Ikuta River

An epic legend. Two men, Unai and Chinu, were proposing marriage to a woman in Settsu Province (Osaka Prefecture, Hyogo Prefecture). The woman's parents could not decide between them, so they promised to marry whoever shot a waterfowl in the Ikuta River. The two men shot the bird's head and tail, respectively, and the woman became distressed and recited the poem, "The river of Ikuta in Tsu Province, where I have cast away my life, is but a name," before jumping into the sea. The two men followed her, catching her by the feet and hands, respectively, and dying. People built the two men's mounds on either side of the woman's mound, and called them virgin mounds. This waka tale is recorded in the 147th chapter of the Tales of Yamato, but it was included in the Manyoshu, Volume 9, as a legend about a battle between two men, Chinuma Otoko and Uhara Soshi, who proposed to Uhara Maiden of Ashiya. The Manyoshu contains several poems that visit these types of tombs and lament the virgins who were buried there, and the legends of Tekona (Volumes 3 and 9) of Mama in Katsushika, Sakurako, and Katsurako (Volume 16) are also virgins who met a similar death. Contemporary poets were particularly interested in these legends and wrote elegies about them, but these virgins were not specific women, but rather the legends of shrine maidens who served the ubusuna (temporal guardian deity) of each region. It seems likely that the shrine maidens lived sacred lives, and the various traditions about them as women of gods overlapped to form one legend. This legend is the basis for the later Noh play "Motomezuka," and Mori Ogai dramatized it as a play "Ikutagawa," which was performed at the Yurakucho Theater by the Jiyugeki Theater in 1910 (Meiji 43). It also appears in Natsume Soseki's "Kusamakura."

[Shogo Watanabe]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

叙事伝説。摂津国（大阪府、兵庫県）の女に求婚する2人の男、菟原(うない)と血沼(ちぬ)がいた。女の親はいずれとも決めかねて、生田川の水鳥を射とめたほうに嫁すと約す。2人はそれぞれ水鳥の頭と尾を射たので、女は思い悩み「住みわびぬわが身なげてん津の国の生田の川は名のみなりけり」と詠んで投身する。2人の男は後を追い、それぞれ女の足と手を捕らえて死んだ。人々は女の塚の左右に2人の男の塚を築いて、その塚を処女塚(おとめづか)とよんだ。この和歌説話は『大和(やまと)物語』147段に記されているものだが、古くは『万葉集』巻9に葦屋(あしや)の菟原処女に血沼壮士(おとこ)・菟原壮士が求婚し争った伝説として収載される。『万葉集』にはこの種の塚を訪ねて葬られた処女を悼む歌がいくつか詠まれていて、葛飾(かつしか)の真間(まま)の手児奈(てこな)（巻3、巻9）や桜児(さくらこ)や鬘児(かつらこ)（巻16）も同種の死に遭遇した処女の伝説である。当代の歌人はそれらの伝説に特別の感興を催し挽歌(ばんか)に詠んだのだが、これらの処女は特定の女性というより、その土地土地にあった産土(うぶすな)に仕える巫女(みこ)の伝承である。巫女が神聖な生活を送り、その神の女としての伝承がいくつも重なり合って一つの伝説が定着したものであろう。後代の謡曲『求塚(もとめづか)』はこの伝説で、森鴎外(おうがい)も戯曲『生田川』として劇化し、1910年（明治43）自由劇場により有楽座で上演された。夏目漱石(そうせき)『草枕(くさまくら)』にも登場する。

［渡邊昭五］

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