Saotome - Saotome

This refers to young women, especially those who work in rice planting. It is an old term along with ueme, and is also called sotome, satsukime, hanamusume, shiyotome, etc. Rice planting (transplanting seedlings) is the key to rice cultivation, and requires the work of many people to be completed all at once, so it has long been the main labor of women. In ancient times, rice planting was accompanied by a pre-celebration festival to welcome the rice god, and traces of this can still be seen today in the Hanataue and Otaue events and the Kanda rice planting ritual. Saotome play the leading role there as well, and they also play the same role in the performing arts of rice play and rice planting dance. The "sa" in saotome, like the "sa" in saori (beginning of rice planting), sanaburi (end of rice planting), sanae, and satsuki, is a word related to the "god of the fields," and the original meaning of saotome is thought to be a "holy maiden" who serves him. Particularly noteworthy is the legend that during rice planting, the young wife of the "master of the fields" was called uchisaotome and served as hirumamochi (food carriers for rice planting), and it is likely that these servants, hirumamochi and onari (foster women), were old forms of saotome, which eventually spread to the name of women who worked in rice planting. At the very least, the "sa" in saotome is not just a prefix. Rice planting women dressed in navy blue kasuri kimonos, red sashes, white hand towels and sugegasa hats, worked in groups singing lively rice planting songs, and traditionally formed groups called yui and tetsudai, completing rice planting at each household in turn. On the other hand, there have long been groups of rice planting women who went abroad to work, and they were called tabi sotome (traveling young girls) and often took place between regions with different rice planting seasons. Intermediaries such as soutome-yado (traveling women's lodges) and soutome mawashi (transportation workers) appeared in various regions to mediate between them.

[Toshimi Takeuchi]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

若い女、とくに田植働きの女をいう。植女(うえめ)と並ぶ古い用語で、ソウトメ、サツキ女、ハナムスメ、シヨトメなどともよぶ。田植（苗の移植）は稲作の要(かなめ)で、多数の働きで一挙に仕上げる必要があり、古くから女手が主力にもなっていた。また田植には田の神を迎えての予祝の祭りが古くは随伴したようで、花田植・大田植の行事や神田の田植神事にいまもその名残(なごり)をとどめる。早乙女はそこでも主役をつとめ、また田遊や田植踊の芸能でも同じ役割を演ずる。早乙女の「サ」はサオリ（田植初(はじ)め）、サナブリ（田植終(じま)い）、サナエ、サツキの「サ」と同じく「田の神」にかかわる語で、それに奉仕する「聖なる乙女」が早乙女の原義ともみられる。田植の際「田主(たあるじ)」の若い妻女をウチサオトメと称してヒルマモチ（田植の食事運び）の役をつとめたという伝承はとくに注目され、こうした奉仕役のヒルマモチ、オナリ（養い女）が早乙女の古い形で、やがて田植働きの女の呼び名にそれが広がったのであろう。少なくとも早乙女の「サ」は単なる接頭語ではない。田植女は紺絣(こんがすり)の着物、赤襷(あかだすき)、白手拭(しろてぬぐい)に菅笠(すげがさ)という晴れ姿で、田植唄(うた)もにぎやかに集団作業にあたり、ユイ、テツダイで仲間をつくり、家々の田植を順次済ませる形が以前は通例であった。一方、集団的な田植女の出稼ぎも古くからあって、旅早乙女(たびそうとめ)などとよばれ、田植時期の異なる地方の間に多く行われた。そしてその周旋にあたるソウトメ宿、ソウトメ廻(まわ)しなどの仲介業者も各地に生じていた。

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