Princess Chujo

Japanese: 中将姫 - ちゅうじょうひめ

A woman who is said to have been the initiator of the Taima Mandala. She became a nun and entered Taima-dera Temple (Kitakatsuragi District, Nara Prefecture), where she wove the mandala with the help of Amida Buddha and Kannon Bodhisattva, and is said to have attained salvation through her merit. The Kamakura period Taima-dera legend, "Taima-dera Ryuki," states that she was "the daughter of Yokohai Udaijin no Tadatoshi, the Minister of the Right, and was called Chujo," and there are legends that state she was Chujo no Tsubone or Chujo no Naishi, but in the Muromachi period, this was established as Chujohime, the daughter of Fujiwara Toyonari, and at the same time, a story detailing Chujohime's life story was added to the legend of the mandala. The Taima Mandala Commentary (1436), a text of mandala commentary, tells the story of Chujohime, who was born as the child of Hase Kannon, losing her mother, being hated and abandoned by her stepmother, eventually reuniting with her father Toyonari and entering the Imperial Palace, but realizing the impermanence of life just before he is to become the Empress, and entering Taima Temple. This story was illustrated in the Taima Mandala Engi Emaki (1532), and various sects of Pure Land Buddhism in the Middle Ages advocated Nembutsu through explanations of the illustrations. In particular, Shoku, the founder of the Seizan sect, is said to have written 10 volumes of the Taima Mandala Commentary, transcribing the mandala and disseminating it throughout the country. The use of the medieval narrative and storybook format of the stepchild's suffering and salvation in the picture interpretation is thought to be the result of superimposing and adapting the tale of Lady Vimalakirti's suffering and salvation by the Buddha from the "Amida Sutra," on which the Taima Mandala is based, onto Princess Chujohime. Stepchild tales were a form that was widely used in medieval temple and shrine legends, and soon a series of stories about Princess Chujohime were produced centering around this motif. Stories such as "Hibariyama" in the Noh play and "Chujohime no Honji" in the Otogi Zoshi dramatize in various ways the exploits of the warrior who saves the princess and his wife, as well as the encounter between the princess and her father, Toyonari, and have been passed down in the world of early modern performing arts such as the sermon-bushi "Chujohime Gohonji" and the old joruri "Chujohime no Gohonji." In this way, from the Middle Ages to the early modern period, the story of Princess Chujo was separated from the legend of Taima-dera Temple and transformed into the story of a woman named Princess Chujo, and was enjoyed by many people as a tale of suffering and salvation, becoming the prototype for creating new stories.

(Kazuhiko Komatsu)

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

Japanese:

当麻曼荼羅の発願者と伝えられる女性。尼となって当麻寺(奈良県北葛城郡)に入り,阿弥陀如来と観音菩薩の助けで曼荼羅を織りあげ,その功徳によって往生を遂げたという。鎌倉時代の当麻寺の縁起『当麻寺流記』には「横佩右大臣尹統息女字中将」とあり,中将局,中将内侍などと記す縁起もあるが,室町時代には藤原豊成の娘・中将姫という形に定着し,それとともに,中将姫の伝記を詳しく叙述する物語が曼荼羅の縁起に付加されるようになる。曼荼羅講説のテキストである『当麻曼荼羅疏』(1436)には,長谷観音の申し子として生まれた中将姫が母と死別し,継母に憎まれて捨てられ,やがて父の豊成と再会し,内裏に入るが,后に迎えられる直前に無常を悟って当麻寺に入る,という物語が記されている。これを絵画化したのが『当麻曼荼羅縁起絵巻』(1532)であり,中世浄土教各派は,絵解きなどにより念仏を唱導した。特に西山派の祖・証空は『当麻曼荼羅注』10巻を著し,曼荼羅を転写して全国に広めたといわれている。継子の受難と救済という中世の語り物や物語草子の形式が絵解きに用いられたのは,当麻曼荼羅が依拠する『観無量寿経』の韋提希夫人の受難と仏による救済の説話を,中将姫に重ね合わせて翻案した結果であると思われる。継子譚は中世の寺社縁起に広く用いられた形式であるが,やがてこのモチーフを中心にした中将姫の物語群が次々と生み出されるようになる。能の「雲雀山」,お伽草子の「中将姫の本地」などは,姫を助ける武士やその妻の活躍,父豊成と姫との出会いをさまざまな趣向で脚色し,説教節「中将姫御本地」,古浄瑠璃「中将姫之御本地」などの近世芸能の世界に受け継がれていく。このように,中世から近世にかけて中将姫の物語は,当麻寺の縁起譚から離脱し,中将姫というある女性の物語へと変貌し,苦難と救済の物語として多くの人々に享受され,新たな物語を生み出す祖型となっていったのである。<参考文献>元興寺文化財研究所『中将姫説話の調査研究報告書』

(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

<<: Abstract Expressionism

>>: Columnar crystallite