Japanese folklore

　中世以来、
「天皇（綏靖・垂仁など）が食人を好んだので、地下に閉じ込めて放置した」
　という伝説がいくつか記録されている。これらを国外の類話と比較することで、その来歴を探ってみた。
　類話の1つはイランのザッハーク（またはアジ＝ダハーカ）の説話である。この物語は、北欧のロキ神話や「ヨハネの黙示録」などと同じ話型に属している。ザッハーク型の物語がインド経由で東南アジア（島嶼部）へ伝わり、その周辺で綏靖型が派生したのだろう。ザッハーク型も綏靖型も、火山や地震のイメージと深く結びついていたらしい。なお、ザッハーク型と「眠れる英雄」伝説との関係についても考察する。

キーワード: 火の雨塚　『神道集』　『平家打聞』　綏靖　垂仁　武烈　文武　火山　地震　『王書（シャー＝ナーメ）』　ゾロアスター教　ザッハーク　アジ＝ダハーカ　ファリードゥーン　スラエータオナ　ダマーヴァンド山　エルブルス山　『エッダ』　ロキ　ヨハネの黙示録　スマトラ島　バタク族　ナーガ＝パドハ　バタラ＝グル　『マハーバーラタ』　『ヴィシュヌ・プラーナ』　シェーシャ　ミンダナオ島　パタ＝マタ　サ＝ブアヤン　ネグロス島　ハリ＝サ＝ブキッド　カンラオン山　ルソン島　マヨング　マヨン山　眠れる英雄　アーサー　フリードリヒ2世　バルバロッサ　タンホイザー　キュフホイザー山　エトナ山　摩利柱　要石　金輪際　摩利支天　マリーチ　北斗七星

This paper argues that Hearn's activities in the US and Japan prove beyond doubt that he was a remarkable genius. However, he had some distinctly odd views, and his descriptions of Japan in particular were coloured by his idiosyncratic nature. This is evident more in his letters than in his publications, the latter of which were tailored to exploit the Japonisme boom. Though a radical in his youth, when he showed sympathy for misfits and outcasts, he became in later years a Japanese nationalist who advocated colonialism and racial superiority. He even turned against democracy in favour of military rule, praising ants as a model of how individuals should be subordinate to state. How did a sensitive genius come to such a distorted line of thinking? By tracing Hearn's formative years and the important influence on him of Nativists and the evolutionary thinker, Herbert Spencer, the paper attempts to provide an answer.

日本民俗学の草創期から俗信は中心的な研究の対象とされてきた。それと同時に、俗信、とくに妖怪を俗信として信じない人が多いことも古くから指摘されていた。だが民俗学は、多数の信じない人々ではなく、少数の信じる人々のほうにもっぱら目を向けてきた。そのため、今や民俗学の枠組みで妖怪が取り上げられることは稀になっている。
しかし、妖怪にまつわる知識という観点からすると、妖怪を信じる人々のもつ俗信だけではなく、妖怪を否定する人々のもつ科学知識もまた、一つの研究対象として論じることができるだろう。俗信研究においては、陰に陽に俗信は科学知識の対極にあるものとされている。他方で、科学知識のなかでも俗信を否定するものは、必然的に俗信と密接な関係性をもっていることになる。そうだとすれば、私たちは科学知識という観点から俗信をふくめた広い意味での民俗知識を把握することができる。ここで重要なのは、研究者も科学知識を共有しているということである。話者の知識と研究者の知識の区分は無効化され、どちらについても等しく問うことが可能になるのである。
本稿では、こうした問題意識をふまえて、カマイタチ真空説の歴史的展開を検討する。真空説は、明治初年代、妖怪カマイタチの俗信を否定する科学知識として提唱され、二〇世紀の初めまでには全国に浸透した。さらに現在でも多くの人々が真空説を妥当な科学知識として語っている。また、二〇世紀末まで多くの研究者もこれを受け入れていたが、現在の研究者のあいだでは、真空説は「すでに誤りとわかっている、非科学的な俗説」とされている。真空説の科学性に関する齟齬は、この知識を単に科学知識あるいは俗説とみなすことの問題を顕わにする。この点を解決するため、本稿では「否定論の伝統」という概念を採用し、さらに拡張することによって、真空説が否定論の伝統のなかで科学知識から俗説へと変貌していったことを論じる。

