this folklore tale from the perspective of the mother, the father, and the daughter who are its main characters. In addition, the author suggests a new, contemporary version of the tale that contains both the symbolic significance of the action of pulling out needles and the rebirth of the snake.
5 0 0 0 OA イスラームにおける死 : 自殺、殉教、安楽死
Islam takes a negative position against suicide, because this is considered a grave violation of the divine right to determine the life span of human beings. On the other hand, martyrdom, in which people dare to engage in fierce battles against religious enemies and lose their own lives, is highly praised and so much valued that they may be entitled to enter Paradise without any further conditions. Euthanasia, which is widely discussed now in the global setting especially in the context of medical ethics for patients with incurable diseases, is also an important subject of argument for the present day Muslim religious scholars and medical personnel.With consultation to the Qur’ānic text and the Prophetic Traditions (ḥadīth), religious scholars discuss whether a certain action is allowable or not in Islam. When they consider euthanasia, they refer to previous judgments made in the cases of suicide and martyrdom, since euthanasia has not been treated as an independent theme in Islamic law. From Qur’ānic sanctions and Prophetic examples they have drawn a conclusion acceptable to a large majority that such passive euthanasia as stopping life-support treatment (and letting the patient be under the divine will) may be allowable. However, such active euthanasia, as hastening the patient’s death by drug injection, may not be allowed. Frequent reference to the classical normative texts in discussion of modern problems shows that Islam functions as the basis of social moral standards, and as a common frame of reference for members of the community.
5 0 0 0 OA ヒルデガルト・フォン・ビンゲン--幻視と生きる
- 著者
- 鈴木 桂子
- 出版者
- リトン
- 雑誌
- 死生学年報 = Annual of the Institute of Thanatology, Toyo Eiwa University
- 巻号頁・発行日
- vol.7, pp.117-134, 2011-03-31
4 0 0 0 OA ギルガメシュの異界への旅と帰還--「英雄」と「死」
- 著者
- 渡辺 和子
- 出版者
- リトン
- 雑誌
- 死生学年報 = Annual of the Institute of Thanatology, Toyo Eiwa University
- 巻号頁・発行日
- vol.7, pp.135-164, 2011-03-31
4 0 0 0 IR 袋=胞衣を被った子どもたち--誕生・結婚・葬送の民俗と神話・昔話
In the rituals of weddings and funerals, the central figure (the bride or the deceased) wears special headgear. In the case of a bride, it is the traditional Japanese tsunokakushi (literally, "horn concealer"), and wataboshi (cotton hood), and in the case of the deceased, the kamieboshi (paper hat), which in ancient times was often a mino-kasa (straw raincoat with hat). Figures wearing such gear include the princess in the story Hachikazuki (The Princess Who Wore a Bowl) in Otogizoshi, the girl wearing a skin in the folktale Ubakawa (Old Woman's Skin), the boy covered with a snail shell in Tanishi Musuko (The Mud-snail Son), and references to fukurogo (babies born with cauls) in indigenous folklore, and the girl wandering around with a bag in the folktale Komebuku Awabuku; and this sort of figure can also be seen in Okuninushi no Kami (The God, Great-Land-Master), who carries a bag on his back in an ancient myth. They are all going through rites of passage that represent rebirth, undergoing a transformation hin the object that covers them and waiting to be born. The bag, bowl, skin, snail shell, mino-kasa, tsunokakushi, wataboshi, kamieboshi, and the like, are "cauls" destined eventually to be cast off. The person who discards them, after the arduous journey of death in the mother's womb, is then born into this world as a baby, or as a mature adult, or as a wife in her husband's family, or is born into a new world as a god of the hereafter. The dead who become gods of that world will one day be born into this world, again wearing a caul.
