〈芸道物〉の時代

―「残菊物語」を中心として―

抄録

Based on the true story of kabuki actor ONOE Kikunosuke II, MURAMATSU Shôfû's novel The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum (1937) became more publically known after being made into a film by director MIZOGUCHI Kenji, as well as a play in the New School style. During the few years around 1935, stories about performers and others involved in classical theater and their devotion to “the way of art (geidô),” were reproduced in many dramas and films. In this article, I examine The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum as a representative of these “works of art (geidômono).”

In its acceptance in plays and films, “art” was transformed into a world with values more important than any other thing. The stories came to be controlled by a value system that made devotion and sacrifice of oneself to “the way of art” as an act of nobility. The concept of “the way of art” had existed in Japan for a long time, but had not always required such a strong spirit of self-sacrificial dedication. This view towards “the way of art” was characteristic of the period, and in it one can find a certain type of complicity with emperorcentric nationalism.