Disease Story - Disease Story

A picture scroll that collects stories of strange diseases and maimings from various countries. Each section is composed of a simple narrative text accompanied by a single illustration. There are 21 sections remaining, including the 17 sections in one volume that were passed down to the Sekido family of Aichi, and four sections that are thought to have separated from the same volume at an early stage. Currently, each section is separated and is held in various houses, including the nine held by the Agency for Cultural Affairs. The contents include a dimorphic man, a woman with bad breath, a woman with cholera, men and women with lice, a man with many holes in his buttocks, a man with eye disease, a man with loose teeth, a man with a small tongue, a man with cold (all designated national treasures by the Agency for Cultural Affairs), a man who defecates from his mouth, a man with a bad sleep pattern, a woman with a birthmark on her face, a woman who cannot sleep, a father and son with black noses, a dwarf, a hunchbacked beggar, a man with a fever, an albino woman, a woman with bird's eye disease, an obese woman, and acupuncture treatments, and all of them vividly depict the conditions of people suffering from illness and scenes of dubious treatment. His precise depictions, sometimes with a touch of satire or humor, vividly portray the customs of the time. In particular, his depictions of people, using free and vigorous lines, seem to convey the excellent brushwork of the professional painters of the time.

In addition to this, other copies have been handed down, and when combined, they broadly depict the suffering of humans, such as birth, aging, sickness, and death. Therefore, some believe that the Byō-sōshi originally depicted the human path, one of the six paths, and that it is part of a series of Rokudō-e (pictures of the six paths) along with the similarly shaped Jigoku-sōshi and Gaki-sōshi. Judging from the style of the painting, the work is thought to have been created between the end of the Heian period and the beginning of the Kamakura period (the second half of the 12th century), like the others.

[Yasushi Murashige]

"Shigemi Komatsu (ed.), "Japanese Picture Scroll Collection 7: Hungry Ghost Stories, Hell Stories, Sick Stories, and Other Stories" (1977, Chuokoron-Shinsha)

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

諸国の奇病や不具などの話を集めた絵巻。各段とも説話風の簡単な詞書(ことばがき)に絵を一図添えて構成される。愛知・関戸(せきど)家に伝わった一巻17段と、同巻から早くに分かれたと思われる4段を加えた21段分が残り、現在は各段ごとに分断され、文化庁の9図をはじめ諸家に分蔵されている。その内容は、二形(ふたなり)の男、口臭の女、霍乱(かくらん)の女、毛虱(けじらみ)の男女、尻(しり)に穴多き男、眼病の男、歯の揺らぐ男、小舌の男、風病の男（以上、文化庁・国宝）、口より屎(しと)する男、眠り癖のある男、顔にあざのある女、不眠の女、鼻黒の親子、侏儒(しゅじゅ)、せむしの乞食(こじき)法師、熱病の男、白子(しらこ)の女、鳥眼(とりめ)の女、肥満の女、鍼(はり)治療で、いずれも病苦に悩む人々のありさまや、いかがわしい治療の光景が赤裸々にとらえられる。その的確な描写はときに風刺や諧謔(かいぎゃく)味を交えて、当時の風俗をも生き生きと描き表している。ことに自由で闊達(かったつ)な描線を駆使した人物表現は、この時代の専門絵師の優れた筆技を伝えるものと思われる。

　なおこのほかにも別種の模本が伝わり、それらをあわせると、広く人間の生老病死といった苦相が扱われている。したがって「病草紙」はもともと六道のうちの人道を描いたもので、類似の形態をもつ「地獄草紙」や「餓鬼草紙」とともに一連の六道絵と解する説も存する。制作時期も、画風から推して、これらと同じく平安末期から鎌倉初期（12世紀後半）と考えられる。

［村重　寧］

『小松茂美編『日本絵巻大成7　餓鬼草紙・地獄草紙・病草紙他』（1977・中央公論社）』

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