4 0 0 0 OA メソポタミアの「慰霊」と「治療」:死霊による災厄と「死の人称性」
People in Ancient Mesopotamia (ca. 3000-500 BC) believed that they would continue to exist as spirits (et.emmu) after death in the netherworld and they must be fed with kispu, which their living family had to periodically offer to them (see the author’s “Offering for the Dead in Mesopotamia,” Annual of the Institute of Thanatology 2007).If the spirits were not adequately buried or taken care of, they could cause various troubles for the living. These could be evil omens, frightening apparitions, or physical or mental diseases. The professionals who handled these problems were called ??ipu which is still defined by standard Akkadian dictionaries as ‘magician.’ Recent studies have shown that the ??ipu belonged to a temple and had not one but several functions including priest, magician and physician. And the asu, which is conventionally translated as ‘physician,’was proved to have been the pharmacist, bone setter and performer of minor surgery and to have assisted the ??ipu. JoAnn Scurlock (esp. 2002, 2005 and 2006) contributed greatly in presenting a much clearer image of the ??ipu caring for spirits and healing diseases caused by them in Mesopotamia. It is not easy to understand ancient phenomena as belonging to several modern categories such as religion, magic and science, at the same time. These categories, however, are undergoing reconsideration today.Departed spirits are the responsibility of the living family. But many texts assumed the existence of all kinds of spirits, of both known and unknown people, which might cause trouble for unspecified reasons. It can be compared with the long Japanese tradition caring for not only メソポタミアの「慰霊」と「治療」 the spirits of one’s own family, shouryou( 精霊), but also the spirits of strangers, muen-botoke( 無縁仏), mainly on the occasion of urabon( 盂蘭盆). Anthropology and Ethnology have been the analyzing ambiguous attitude of living people toward their ancestors and the dead who might be merciful or frightening for them.V. Jankelevitch (1966), a French philosopher, distinguished ‘the death in the third person, in the second person and in the first person.’ However, he added that death in each person is reflexively death in the first person. Ph. Aries (1977) adopted certain key terms such as ‘the death of the self (la mort de soi)’ and ‘thy death (la mort de toi)’ from Jankelevitch for his reconstruction of a history of Western Europe from the Middle Ages to fit the respective attitudes toward death. Aries added that death has come to be thought of as taboo in the latter half of 20th century in Europe.K. Yanagida (1995) applied the theory of ‘person’ in death to describe matters related to death in contemporary Japan. He explained that ‘my death,’ ‘your death’ and ‘his/her/people’s death’ are all totally different. He later (2002) suggested, however, the idea of ‘death in person two-pointfive(’ 二・五人称), so that we could have an empathy with ‘death in the third person.’ It is not rare now in Japan to hear : ‘His/Her death is for me the death in ‘person two-point-three(’ 二・三人称), that is: ‘nearer to the second person than to the third person.’ In Japanese, grammatical person is usually expressed in cardinal numbers, (such as ‘person one’ (一人称), not in ordinal numbers such as ‘the first person’ (第一人称). This makes it possible to add further divisions between two and three.It is not wrong to adopt foreign thoughts and terminologies and to improve on or change them to make them fit for our situation in Japan. We should, however, consider the ambiguity of both death and the dead. We should also be aware of distortions that occur when we use modern and contemporary terms for ancient phenomena.
3 0 0 0 OA 石川啄木 : 短歌にみる生と死の表現
Takuboku Ishikawa was a poetic genius during the Meiji Era. He showed outstanding intelligence from childhood. He displayed talent as a poet in his teenage years and moved to Tokyo, intending to become a novelist. In this, however, he did not succeed and experienced a serious setback. During this time of living in poverty, however, he produced his revolutionary collection of poems, included in A Handful of Sand. Yet, at the young age of 27, he died of tuberculosis. In this article, Takuboku Ishikawa’s life will be reviewed, focusing on how his psychological conflicts developed. The author also discusses how these conflicts influenced Ishikawa’s works through an examination of his diaries and tanka.The results of this study show that Ishikawa did not write tanka for his own personal benefit. For him, tanka were reflections of his subconscious self, a type of creative regression. In his tanka, he honestly wrote about his existence. That is, the tanka are an “egotistic” expression of himself as a special person, and his feelings of anger and rebellion that he was not esteemed by the world. Through his tanka, Ishikawa was able to face his weak and ugly sides for the first time.During the period when Ishikawa was unable to write novels, there were many references to death in his work. However to him, death may have held the meaning of an escape from reality. For Ishikawa, illness and death were almost the same as sleep. The action of sleeping could be considered an extreme escape from reality. However, after Ishikawa abandoned novels, he came to face reality; he gradually became grounded to the real world through critique, and he began to seriously confront the circumstances of his life. However, in the middle of this transition, he died of an illness.
