竈神の象徴性 : 生と死の媒介者

抄録

In Japan the house is an internal space (culture) cut off from the outside world (nature). It is not only a dwelling place, but it also forms a microcosm composed of two categories front and back. The front part of a Japanese house is a light, clean, superior and formal (central) place in daily life, while the back part which is composed of a kitchen, toilet, bedrooms, store-rooms and stable is regarded as a dark, dirty, inferior and informal (peripheral) place. In the front rooms, usually called Dei (出居) or Omote (=front, 表), gods of famous local shrines and ancester-gods are worshipped by householders and regular priests. But, in the back rooms, on the other hand, Ebisu-Daikoku (=gods of good fortune, エビス・大黒), Ta-no-kami (=the field god, 田ノ神), Nando-gami (=god in Nando-room, 納戸神) and Kamado-gami(=the hearth deity, 竈神)are venerated by house-wives and wandering (inferior) priests. The both parts are sometimes further subdivided into two contrasting categories. For example, in the front side of the house, Shintoism (god) and Buddism (ancester) occupy opposing positions in ritual. The purpose of this paper is to consider symbolic functions and structures of private house deities (especially the hearth deity) worshipped in the back rooms, and to reconstruct part of the cosmology represented in folktales, legends and ritual around the hearth and its deity. The hearth is a symbol of the "family" itself and its deity plays an important role in guarding the family and life in general. In folktales and legends, the hearth deity is closely connected with sake (=wine) and gold. Sake is a sacred drink which facilitates communication with the other world (god) : however, this word also indicates a border or boundary. Gold signifies a complete rebirth as well as a precious metal as opposed to death and things dirty. Yet, the hearth deity can transform the negative (feces) into the positive (gold). This shows that it is a mediating bridge between two states (e. g. positive/negative, rich/poor, life and death.) Consequently, the hearth god resembles to a great degree a guardian god at the village boundary acting as a mediator between this world and the other. Generally speaking, house deities in the rear of the premises have negative characteristics darkness, ugliness, dificiency and imperfections (for instance, they are deaf, blind, bald, lame, one-legged or one-eyed) . Their negative aspect symbolizes a kind of "death" (otherness) and is an indispensable condition for a new and better world which is about to dawn for "negativized being" is entitled to occupy a whole place within the system. In folktales and various rites, the transition between life and death (opposite principles) is often made in the back section of the house, where the house quardian spirits live, appearing in the form of a dwarf, a little child or small animals (a snake. a mouse, or a fox etc) . The corn spirit (usually the paddy spirit) is also worshipped in the back side of the house which is also a special area for rebirth where the two principles of life/death, fire/water coexist, and they exchange places each other. The hearth deity as a mediator, for example, is characterized by the conflicting concepts of at once the fire god and the water god, the guardian god and the rough god (荒神), life and death. In this respect, it resemble the thunder god which is mediator between the sky and the earth. The thunder god rumbles when the seasons change, and at the time of birth and death. This god, which is thought to be a one-eyed god and smith-god, marks the crossing of boundaries between two different states.