Heavenly wife - Tenninnyobō

A folk tale. One of the marriage tales that focuses on the marriage of an animal and a human male. A celestial maiden who descends from the heavens is taking off her clothes and bathing. The man who sees this hides her clothes. The celestial maiden, who has lost her clothes, is unable to fly in the sky. The celestial maiden becomes the man's wife and gives birth to a child. Later, the celestial maiden learns of the location of her clothes from a song sung by the child and returns to heaven. There are many similar stories that take the form of a "difficult groom" and are the origin story of Tanabata. The man grows a mysterious plant that grows to the sky and goes to his wife in heaven. His wife's father gives him a difficult task. With his wife's advice, he completes the task, but in the end, he cuts a melon incorrectly and the water that flows out of the melon becomes the Milky Way. The celestial maiden and the man can only meet once a year on July 7th. The celestial maiden is said to be the star Weaver Maiden, and the man is the star Altair.

It has long been known as the Hagoromo Legend, and since the Nara period, many similar stories have been recorded in numerous documents. Most take the form of legends, and many are tales about the origins of clan ancestors or gods. The Tale of Amewakahiko, from the Monogatari Zoushi, has a heavenly man and a human woman, reversing the genders of the characters, but is a similar story to "The Celestial Wife," which explains the origins of Tanabata. Similar stories linked to Tanabata were developed in China, and these stories were influenced by it. Similar stories are found all over the world, but in many cases the celestial maiden takes the form of a bird such as a swan, and it was also called the "White Swan Maiden Legend." The Japanese "The Crane Wife" is an example of the white bird in "The Celestial Wife." Similar stories with the element of "Difficult Groom" can be found among the Ainu people, Korea, China, Indonesia, and others, but in parallel with this, from East Asia to Europe, similar stories with the element of "Difficult Wife" are distributed, in which a feudal lord sees a beautiful wife and falls in love with her unrequitedly, imposing difficult tasks on her husband. In Japan, "Tsuru Nyobo" corresponds to this. This is probably an expression of the structure of old tales, which say that marriage with a person of a different species is fraught with difficulties.

[Yo Kojima]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

昔話。動物と人間の男子との結婚を主題にした婚姻譚(たん)の一つ。天の世界から降りてきた天女が、衣を脱いで水浴びをしている。それを見た男が衣を隠す。衣を失った天女は空を飛ぶことができない。天女は男の妻になり、子供を産む。のちに子供が歌っている歌で衣のありかを知り、天女は天に帰る。このあとが「難題婿」の形をとり、七夕(たなばた)の由来譚になっている類話も多い。天まで伸びる不思議な植物を育てて、男は天上の妻のところへ行く。妻の父親から難題を課せられる。妻の助言で果たすが、最後に瓜(うり)の切り方を誤り、瓜から流れ出した水が天の川になる。天女と男は7月7日に年に一度だけしか会えないことになる。天女は織女(しょくじょ)星、男は牽牛(けんぎゅう)星であるという。

　古くから羽衣伝説として知られ、奈良時代以来、数多くの文献にさまざまな類話が記録されている。おもに伝説の形式をとり、一族の先祖あるいは神の由来譚になっているものが多い。物語草子の『天稚彦(あめわかひこ)物語』は、天の男と人間の女で、人物の性が逆転しているが、七夕の由来を説く「天人女房」の類話である。七夕と結び付いた類話は中国で発達しており、これらはその影響を受けている。類話は世界的に分布しているが、天女がハクチョウなど鳥の形をとっている例が多く、「白鳥処女伝説」ともよばれた。日本の「鶴(つる)女房」は「天人女房」の白い鳥の例である。「難題婿」の要素を伴う類話は、アイヌ民族、朝鮮、中国、インドネシアなどにもあるが、これと並行して、東アジアからヨーロッパへかけて、美しい妻を見た領主が横恋慕して夫に難題を課す「難題女房」の要素を含む類話が分布している。日本では「鶴女房」がそれに該当する。これは、異類との結婚には困難が伴うとする昔話の構造の表れであろう。

［小島瓔］

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