Superstitions have long been a central subject in Japanese folkloristics since its inception. At the same time, it has been widely recognized that most informants did not believe in superstitions, especially in yōkai (a category of the supernatural). Nonetheless, scholars have almost exclusively focused on people who believe in superstitions. As a consequence, academic interest in yōkai has declined considerably in recent years.
From the point of view of knowledge concerning yōkai, however, it can be argued that not only superstitions but also scientific knowledge, which rejects existence of yōkai, could be counted as folk knowledge, because scientific knowledge is logically and inextricably linked to what it rejects. Thus, we can comprehend folk knowledge as including both superstition and scientific knowledge, extending its terrain to the whole of the everyday life of common people. What is important to the extension is that in contemporary situations, both informants and scholars share almost the same scientific knowledge concerning superstition. If we suspend a hierarchical distinction between “their” knowledge and “our” knowledge, we could address both equally on the same ground.
Given this framework, I examine the historical development of the kamaitachi-vacuum theory which reduced a yōkai—kamaitachi—to mere natural phenomenon. First proposed at the very beginning of the Meiji period and soon spreading around the country, this theory gained a position as authentic scientific knowledge. Even now, a number of people in the country believe that this vacuum theory is scientifically valid. However, today most scholars assume that this theory is indeed an unscientific explanation of kamaitachi. This discrepancy reveals a pitfall of a naïve assumption that a particular knowledge can ahistorically be either scientific or unscientific. In order avoid this pitfall, I adopt and expand a folkloristic theory of “traditions of disbelief,” to analyze the process of transformation of the vacuum theory from the scientific to the unscientific.

The other day, I uploaded an article in Japanese, 東と西の「影鰐型」説話 (published in 『説話・伝承学 = Folk-literature and Traditions』, vol. 26, 2018, pp. 133-146). This is its English translation.

    In 1921, Archer Taylor wrote an article, 'The Death of Ǫrvar Oddr', on legends of Oddr (Norway), Oleg of Novgorod (Russia), Robert de Shurland (UK), Hans von Hackelberg (Germany) and others. All of them have a common point to die due to a dead animal (often its bone) as signified by some omen.
    Although Taylor mainly described instances of Europe, this kind of legends can often be seen in the Japanese archipelago indeed. In such legends of Japan, the central character is usually killed by an aquatic animal such as a shark. In this article, I will compile the parallels from various regions including Japan and clarify some disputed points (for example, their association with traditions of Water Horses).

Keywords:
Kage-Wani (Shadow Crocodile), fuka (large shark), St. Mrata (Martin), Wolf Shepherd (Master of Wolves), Lame Wolf, Hans von Hackelberg (Hackelnberg), Ominous Beast, Örvar-Oddr (Arrow-Oddr), Oleg of Novgorod, Robert de Shurland, Ca Nu Ca Peh, Schanferi, Wild Hunt, Water Horse, Neck (Näkki), Kelpie (Kelpy)

コペルニクスの生誕地トルンに弊学日本学科が創設されて１０周年を迎えるにあたり、本学会を開催する運びとなりました。つきましては、下記の要領で日本研究の諸分野から英語または日本語で発表論文を募集します。
表題は、ポーランド史に関する名著『神の遊技場』（ノーマン・デイヴィス著、初版１９７９年）にちなんだものです。それは、ありとあらゆる人間活動が行われるアゴラ（広場）であり、役者と観客が一体となってかかわり合う舞台でもあります。本発表会がそのような知的交流と議論を交わす「遊技場」となるよう期待しております。
趣旨: 日本に対する誤った見方や神話にも似た誤解が依然、根強く存在しています。その歪んだイメージの補正が望ましいという認識に基づき、日本の実像と虚像を検証し、問題を提起する発表テーマを募ります。

