Erotic literature

Japanese: 好色文学 - こうしょくぶんがく
Erotic literature

It is difficult to give a strict definition, but it is believed that erotic literature should be considered a literary genre when the author's healthy attitude toward sex, which does not aim to arouse the reader's vulgar interest in sex, but rather aims to depict erotic love or love affairs, maintains a certain distance from the subject, and mixes erotic spirit and beauty into the work, or promises generous laughter.

[Goya Jinbo]

Japan

In Japan, there are not many works of this kind in ancient times, but in the Heian period, representative works influenced by this type of Chinese literature include "Tetsuiden" in "Honcho Monzui" and "Inshasan" in "Zoku Honcho Monzui." These works, written in classical Chinese style, personify the phallus and describe its activities, praise its efficacy, and depict the secret art of sexual intercourse. Because they are written in classical Chinese style, the vulgarity is diluted, making them appealing to the intellectual eye. This type of work forms a part of a series, such as the Chinese poems that candidly describe the secret affairs of the bedroom, included in Ikkyu Sojun's "Kyouunshu" and "Zoku Kyounshu" from the Muromachi period, and the early modern humorous stories "Isorokujo," "Shunrentakuko," and "Daito Keigo," which combine a line from "Tōshisen" with a lower line from "Hyakunin Isshu" to explain life in Yoshiwara. In the Muromachi period, many poems can be found in "Chikuba Kyoginshu," a collection of linked haikai poems that had previously been read and discarded, compiled by a Kyoto connoisseur, and "Shinsen Inu Tsukuba Shu" by Yamazaki Sokan, which generously affirmed sex as the root of life during times of war and were full of humor amid vulgarity; this trend was carried over from zappai to senryu in the early modern period, culminating in "Haifu Suetsumuhana," a collection of the final lines of senryu.

The popularity of stories from the late Middle Ages to the early modern period included short erotic tales, which found their way into Ukiyozoshi (pictures of the ukiyo), from Saikaku's "Irozato Mitokoro Shotai" and "Ukiyoe Eiga Ichidai Otoko" to Ejima Kiseki's "Kontan Iro Asobi Futokoro Otoko" (Man of the Spirit's Pleasure and Desire), which became longer and more vulgar. On the other hand, alongside erotic literature in the form of Chinese comedy, erotic literature written in the elegant prose of Japanese scholars has also existed as a trend since the mid-modern period. Representative works include Sawada Nataru's "Anaokasi" and Kurosawa Okinamaro's "Hakoya no Himegoto". There were still many such works in the early modern period, but since the Meiji period, there have been fewer due to awareness of the true nature of literature and the oppression of authorities.

[Goya Jinbo]

China

Erotic novels arose in the course of the development of civil society. Thus, in China, erotic novels first appeared during the Ming dynasty (1368-1644). Sun Kaidi's Catalogue of Popular Novels in China (revised edition, published in 1958) lists eight erotic novels from the Ming dynasty, of which the most famous are The Story of Ruyijun and The Story of the Foolish Woman. The former tells the story of Empress Wu Zetian of the Tang dynasty and her favorite minister, Setsugouso, who became her favorite because of his large penis, and the latter is an old woman's sexual biography. The former influenced the Japanese Dokyo tales, and the latter influenced Saikaku's Amorous Life. Other famous works include Shutou Yashi and Rōshi. "Jin Ping Mei" is also generally considered an erotic novel because of its extremely bold depictions of sexual scenes, but it is actually a kind of social novel that sharply depicts the lives of wealthy merchants of the time, and cannot be called an erotic novel in its entirety.

The Qing dynasty (1616-1911) had many erotic novels, with 33 listed in the aforementioned Catalogue of Popular Chinese Novels. The most well-known are The Sexual Futon and The Story of the Red Apricot. Both are written in the form of a biography of an lecherous man. The former is considered to be the work of Li Yu (pen name Liuo), an outstanding novelist and playwright from the early Qing dynasty. Other famous Qing dynasty works include The Lantern Grass Monk (written as The Monk's Love Story) and History of the Stock Forest. Of the works from the Republic of China (1912-), The History of Sexuality edited by Zhang Jingsheng is well-known. This is a booklet that collects short stories about sexual experiences, and it seems that the first volume was published in 1926, and there have been 20 volumes in total.

[Komada Shinji]

Western

Literature depicting sexual acts or the surrounding area while incorporating humor also originated in ancient Greece. Festivals celebrating Dionysus, the god of wine, prompted the emergence of comedies that focused on sexual liberation, and this was sublimated into the works of Aristophanes (5th-4th century BC), who wrote masterpieces such as The Parliament of Women, in which obscenity was one of the main elements that made the audience laugh. In Rome, masters of short poetry such as Tibullus and Catullus wrote many poems full of sensuality, but the most representative of these was Ovid (1st century BC), who became the father of erotic literature in later Europe. His main work was Ars Amatria (The Art of Love), which was an educational work on love and provided a base for medieval court literature. In the 12th and 13th centuries, fabliaux (medieval short stories) flourished in France, and over 140 stories remain, drawn not only from France itself but also from India, Persia, and Arabia. When this type of story reached Italy, it became Boccaccio's Decameron in the 14th century, and from there it continued on to France's Saint Nouvelle in the 15th century, and then to Marguerite de Navarre's Heptameron (1559) in the 16th century. However, there were no masterpieces of this type in Germany of this period that could be called literature.

