Female family tree

A full-length novel written by Izumi Kyoka. It was serialized in the Yamato Shimbun in 1907 (Meiji 40), and published the following year by Shunyodo in two parts. Hayase Chikara was a pickpocket known as Hayabusa no Riki, but he was picked up by German language scholar Sakai Shunzo, became his student, and reformed. He secretly marries Tsutakichi, a geisha from Yanagibashi, but Sakai does not forgive them and the two are ordered to separate (this part is based on the cohabitation between Kyoka and his wife Suzu, which his teacher Ozaki Koyo did not approve of). Kono Hideomi, a wealthy man from Shizuoka, has the ambition to match his daughters with gifted students and create a family alliance, and his son Eikichi sets his sights on Sakai's daughter Taeko. Taeko was actually the child of a marriage to a geisha named Koyoshi from Yanagibashi, and was raised with Kazura as a brother and sister. Kazura opposes the family's family-based ideology and resolves not to give Taeko to the Kono family. In the second part, Kazura travels to Shizuoka, exposes Mrs. Kono's past infidelity, and drives the Kono family to their deaths. O-Tsuta (Tsutayoshi), who remained in Tokyo, is forgiven by Sakai, but dies of an illness, and Kazura takes poison and dies. This is a work that depicts the supreme love within the constraints of a marriage system that oppresses free and selfless love.

The dramatization premiered at the Shintomi-za Theatre in September of the same year the book was published. Adapted by Yanagawa Shunyo and starring Ii Yoho as the chief priest and Kitamura Rokuro as Otsuta, it was not a success, but Kitamura's careful direction was refined with each performance, and it became one of the famous Shinpa kyogen plays. The "Precincts of Yushima" scene was not in the original work, but Kyoka, who liked this scene after seeing the premiere, later wrote it himself. It is a representative scene of the Shinpa style, and is often performed as a one-act play.

[Hiroshi Fujita]

"Fujokuzu" (Collected in Kyoka Complete Works 10, 1940, Iwanami Shoten) "Yushima no Shidai" (Collected in Kyoka Novels and Plays 12, Plays 2, 1982, Iwanami Shoten)

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

泉鏡花(きょうか)作の長編小説。1907年（明治40）『やまと新聞』に連載され、翌年、前編・後編に分けて春陽堂より刊行。早瀬主税(はやせちから)は隼(はやぶさ)の力(りき)という掏摸(すり)だったが、ドイツ語学者酒井俊蔵(しゅんぞう)に拾われて書生となり、更生する。柳橋の芸者蔦吉(つたきち)とひそかに夫婦になるが、酒井は許さず、2人は別離を命じられる（このくだりは、師尾崎紅葉が認めなかった鏡花とすず夫人の同棲(どうせい)に基づいている）。静岡の資産家河野英臣(ひでおみ)は、娘たちを秀才に縁づけて閨閥(けいばつ)をつくろうという野心をもち、その息子英吉は酒井の娘妙子(たえこ)を見そめる。妙子は、実は柳橋の芸者小芳(こよし)との仲に生まれた子で、主税とは兄妹同様に育てられた。主税は河野家の閨閥主義に対抗し、妙子を河野家に与えてはならないと決心。後編では、静岡へ行った主税が、河野夫人の昔の不義をあばき、河野一族を死に追い込む顛末(てんまつ)を描く。東京に残ったお蔦（蔦吉）も酒井に許されるが病死し、主税は服毒して死ぬ。自由な無我の愛を圧制する婚姻制度の束縛のなかでの、愛情の至高をつづった作品。

　劇化は、単行本が刊行された年の9月、新富座初演。柳川春葉(やながわしゅんよう)脚色、伊井蓉峰(ようほう)の主税、喜多村緑郎(きたむらろくろう)のお蔦という配役で、成功とはいえなかったが、喜多村の入念な演出は回を重ねるごとに洗いあげられ、新派名狂言の一つになった。「湯島の境内」の場は原作にはなく、初演を見てこの場が気に入った鏡花は、のちに自ら書き下ろした。新派型物の代表場面であり、一幕物として上演されることが多い。

［藤田　洋］

『『婦系図』（『鏡花全集10』所収・1940・岩波書店）』▽『『湯島の境内』（『鏡花　小説・戯曲選12　戯曲篇　2』所収・1982・岩波書店）』

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