"God's Playground", a book by Norman Davies, first published in 1979, is so far the most popular and extensive monograph on history of Poland published in English. The eponymous playground stands for an agora, a stage, where all kinds of worldly affairs take place, engaging both the actors and the audience. Celebrating the decennial of Japanese studies in Toruń, the birthplace of Nicolaus Copernicus, the patron of the University, the conference is an attempt to create such playground, a space inspiring intellectual curiosity which yields scholarly cooperation and competition while tackling the subject of Japan's fictions and reality, following the example of Copernicus's paradigm shift contribution to development of science. The organizers invite paper proposals in English or Japanese from both Japanologists and researches from other fields working on Japan concerning topics and encourage papers relating to the conference theme: <Japan – Fictions and Reality>, following the conviction that the image of Japan is blurred by myths and misconceptions, and that their identification is necessary for making this image more clear and closer to reality.

The ama are women who dive for pearls. This bilingual paper renders the ancient Japanese folktale "Ama" into English, investigates its origins, and attempts to interpret its timeless significance. From a prehistoric oral tradition it evolved into the temple chronicle of Shidoji in Kagawa Prefecture and a Noh play with its setting there. Beneath the Buddhism and Sophoclean drama of an ideal woman making the ultimate sacrifice for her husband, it is to raise the future status of her son. 日本語によるノートや概要も付いている。

Низшие мифологические персонажи - лешие, домовые, банники, полевики, овинники и многие другие - являются традиционным объектом изучения этнографической науки. В большей части русскоязычных публикаций речь идет о низших персонажах славянской мифопоэтической традиции. В данной работе автор попытается представить аналогичные материалы из области японистики.

Автор статьи делает попытку проследить характерные черты образа лисы-оборотня, весьма популярного в Японии. Источниковой базой исследования являются классические памятники японской литературы, сборники буддийских легенд сэцува и отогидзоси, произведения в стиле «кайдан» XIX–XX вв. Были привлечены также сведения о верованиях китайцев и айнов в сверхъестественные способности лис.

It is said that in order not to lose the folk material, be it for the folk songs or the folk performing
arts, we have to preserve it so it would not disappear.

In this paper I will focus on Kagura mai, which is a folk song from Gokayama district‘s small
village Tairamura Kaminashi, located in the southeastern part of Toyama prefecture in Japan. The
song is related to a dance song called Maimai, which used to be a part of courting songs sung at
festivals, usually combined with agricultural rites. Visiting the actual place of Kagura mai shows
that we can still today hear the song for the two main festivals in the year: namely the Kokiriko
festival and Haru festival. Since 1973 it has a place as an Intangible Cultural Asset together with the
oldest folk song in Japan, the Kokiriko bushi.

Comparing all the sources the author could collect on Kagura mai, spanning from its first
transcription and recording (1952), its first available video (1974) to a new audio recording (2002)
and recent video recordings of Kagura Mai (taken by the author (2007, 2008)), there are changes
seen in how the Kagura mai is performed today compared to around 60 years ago, in its musical
content as well as in its function.

We can see that the song‘s preservation society or hozonkai decided on the form of preservation
of it and tries hard to keep it exactly the same. Moreover, the song became also a part of what we
could call a ’stage presenting show’ which gave a new function to the song as a folkloric and
touristic art. We could say that the song survives through hozonkai, but at the same time it becomes
like a "growing flower" tightened by the "box".

In this way the preserved Kagura mai will probably not receive many musical changes in the
future. How long can it stay "under the box"? Is the law which helps to protect the folk song
heritage beneficial? Could it be possible that this way of preserving Kagura mai does not keep the
song alive, but it restrains it and allowing it to become more a part of the culture which uses folk
songs only to exhibit?