Kintaro

A story about the hero's upbringing. Kintaro was the son of a mountain witch on Mt. Ashigara (Kanagawa Prefecture), and was born and raised in the mountains. He was said to have been a powerful child. Since the early Edo period, Kintaro has been loved as a child hero alongside Momotaro, and was made into a May doll as a symbol of boys from an early stage. He is said to be the childhood name of Sakata (Sakata) Kintoki (Kintoki), one of the four heavenly kings of Minamoto no Yorimitsu. His background can be found in the Kojoruri Kinpira book Koyō Tanjōki (Kiyō Tanjōki) (around 1660) and other sources. In Kiyohara Udaisho (1677), he is described as a "strange child," and after Chikamatsu Monzaemon's Joruri Komochi Yamanba (1712), he was commonly known as Kaidōmaru. The name Kintaro seems to have originated from the mid-Edo period. In "Zen Taiheiki" (1717), it is said that a mountain witch dreamed of mating with a red dragon on the summit of Mt. Ashigara and conceived. The legend was adapted into secular art such as Joruri and Ukiyo-e, and these works further nurtured the image of the story among the people. Halfway up Mt. Kintoki (Mt. Inohana) in Hakone, there is a huge stone that is said to have been the stone chamber where Kintaro and the mountain witch lived. Originally, it is one of the legends that mountain witches in various places gave birth to children in the mountains. In Nagano Prefecture, there is a cave on Mt. Kintoki (Mt. Minami-Kiso) in Kiso where Kintoki and his mother lived, and Mushikura Myojin Shrine in Imoi Village, Kamiminochi County (now Nagano City) is said to enshrine Kintoki's mother. Stories of heroes born in the mountains appear in narrative literature of the Muromachi period, such as the Manabon version of "Soga Monogatari," and the tale of a mountain god giving birth in the mountains, passed down by hunter-gatherers, is the prototype of this type of mountain birth tale, including that of Kintaro.

[Yo Kojima]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

英雄生い立ちの物語。金太郎は足柄(あしがら)山（神奈川県）の山姥(やまうば)の子で、山中で生まれ育ち、子供のときから大力であったという。江戸初期以来、桃太郎と並ぶ子供の姿の英雄として親しまれ、男の子の象徴として、早くから五月人形にもつくられた。源頼光(らいこう)の四天王の一人、坂田（酒田）金時（公時）の幼名とされる。素性については、古浄瑠璃(こじょうるり)の公平(きんぴら)本『公平誕生記』（1660前後）などにみえるのが古い。『清原右大将』（1677）に「怪童(かいど)」とあり、近松門左衛門の浄瑠璃『嫗山姥(こもちやまんば)』（1712）以後は快（怪）童丸が通称になる。金太郎の名は江戸中期ごろからのようである。『前太平記』（1717）には、山姥が足柄山の山頂で、赤竜と交わった夢をみて身ごもったとある。伝説が浄瑠璃や浮世絵などの世俗芸術にとられ、その作品がまた民衆のイメージを育てている。箱根の金時山（猪鼻(いのはな)岳）の中腹には金太郎と山姥が住んだ石室があったという巨石がある。本来、各地にあった山姥が山中で子供を生んだという伝説の一つで、長野県には、木曽(きそ)の金時山（南岐蘇(なきそ)岳）に金時母子が住んだ岩屋があり、旧上水内(かみみのち)郡芋井(いもい)村（現長野市）の虫倉明神は、金時の母を祀(まつ)ると伝える。山中で生まれた英雄の物語は『曽我(そが)物語』真名(まな)本など室町時代の物語文学にもみえ、狩猟民が伝えた山の神が山中で出産する物語は、金太郎をはじめ、この種の山中誕生譚(たん)の原形をなすものである。

［小島瓔］

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