The Tale of the House of the Cat - The Tale of the House of the Cat

A story from the end of the Heian period. Author unknown. There is "Ko Torikaebaya" and its revised version "Ima Torikaebaya", the former of which has been lost and only the latter, which is thought to have been written by a woman, has been passed down. The protagonists are the son and daughter of a certain Gon Dainagon (Gon Dainagon) born out of a different mother, and the story unfolds with the daughter at the center. The brother had a feminine personality and the sister a masculine personality, so the father wanted to "Torikaebaya" (swap) the two, hence the title of the story. After that, the parents raised the brother dressed as a woman and the sister as a man, but as a result, they faced a strange fate after they became adults. However, the curse of the Tengu (a long-nosed goblin), which had been the cause of this, was lifted, and the two exchanged clothes and returned to their natural selves, and the brother became the Left Minister of State and the sister became the Empress from the position of Naishi no Kami, and the story ended happily. Restricted by the story's structure of sexual perversion, homosexuality and heterosexuality intertwine, and sexual scenes abound, but the depictions themselves are not overly explicit, adhering to the restraints of suggestive court tales. There is also emphasis on love between one's blood relatives and family, and there is a strong plot of success and grandeur, as well as a Buddhist sense of destiny. Compared to extant versions, older versions appear to have been markedly more bizarre and grotesque. Due to this uniqueness, it does not appear to have been widely welcomed by ordinary female readers, and apart from some traces of influence in works such as "Ariake no Wakare" from the very end of the Heian period, it has had little influence on later generations. Only a considerable number of copies from the early modern period have been handed down, and there are no woodblock copies.

[Gen'ei Imai]

"A Study of Torikaebaya Monogatari, Annotated Edition and Commentary Edition, by Hiromichi Suzuki (1973, Kasama Shoin)" ▽ "Torikaebaya Monogatari, translated and annotated by Hiroshi Kuwahara, 4 volumes (Kodansha Academic Library)" ▽ "Appreciation of Japanese Classical Literature 12, Tsutsumi Chunagon Monogatari and Torikaebaya Monogatari, by Eiichi Mitani and Gen'ei Imai (1976, Kadokawa Shoten)"

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

平安末期の物語。作者不明。「古(こ)とりかへばや」と、それを改作した「今(いま)とりかへばや」とがあり、前者は散逸して、女性の手になるらしい後者だけが伝わっている。さる権大納言(ごんだいなごん)の異腹の息子と娘とが主人公で、とくに娘が中心となって物語は展開する。兄妹のうち、兄のほうは女のよう、妹のほうは男のような性格だったので、父は2人を「とりかへばや」（取り替えっこしたい）と思ったというところから編名がついた。その後も両親はそれぞれ兄に女装、妹に男装をさせて育てるが、成人後そのために数奇な運命をたどることになる。しかしやがて、その因であった天狗(てんぐ)の祟(たた)りが解けて、2人は衣服を交換して自然な姿に戻り、兄は左大臣関白に、妹は尚侍(ないしのかみ)から中宮となって、めでたく幕となる。性の倒錯という物語の骨格に規制されて、同性愛、異性愛が交錯し、セクシュアルな局面が多出するが、しかし描写自体はさほど露骨ではなく、暗示的な王朝物語の節度を守っている。また肉親や家族愛も強調され、栄華立身の筋立てや、仏教的宿命観も強い。古本は現存本に比して、格段に怪奇や猟奇趣味が濃厚だったらしい。その特異性のため、一般女性読者に広く歓迎されることはなかったようで、平安最末期の『有明(ありあけ)のわかれ』などに多少の影響の跡がみられるほかは、後代に与えた影響はむしろ少ない。伝本としては、近世以降の写本のみ相当数伝わり、板本はない。

［今井源衛］

『鈴木弘道著『とりかへばや物語の研究　校注編・解題編』（1973・笠間書院）』▽『桑原博史訳注『とりかへばや物語』全4冊（講談社学術文庫）』▽『三谷栄一・今井源衛著『鑑賞日本古典文学12　堤中納言物語・とりかへばや物語』（1976・角川書店）』

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