Shuten Doji - Shuten Doji

Japanese: 酒呑童子 - しゅてんどうじ

During the reign of Emperor Ichijo (986-1011), a demon king built a castle on Mt. Oe (the main peak of the Tango Mountains in northwest Kyoto Prefecture) and threatened Heian-kyo. The original form of this legend is thought to have been created during the Nanboku-cho period, and the oldest surviving picture scroll (owned by the Itsuo Museum of Art) is the "Oeyama Ekotoba" from the late 14th century. It later became widely known as a subject for Noh plays and Otogi-zoshi, and in the early modern period, Kabuki, Ningyo-joruri, and Ukiyo-e. According to Shibukawa's version of "Shuten-doji," the boy was born in Echigo (Niigata Prefecture) and became a boy at a mountain temple, but killed a priest and ran away, ending up at Mt. Oe in Tango Province. There are different versions about his birth, such as that he was a beautiful child of Mt. Togakushi, but when he tried to burn a love letter he had received, he was engulfed in smoke and turned into a demon ("Oeyama Emaki", Kokujoji Temple possession), or that he was the son of Yamata no Orochi (Ibuki Daimyojin = mountain god), and entered Mt. Hiei as a child, but the demon mask he wore during a festival stuck to his flesh and he could not remove it, and he turned into a demon ("Shuten-doji", Nara picture book, formerly owned by Akagi Bunko). In this respect, he has the attribute of being a child of a god, just like Sakata Kintoki (Kintoki), who later defeated Shuten-doji. After that, Shuten-doji kidnapped people one after another in the capital, and Minamoto no Yorimitsu was ordered by imperial decree to defeat the demon. Yorimitsu headed for Mt. Oe with Sakata, Watanabe Tsuna, and the other four heavenly kings, as well as Fujiwara no Yasumasa and others. Disguised as ascetics from Haguro, Yorimitsu and his men reached the "Iron Palace" and were welcomed by the boy. When the boys become drunk from the poisoned sake given to them by the gods, he puts on the armor and helmet he had been hiding and, with the help of the gods of the three shrines of Sumiyoshi, Hachiman, and Kumano, finally cuts off the boy's head. He then defeats all of the demons under Ibaraki-doji and his subordinates, and returns in triumph to the capital with the kidnapped princesses. However, this Shuten-doji is not just an entity that disturbs the peace of Kyoto. As the son of the gods, he is a symbol of another "order" = "anti-order" that opposes the royal authority and "order" of Kyoto. Therefore, it was inevitable that he would be defeated by Sakata Kintoki and others who stood on the side of "order" by imperial decree. In other words, the demon-slaying tales represented by Shuten-doji are nothing but royal tales that strengthen the legitimacy of royal authority as the anti-"anti-order" = "order." <References> Satake Akihiro, Shuten-doji Ibun, Takahashi Masaaki, The Birth of Shuten-doji

(Kazuhiko Komatsu)

Source: Asahi Japanese Historical Biography: Asahi Shimbun Publications Inc. About Asahi Japanese Historical Biography

Japanese:

一条天皇のころ(986～1011)大江山(京都府北西部丹後山地の主峰)に城を構え平安京を脅かしたという鬼王。この説話の原型は南北朝時代には成立していたと考えられ,14世紀後半の『大江山絵詞』が現存する最古の絵巻(逸翁美術館所蔵)とされている。その後,謡曲や御伽草子,また近世に至り歌舞伎や人形浄瑠璃,浮世絵の題材として広く知られるようになった。渋川版『酒呑童子』によれば,童子は越後(新潟県)に生まれ,山寺の稚児となったが法師を殺して出奔し,丹後国大江山にたどり着く。出生については,戸隠山の申し子で美貌の持ち主であったが,もらった恋文を焼き捨てようとして上がった煙に巻かれ鬼に変じてしまった(『大江山絵巻』国上寺所蔵),あるいはヤマタノオロチ(伊吹大明神=山の神)の子で比叡山に児として入ったが,祭礼のときにかぶった鬼の面が肉に吸い付いて取れなくなり,そのまま鬼になってしまった(奈良絵本『酒呑童子』赤木文庫旧蔵)などの異伝がある。この点で,のちに酒呑童子を退治する坂田金時(公時)と同じく神の申し子という属性を持つ。その後,都では酒呑童子による人さらいが相次ぎ,源頼光に鬼退治の勅命が下る。頼光は坂田,渡辺綱ら四天王と藤原保昌らを率い,大江山へと向かう。羽黒の行者を装った頼光らは「鉄の御所」にたどり着き童子の歓待を受ける。神から授けられた毒酒により童子らが酔いつぶれたのを見計らって,隠していた鎧兜に身を固め,住吉・八幡・熊野の三社の神々の力を借りてついに童子の首を切り落とす。さらに茨城童子ら配下の鬼たちも残らず退治し,さらわれていた姫君たちを連れて都に凱旋する。だが,この酒呑童子は京の治安を乱すだけの存在ではない。神の申し子として京の王権,京の「秩序」とは対立する,もうひとつの「秩序」=「反秩序」を象徴する存在である。それゆえ勅令によって,「秩序」の側に立つ申し子である坂田金時らに退治される必然性があった。つまり,酒呑童子に代表される鬼退治譚は反「反秩序」=「秩序」としての,王権の正統性を強化する王権説話にほかならないのである。<参考文献>佐竹昭広『酒呑童子異聞』,高橋昌明『酒呑童子の誕生』

(小松和彦)

出典　朝日日本歴史人物事典：（株）朝日新聞出版朝日日本歴史人物事典について　情報

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