Kawaramono - Kawaramono

A derogatory term for actors, theater people, street performers, traveling entertainers, etc. in the Edo period. Also called riverside beggars. Originally a term for people who lived along riversides in the Middle Ages, it began to be used around the 12th century to refer to people who fled to the tax-free riverside areas due to natural disasters, wars, poverty, etc. A distinctive feature of these people was that many of them engaged in miscellaneous performing arts that followed the traditions of sangaku, in addition to small-scale farming, peddling, slaughtering, leather processing, dyeing, cleaning, and burial. In the early modern period, some of them established their own independent professions, but the majority were treated as outsiders under the strict class system and discriminated against, being classified as outsiders under the four classes. However, with the power of temples and shrines as a backing, they were able to obtain various privileges, and in particular promotional performances for various performing arts were often held on the riverbanks, so the Kawaramono held control over the area, and new regional performing arts were added to sekkyo, joruri, puppetry, and karakuri, and most of the performing arts of the common people in the early modern period were nurtured on the riverbanks. The most famous is the Kabuki dance of Izumo no Okuni, which took place at Shijo-gawara in Kyoto. Because of this origin, even after the theaters moved away from the riverbanks, the term Kawaramono was used as a discriminatory term for people involved in theatrical performances, and the custom of looking down on them in general society continued until the Meiji period.

[Toshiaki Matsui]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

江戸時代における役者をはじめ芝居関係者、大道芸人、旅芸人などの蔑称(べっしょう)。河原乞食(こじき)ともいった。本来は中世に河原に居住した人々の称で、12世紀ごろから天災や戦乱、貧困などによる流亡民のうち、非課税地の河原に逃れた者をよんだのが始まり。零細な農耕や行商、と畜、皮革の加工、染色、清掃、死体埋葬などのほか、散楽(さんがく)の伝統を引く雑芸能を行う者が多かったのが特色である。近世に入ると、彼らの一部は独立した職業として確立したが、大半は厳格な身分制度のもとで四民の下の制外者(にんがいもの)扱いにされ、差別を受けた。しかし、寺社の権力を背景にしていろいろな特権を得て、とくに諸種の芸能の勧進(かんじん)興行は河原で催されることが多かったので、河原者がその支配権を握り、説経、浄瑠璃(じょうるり)、操り、からくりなどに地方の新芸能も加わって、近世の庶民芸能はほとんどが河原で育てられた。京都・四条河原で行われた出雲(いずも)の阿国(おくに)の歌舞伎(かぶき)踊りはもっとも有名。こうした発生の由来から、劇場が河原を離れたのちも、河原者という語が芝居関係者の差別語として用いられ、一般社会から卑しめられる風習が明治になるまで続いた。

［松井俊諭］

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