In this article, an analysis of Harry Kupfer's (1935-) direction of the musical Elisabeth is given. The musical, a story of about the life of the famous queen of Austria, Elisabeth von Wittersbach (1837-1898) or “Sissi”, is a popular musical in the world nowadays. However, after its first performance in 1992, the work and its direction have varied greatly.The history of musical theatrical productions is relatively short in music history and this genre originated after professional directors had become acknowledged in the theatre world. As for the staging of a musical, it is generally admitted that the first staging is often significant. That is why it is important to analyze Kupfer’s first staging of Elisabeth. Kupfer has played an important role in the practice of Regietheater, where the director is allowed to change the original staging directions and other elements in an opera or play. Therefore, as the director of the first staging of Elisabeth, he made a substantial contribution to the work itself. There are two main themes of Kupfer’s works, the problems of women and the resistance and conflicts that arise from their being under pressure in a male-dominated society. Therefore, the author focuses on Kupfer’s staging of Elisabeth in Vienna from the viewpoint of the oppressed heroine’s resistance to and conflicts with a maledominated society.From this viewpoint, two elements can be found to analyze in the text; one is a crucial scene of many people’s testimonies, and the other is the scene of Elisabeth’s only monologue, ”Ich gehör nur mir”, which is also her first declaration of resistance. Moreover, in order to describe these two elements on stage, two unique sets were used, the “Bridge” and the “Mirror”.The “Bridge” represents the pressure on Elisabeth and the struggle against people’s different meanings of salvation. For example, to Elisabeth it means a release from the restraints upon her in this world, but to the character of “Death (der Tod)”, it means leading Elisabeth to the world of death. The “Mirror” represents a polar relationship of beauty and ugliness. Although it could hurt Elisabeth in her old age, however, she still continues to need the “Mirror” that might reflect her beauty for her own self-confidence. Consequently, Elisabeth could not receive salvation, that is, salvation from “Death” or from the people surrounding her, but instead she continued to struggle against the pressure of living in a male-dominated society. Moreover, by emphasizing this image of Elisabeth through his staging, Kupfer tried to show a kind of salvation, which had meaning only to her: the release from the restraints of this world.
3 0 0 0 IR 子どもが語る物語の力 : 学校に妖怪が生まれるとき (語られる生と死)
In this paper, the author discusses "Gakkou no Kwaidan" in relation to the psychological development of schoolchildren. Originally, "Gakkou no Kwaidan" were tales of the supernatural circulated by word of mouth among schoolchildren. After Toru Tsunemitsu, a junior-high-school teacher, collected and edited them into a book in 1990, a boom of new "Gakkou no Kwaidan" publications arose and continued through the 1990s. The author points out, however, that the boom of newly published tales reduced school children's primitive power of narrating these stories themselves.In this article, the original tales of the supernatural in school, "Gakkou no Kwaidan" will be the focus. Why do children tell "Gakkou no Kwaidan?" Why do they like narrating the tales? The author explains two reasons for this. The first is from the viewpoint of "the sense of self" in childhood, and the second is from the viewpoint of the special space of school where children are experiencing life together.First, many researchers in developmental and clinical psychology have stressed a turning point in an 8-10 year old child's sense of self. It is a fundamental restructuring of the self. After that occurs, they begin to be aware of the existence of "another me" (an objective self) in themselves. The author proposes that sometimes this can emerge in a mysterious and/or supernatural form.Furthermore, the author explains the significance of the power of narration. Children experience various feelings in school life such as delight, happiness, sadness, distress, rage, loneliness and so on. Unfortunately, there is also severe bullying at some schools that many children go through which can wound them deeply. In this case, narrating tales of the supernatural in school can give children reassurance, and has a great power to bring peace to 206 them and others who have been injured. In other words, the narration of such stories could be seen as a requiem of sorts.In conclusion, the author emphasizes the power of narrating "Gakkou no Kwaidan" and people should be careful not to underestimate or reduce the positive power this may have for children.
