Milk brothers - Chikyoudai

A term used to indicate the relationship between people who are not blood siblings but who have been raised on the same person's milk. By drinking the same person's milk, they are aware that they have been given the same life force, and they have a particularly strong sense of solidarity; this is often the case for boys. It is noteworthy that there were many wet nurses of relatively high status during the Kamakura period, which may have been due to the connection to the wet nurse's family through breastfeeding, or the relationship of wet siblings being socially necessary. There is a ritualistic custom of breastfeeding that takes place immediately after birth. If the newborn baby is a boy, he is breastfed by the mother of a girl, and conversely, if the newborn baby is a girl, he is breastfed by the mother of a boy, and it was believed that by being involved with both sexes, the child would grow up to be stronger. Alternatively, there may have been a folk belief that required wet siblings of the opposite sex.

[Kamata Hisako]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

血縁の兄弟ではないが、同じ人の乳(ちち)で育てられた者同士の関係を示すことば。同一人の乳を飲むことによって、同一の生命力を与えられたと意識し、特別に強く連帯感をもつもので、男子の場合が多い。鎌倉時代、比較的身分の高い乳母(うば)が多いのは、授乳を媒介として乳母の一族と結合する、あるいは乳兄弟の関係が社会的に必要であったのか、注目すべきことである。授乳には出生直後行う儀礼的授乳慣習がある。生児が男なら女児をもつ母親、反対に女なら男児の母に乳をもらうもので、両性にかかわることによって、より強い子供に成育すると信じられたものである。あるいはさらに、異性の乳兄妹(ちきょうだい)を必要とした民間信仰があったのかもしれない。

［鎌田久子］

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