Issunboshi - Issunboshi

A folk tale. One of the unusual birth stories that focuses on the adventures of a small child, or "little boy." It is characterized by the fact that the child later grows to a full-grown size through magical powers. Issun-boshi is a medieval name for a small person, and other names for the character include Issun-taro, Gobunjiro, and Mamezo. It has long been known from the story "Issun-boshi" in "Otogi-zoshi."

A childless couple living in Naniwa (Osaka) pray to Sumiyoshi Myojin Shrine and are blessed with a boy. He is called Issun-boshi (Issun-boshi) because he is only one inch tall. When he is about 12 or 13 years old, he makes a needle into a sword, travels up the river in a bowl-shaped boat with chopsticks as an oar, and goes to Kyoto, where he serves the Minister of Sanjo. When he is 16 years old, he falls in love with the 13-year-old daughter of the lord, and devises a plan to put a grain of rice in the princess's mouth while she is sleeping, and makes a fuss that the rice has been stolen. The Minister is deceived and orders the priest to kill the princess. On the way down to Naniwa with the princess, he is swept away by the wind and arrives at Onigashima (Ogre's Island). The priest is eaten by a demon, but monsters come out of his eyes and fly around, so the demon throws away his magic mallet and runs away. When he strikes the mallet, the priest becomes a full-fledged young man. The monk continues to mint gold and silver, travels to Kyoto, marries the princess and rises in rank.

Even after the Meiji period, it was rewritten and spread as a picture book and a reading material, and became one of the representative old tales of Japan, but there are also many old tales that seem to have been passed down orally through these books. Old tales generally share the same narrative format as "Issun-boshi," but there are also many old tales that use distinctive ways of telling that are not found in "Issun-boshi," such as a baby being born from a finger or shin, or being swallowed by a fish during an adventure, but then the fish being rescued by the parent.

"Issun-boshi" is a similar story to the old tale "Thumb Boy" found in Europe and South Asia, including Turkey, India, and Myanmar (Burma). Issun-boshi is swallowed by fish and demons, which corresponds to Thumb Boy being eaten by a cow and entering its stomach, but there are some similarities to "Tanishi Choja" in that he controls a horse. The Burmese "Thumb Boy" goes on an adventure like "Momotaro" to defeat the sun, which causes droughts, which suggests that Issun-boshi's defeat of the demons is related to Momotaro's defeat of the demons. There are similar stories in Japan that share details with the European "Thumb Boy," but it is highly likely that they were influenced by books. "Issun-boshi" is, so to speak, town literature, and was probably created based on a similar story that was known among the middle class in Kyoto and Osaka. The storybook "The Little Man's Tale," written around the same time, tells the story of a little man, only one shaku tall and eight inches wide, who falls in love with a young woman, marries her, and lives happily ever after. It is a simplified version of "Issun-boshi," making it seem like a realistic love story.

[Yo Kojima]

"Complete Collection of Japanese Classical Literature 36: Otogi-zoshi" (1974, Shogakukan) edited and translated by Takehiko Oshima

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

昔話。体の小さい子供、すなわち「小さ子」の冒険を主題にする異常誕生譚(たん)の一つ。のちに呪力(じゅりょく)により一人前の大きさになるところに特色がある。一寸法師は、小さい人を意味する中世的な呼称で、ほかに、一寸太郎、五分次郎、豆蔵などの名もある。古くから、『御伽草子(おとぎぞうし)』のなかの『一寸法師』によって知られている。

　難波(なにわ)（大坂）に住む子供のない夫婦が、住吉(すみよし)明神に祈願して男子を授かる。背丈が1寸なので、1寸法師とよぶ。12、13歳のころ、針を刀にし、椀(わん)の舟、箸(はし)の櫂(かい)で川を上り、京に行き、三条の宰相殿に仕える。16歳のとき、13歳の殿の姫を見そめ、一計を案じ、寝ている姫の口に米粒をつけ、米を盗まれたとさわぐ。だまされた宰相殿は、法師に姫を殺せと命じる。姫を連れて難波に下る途中、風に流され、鬼が島に着く。法師は鬼に食われるが、目から出ては飛び回るので、鬼は打出の小槌(こづち)を捨てて逃げる。小槌を打つと、法師は一人前の若者になる。法師はさらに金銀を打ち出して京に上り、姫と結婚して出世する。

　明治以後も、絵本や読み物に書き換えられて普及し、日本の代表的な昔話の一つになっているが、昔話には、それらの書物を通して口承化したと思われる事例も目につく。昔話も、だいたい、この『一寸法師』の物語形式と共通しているが、指や脛(すね)から小さ子が生まれたとか、冒険のとき、魚に飲まれるが、魚が親の手にわたって救われるとか、『一寸法師』にはない特徴のある語り方をする昔話も少なくない。

　「一寸法師」は、ヨーロッパをはじめ、トルコ、インド、ミャンマー（ビルマ）などの南アジアに分布している「親指小僧」の昔話の類話である。一寸法師が魚や鬼に飲み込まれるのは、親指小僧が牛に食われて腹の中に入るのにあたるが、馬を御すなど、むしろ「田螺(たにし)長者」と一致する部分もある。ビルマの「親指小僧」は、「桃太郎」のような冒険をして、日照りを起こす太陽を退治に行くが、これは、一寸法師の鬼征伐が桃太郎の鬼征伐と関係あることを暗示している。日本にも、ヨーロッパの「親指小僧」と細部まで共通している類話もあるが、書物からの影響である可能性が大きい。『一寸法師』はいわば町の文芸で、京や大坂あたりの市民階級の間で知られていた類話を基に、文学にしたものであろう。同時期の物語草子の『小男の草子』は、背丈1尺、幅8寸の小男が、上﨟(じょうろう)を見そめ、結婚して幸福になる物語で、『一寸法師』を現実的な恋愛談らしく、単純化した構想になっている。

［小島瓔］

『大島建彦校注・訳『日本古典文学全集36　御伽草子』（1974・小学館）』

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