Snake Bride - Hebimukoiri

This is a folk tale that belongs to the category of tales of interspecies marriage. It is divided into the Odamaki type and the Mizugoi type. In the Odamaki type, a man comes to the girl's house every night. The mother, suspicious, has a needle threaded with thread pierced into the hem of the man's kimono. The next morning, she follows the thread and finds a snake suffering in a cave, poisoned by the needle. There, she learns that the girl has conceived the snake and how to expel it. The girl then expels the snake's seed by drinking peach wine on March 3rd or taking a bath with iris on May 5th, and many of the stories end with an explanation of the origin of the seasonal festival. Stories of this genre appear in the Kojiki, Fudoki, and the Tale of the Heike, and it is possible to trace the evolution of these stories from records alone. There are also stories in which the child to be born is connected to the birth of a hero who will play an active role as the ancestor of a clan, such as Igarashi Kobunji of Echigo and Ogata Saburo of Bungo, and this is thought to be the older form in terms of origin. On the other hand, in the water-begging version, a father suffering from drought promises to give one of his three daughters as a bride to a snake that has brought water to his rice field. The youngest daughter follows the snake with 1,000 needles and a gourd, throws the gourd and needles into a pond, and if the snake sinks, she will become the bride. The snake tries to sink, but the needles pierce its body and it dies. This story strongly reflects the ancient belief in snakes that rule the water world. Also, although there are a few cases, there have been reports from Aomori and Ishikawa prefectures of a daughter becoming the snake's bride without killing the snake. The water-begging tale is thought to have influenced a similar folktale about a monkey marrying into a family.

[Junichi Nomura]

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

異類婚姻譚(たん)に属する昔話。苧環(おだまき)型と水乞(みずご)い型に分類される。苧環型は、娘のもとに毎夜男が通ってくる。不審に思った母親が男の着物の裾(すそ)に糸を通した針を刺させる。翌朝、糸をたどっていくと、洞穴の中で針の毒にあたった蛇が苦しんでいる。そこで、娘が蛇の子を宿したこと、その下ろし方などを聞き知る。そして、娘は、3月3日の桃酒を飲む、または5月5日の菖蒲(しょうぶ)湯に入って蛇の子種を下ろすというもので、話の結末で節供の由来を説く例が多い。この系統の話は『古事記』をはじめ「風土記(ふどき)」や『流布本平家物語』などにみえ、記録のうえからも変遷をたどることが可能である。生まれてくる子供が越後(えちご)の五十嵐(いがらし)小文治や豊後(ぶんご)の緒方三郎のように、一族の始祖として活躍する英雄誕生に結び付いて説かれる話もあり、発生的にはこのほうが古い形を残していると考えられている。一方、水乞い型は、干魃(かんばつ)に悩む父親が、田に水を入れてくれた蛇に3人娘の1人を嫁にやる約束をする。末娘が針千本と瓢箪(ひょうたん)を持って蛇について行き、池に瓢箪と針を投げ入れて、蛇にそれを沈めれば嫁になるという。蛇は沈めようとするが体に針が刺さり死亡する。この話は、古くから水界を支配する蛇の信仰を色濃く残存している。また、少数だが、蛇を殺さず娘がそのまま蛇の嫁になる例が青森県や石川県から報告されている。水乞い型は、これとよく似た「猿婿入り」の昔話に影響を及ぼしているとみられる。

［野村純一］

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