The above works were mostly written in prose (except for the fabliaux, which are written in eight-syllable verse), but La Fontaine's "Comtes" (1665-71) is a work of literature of the same genre written in his own dynamic verse, and is one of the pinnacles of Western tradition in female satire and erotic fiction. In England, Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales" (14th century) is another masterpiece of this genre. In the Renaissance, the short poems of the old Rome gave birth to the Neo-Latin poets, who, led by the Pleiade poet Ronsard, wrote many "kiss" (baiser) poems. They used ten-line and fourteen-line poems (sonnets) to radiate a very sensual eroticism between the poet and his lover.

From the 18th century onwards, literature in France became more complex by incorporating various psychological and social elements, and its contents included the exploration of human nature and vivid depictions of social customs. As a result, some literature not only depicted sex and its surroundings, but also featured figures who symbolized certain aspects of the era, such as Sade, Casanova, and Crebillon, who performed extremely peculiar sexual depictions and portrayed antisocial behavior. In the 19th century, during the era of realism and naturalism, writers such as Balzac blatantly and sharply analyzed and dissected sex out of the necessity of ism. The same was true in Germany and England, and as far as literary history is concerned, theatrical works, mainly Schnitzler's Rondo (1900), as well as Beaumarchais's The Marriage of Figaro (1781) from the late 18th century, overflowed with erotic characters on the stage. Furthermore, the modern British author D.H. Lawrence caused a stir with the bold and explicit sexual descriptions in his masterpiece, Lady Chatterley's Lover (1928), but the work has not lost its high literary value due to its rigid writing style and the author's sincerity.

[Teruo Sato]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

Japanese:

厳密に定義づけることは困難であるが、性に対する読者の卑俗な興味をかき立てることを目的とするのではなく、性愛あるいは情事の描写を目的としても、性に対する作者の健康な姿勢が、対象と一定の距離を保って、その作品にエロティックな精神と美が混在し、あるいはおおらかな笑いを約束するような作品を、文学の一ジャンルとしての好色文学とすべきだと考えられる。

［神保五彌］

日本

日本の場合、上代にはこの種のものは多くないが、平安朝に、中国のこの種の文学に影響を受けた、『本朝文粋(ほんちょうもんずい)』に収める『鉄槌伝(てっついでん)』や『続本朝文粋』にある『陰車讃(いんしゃさん)』などを代表作としてあげることができる。漢文体で、男根を擬人化してその活動を叙し、また男根の効用を頌(しょう)して性交の秘戯を描いたこれらの作品は、漢文体ゆえに卑俗さが薄められ、知的な興味で迎えることができる。この種の作品は、室町期の一休宗純(いっきゅうそうじゅん)の『狂雲集』『続狂雲集』に収められた閨房(けいぼう)の秘事を赤裸々にうたった漢詩、また近世に入って『唐詩選』の一句と『百人一首』の下の句とを取り合わせて吉原事情を説く洒落本(しゃれぼん)『異素六帖(いそろくじょう)』や『春臠拆甲(しゅんれんたくこう)』『大東閨語(たいとうけいご)』など、一連の流れを形づくる。室町期には、それまで読み捨てにされていた俳諧(はいかい)の連歌を京都の数寄者(すきもの)が編集した『竹馬(ちくば)狂吟集』や山崎宗鑑(そうかん)撰(せん)の『新撰犬筑波集(いぬつくばしゅう)』に、戦乱期に生の根元としての性をおおらかに肯定して猥雑(わいざつ)のなかに諧謔(かいぎゃく)を尽くした句が多くみられるが、この流れは近世に入って雑俳(ざっぱい)から川柳(せんりゅう)へと受け継がれ、川柳の末番句を集めた『誹風末摘花(はいふうすえつむはな)』に結集する。

　中世末から近世初頭にかけての咄(はなし)の流行は、好色小咄(こばなし)を含んで、浮世草子(うきよぞうし)のなかに流入し、西鶴(さいかく)の『色里三所世帯(いろざとみところしょたい)』『浮世栄花一代男』などから、江島其磧(きせき)の『魂胆色遊懐男(こんたんいろあそびふところおとこ)』に至って、長編化し、しだいに卑俗化してゆく。一方、漢戯文の好色文学と並んで、国学者の雅文による好色文学も、近世中期から一つの流れとして存在する。沢田名垂(なたる)の『阿奈遠可志(あなおかし)』や黒沢翁満(くろざわおきなまろ)の『藐姑射秘言(はこやのひめごと)』などが代表作である。近世にはなおこの種のものが多数あるが、明治以降は、文学の本質に対する自覚と、権力の禁圧から、多くはない。