3 0 0 0 古代メソポタミアの占星術に見る人間の生と死 (死生観と看取り)
3 0 0 0 OA メソポタミアの「死者供養」
In Ancient Mesopotamia, people believed that human beings continue to live as ghosts in the netherworld after death. The life of the ghosts, however, depended on food and drink which their living family periodically offered them at their tombs. The periodical offering for the dead was called kispu in Akkadian. The word is attested in the documents, the royal inscriptions and the literary texts from the second and the first millennium B.C. The word kispu refers also to the offering which is entombed with the body. One part of this offering is the ration for the dead during the journey to the netherworld; the other is a gift to the gods of the netherworld.The people of Ancient Mesopotamia were conscious of the continuity between the worlds of the living and the dead. For example, a phrase in a document from the second millennium B.C. reads: “You give me bread as long as I live, and you shall offer kispu when I have died.” It was the greatest misery for them if their ghosts did not get food and drink in the netherworld.The basic Akkadian dictionaries translate kispu into “Totenopfer” or “funerary offering.” Tsukimoto (1985) translates it, however, into the rare German word “Totenpflege” (“caring for the dead”) and shisha-kuy?(死者供養)in Japanese. The connotation of kispu is closer to that of shisha-kuy? than to that of the conventional translations in either German or English.
2 0 0 0 OA 「小さな死」と「孤独」
In this paper I will clarify the relationship between the meaning of “Solitude” as a way of life, and the meaning of “Little Deaths” which were discussed by Kazuko Watanabe, a Catholic sister. Watanabe defined “Solitude” as the original way of human existence, and as a positive concept. She showed that “Little Deaths” were experienced when living with a consciousness of death, and when living honestly. Furthermore, living honestly means facing oneself and living honestly in “Solitude,” which is seen as the original way of life for human beings. In other words, she seemed to say that the original way of human existence is to accumulate experiences of “Little Deaths” through “Solitude” and honesty.
2 0 0 0 OA 西洋占星術に見る人の生死と運命
Beliefs in the power of celestial bodies and ways of interpreting their meaning are found throughout the world. In this paper, traditional Western astrology is taken as an object of study and its relationship with quality of life, death, and destiny are explored. First, the historical process and environment in which Western astrology was formed are surveyed. Second, the basic theory of Western astrology is viewed through Ptolemy’s Tetrabiblos, which is regarded as the standard textbook of astrology from ancient times. Finally, the ethical and religious problems that the materialism of Western astrology has caused are discussed, such as the freedom of God and human beings, astrological fatalism, and the meaning of life.The horoscope of Western astrology, which is the birth chart of each person, has three fundamental components: planet, sign, and house. These three components determine all the dimensions of the life of that person. “Planet” includes the sun and moon, and it is said that these seven planets have productive or destructive power according to the mythological characters they are named after. “Sign” and “house” are particular areas of the zodiac and are derived by dividing the zodiac into twelve parts. Sign is the fixed area that starts from the spring equinoctial point, but house is the fluid area that starts from the ascendant, which is the rising point of the sun and changes everyday. It is believed the power of one’s planet adjusted by sign and house flows into each person and forms his or her whole life: parents, siblings, marriage, children, welfare, death, and length of life.
2 0 0 0 OA メソポタミア神話にみる死の受容と悲嘆 : エンキドゥとギルガメシュの場合
- 著者
- 渡辺 和子
- 出版者
- リトン
- 雑誌
- 死生学年報 = Annual of the Institute of Thanatology, Toyo Eiwa University
- 巻号頁・発行日
- vol.2, pp.23-44, 2006-03-31
The Epic of Gilgamesh, the oldest mythological composition, was written about four thousands years ago. Of its various themes, this paper focuses on the acceptance of death and grief in the cases of Enkidu and Gilgamesh.Gilgamesh, king of Uruk, and his friend Enkidu make an adventure to a cedar forest and slay Humbaba, the guardian of the forest. They also kill the “Bull of Heaven” which Anu, the god of heaven, had sent against them. For these acts of hubris, the gods sentence Enkidu to death. After he is placated by the sun god Shamash and consoled by Gilgamesh, he can accept his painful destiny. Gilgamesh, mourning bitterly for Enkidu and in fear of death, sets out on a long journey to Ut-napishtim who had obtained eternal life. He refuses all advice to break his mourning. Ut-napishtim tells him not to sleep for seven days. However, he falls asleep immediately afterwards. When he wakes up, he realizes that it is impossible to obtain eternal life. At last he finishes his mourning and bathes, dresses in clean garments, and returns to Uruk.Gilgamesh does not fail an initiation, as is often argued. I believe the epic presents examples of accepting death and completing grief.