Monkey show - Saru mawashi

Street performances are made by having monkeys perform tricks for money. They are called various names, such as sarumawashi (monkey dancing), saruhiki (monkey pulling), sarukai (monkey keeping), and sarudayu (monkey day performer). The belief that monkeys can cure horse illnesses was introduced from China, and monkeys were made to dance in stables until the early modern period. It is said that monkey trainers were placed in castle towns for this purpose. Sarumawashi was established as a performing art during the Kamakura period, as can be seen in the entry for 1245 in Azuma Kagami and in the picture scroll Yuzuunenbutsu Engi, which is said to have been completed around 1300 (Shoan 2). In the Middle Ages, the monkey trainer was counted as one of the Shichidomono (Seven Ways of Being), along with the Sarugaku (Sarugaku), the Aruki Shirabyōshi (Shirabyōshi), and the Hachitataki (Bachitataki). They were so-called Aruki itinerant entertainers, and were considered outcasts and non-human. In the early modern period, the monkey trainer became even more entertaining, and their numbers increased throughout the country. As lower-ranking diviners, they entered the residences of feudal lords and nobles, and while they maintained their professions of praying for stables and performing incantations to ward off epidemics, they also began to perform in theaters in the early modern period, arranging plays with combinations such as monkeys and horses, or monkeys and dogs. It was a highlight of street performances, as can be seen from its incorporation in the Kyogen play "Utsubozaru" and the Bunraku puppet theater play "Chikagoro Kawara no Tatehiki," but it rapidly disappeared after the Meiji period.

[Oda Koji]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

猿に芸をさせて金銭を得る大道芸。猿舞(さるまわ)し、猿曳(さるひき)、猿引き、猿飼(さるかい)、猿太夫(さるだゆう)などさまざまな呼称がある。猿が馬の病気を治すという信仰は中国伝来のもので、近世まで厩(うまや)で猿を舞わせるということが行われていた。そのために城下に猿回しを置いたという。猿回しが芸能として確立するのは鎌倉時代で、『吾妻鑑(あづまかがみ)』の寛元3年（1245）の条や、1300年（正安2）ごろに成立したといわれる絵巻『融通念仏縁起(ゆうずうねんぶつえんぎ)』などによって確かめられる。中世、猿飼は猿楽(さるがく)、アルキ白拍子(しらびょうし)、鉢叩(はちたたき)などとともに七道者(しちどうもの)の一つにあげられている。いわゆるアルキ渡世の芸人であり、非人として賤民(せんみん)視されていた。近世に入って猿回しはいっそう芸人化し、全国にその数を増しているが、下級神人として大名家や貴人の屋敷に参入し、厩の祈祷(きとう)や疫病退散の呪術(じゅじゅつ)を職能として保持しつつ、一方では猿と馬、猿と犬といった組合せで芝居を仕組んで、掛け小屋で興行されることも近世初頭から行われていた。狂言の『靭猿(うつぼざる)』や、人形浄瑠璃(じょうるり)の『近頃河原達引(ちかごろかわらのたてひき)』などにも取り入れられているのでもわかるように、大道芸の花形であったが、明治以後急速に姿を消した。

［織田紘二］

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