［神保五彌］

中国

好色小説は市民社会の発展のなかでおこる。したがって中国では、好色小説が現れるのは明(みん)代（1368～1644）からである。孫楷第(そんかいだい)の『中国通俗小説書目』（1958刊、改訂版）には明代の好色小説として8種があげられているが、そのなかでもっとも著名なのは『如意君伝(にょいくんでん)』と『痴婆子伝(ちばしでん)』である。前者は唐の則天武后(そくてんぶこう)と巨根のゆえをもってその寵臣(ちょうしん)となった薜敖曹(せつごうそう)との話、後者は1人の老婆が語る性の一代記。前者は日本の道鏡(どうきょう)説話に、後者は西鶴の『好色一代女』に影響を与えている。ほかに『繍榻野史(しゅうとうやし)』『浪史(ろうし)』なども著名である。『金瓶梅(きんぺいばい)』も性の場面の描写がきわめて大胆なことから、一般には好色小説とみなされているが、これは当時の大商人の生活を鋭くえぐり示した一種の社会小説であって、好色小説とはいいきれない。

　清(しん)代（1616～1911）には好色小説の数が多く、前記の『中国通俗小説書目』には33種があげられているが、代表的なものは『肉蒲団(にくぶとん)』と『紅杏伝(こうきょうでん)』である。両者とも好色な男の一代記という形で書かれている。前者は清初の優れた小説家・戯曲家である李漁(りぎょ)（筆名笠翁(りゅうおう)）の作とみなされている。清代のものではほかに『燈草和尚(とうそうおしょう)』（『和尚縁(おしょうえん)』）、『株林野史(しゅりんやし)』などが著名である。民国（1912～）以降のものでは、張競生(ちょうきょうせい)編集の『性史』が著名である。これは短編の性的体験記を集めたという形の小冊子で、第1集（1926）から始まって順次第20集まで出たようである。

［駒田信二］

西洋

笑いを内に含みながら性行為またはその周辺を描いた文学は、やはり古代ギリシアに端を発している。酒神ディオニソスを寿(ことほ)ぐ祭礼が性の解放を主とする喜劇の発生を促し、その本格がアリストファネス（前5世紀～前4世紀）の作品に昇華したが、彼は、観客を笑わせるその種々の要素の大きな一つに猥雑を交えて傑作『女の議会』などを書いた。ローマではティブルス、カトゥルスなど短詩の名手が肉感にあふれる多くの詩を書いたが、その代表格はオウィディウス（前1世紀）であり、これが後世ヨーロッパにおける好色文学の祖となった。主著は『アルス・アマトリア（恋愛技巧術）』で、内容は恋愛の教化であり、中世宮廷風文学に拠点を与えたものである。12～13世紀になると、フランスで「ファブリオー」fabliaux（中世小咄）が栄え、フランス本国はもとより、広くインド、ペルシア、アラビアに求めた話が140編余り残されている。この種の話がイタリアに入ると、14世紀にボッカチオの『デカメロン』となり、ここからさらに15世紀フランスの『サン・ヌーベル・ヌーベル』に、そして16世紀にはマルグリット・ド・ナバールの『エプタメロン』（1559）へと系譜が連なる。ただ、この時代のドイツには、まだ文学の名に価するこの種の傑作はない。

　以上は主として散文で物されたもの（ただし、ファブリオーは8音綴(おんてつ)の韻文）であるが、ラ・フォンテーヌの『コント集（風流譚(たん)）』（1665～71）は、この同じ系統の文学を彼独特の躍動する韻文で書いたものであり、西欧伝統の女性風刺と好色ものの一つの高峰をなしている。イギリスではチョーサーの『カンタベリー物語』（14世紀）が、またこの類型の傑作である。ルネサンス期に入ると、かつてのローマの短詩はネオ・ラテン派の詩人を生み、彼らはプレイアード派の詩人ロンサールを盟主として多くの「接吻(せっぷん)」baiserの詩が書かれた。彼らは十行詩や十四行詩（ソネット）を使って、詩人と恋人との間の甚だ肉感的なエロティシズムを発散させている。

　18世紀以降になると、フランスでは、文学は心理的・社会的なもろもろの要素をそのなかに取り入れて様相を複雑化し、人間性の探求、社会風俗の活写をその内容としていった。そのため、ある種の文学では性とそれを取り巻く周辺の描写ばかりでなく、たとえばサドとかカサノーバとかクレビヨンなど、この時代のある面を象徴するような人物が出て、きわめて特異な性描写を行い、また反社会的行動を描いた。また19世紀のリアリズム、自然主義の時代になると、バルザックをはじめ各作家が、イズムの必然性から性の分析と解剖を露骨に、また鋭く行っている。これはドイツ、イギリスにおいても同様で、文学史でみる限り、シュニッツラーの『輪舞』（1900）を主とする劇作品は、18世紀末のボーマルシェの『フィガロの結婚』（1781）とともに舞台に艶笑(えんしょう)的性格を横溢(おういつ)させている。なお、近代イギリスのD・H・ローレンスは、代表作『チャタレイ夫人の恋人』（1928）の、思いきった赤裸々な性描写で話題をまいたが、その硬質的文体と作者の誠実さとのゆえに高い文学性を失っていない。

［佐藤輝夫］

出典　小学館　日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)について　情報 | 凡例

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