二代目荻江露友考

抄録

Royu was the name of several generations of iemoto who transmitted the musical genre of Ogie-bushi. Much remains obscure about Royu, but a search through the Kansei choshu shokafu, a genealogy compiled in 1812 by the Tokugawa bakufu, brings to light some important information regarding Ogie Royu II. This paper is a report on these findings.
One of the most important documents concerning Ogie Royu II is the Kisenshi ni takusuru kotoba, a deed of transfer written in 1847 by someone named “Arita”. This man claims to be the younger brother of Royu II. Kisenshi ni takusuru kotoba stems from the time that Ogie Royu III was granted the name “Royu.” From this record one learns the years of the second Royu's birth and death, and his real name. Royu II was a warrior named Arita Eikitsu (Yasutaka). He was born in 1727 and died in 1795. He entrusted the position of family head to his younger brother and took on the artist's name of Royu II. At the time he received this name, the Royu I changed his name to Tairin.
According to the Kansei choshu shokafu, however, Eikitsu died in 1789. Eikitsu retired from public office after the first Royu's death in 1788. According to the Kansei choshu shokafu, it was not Eikitsu, but rather Eikitsu's older brother Mokitsu (Yasuhisa) who died in 1795. Mokitsu retired from public office in 1777 and accepted his younger brother as an adopted child in order to allow Eikitsu to assume the family headship. This last fact corresponds to the record found in Kinsenshi ni takusuru kotoba. From the above information it thus becomes obvious that Royu II was not Arita Eikitsu, but rather Eikitsu's older brother Mokitsu.
Who was, then, the “Arita” and “younger brother” of Royu II who appears in the Kisenshi ni takusuru kotoba? In the Kansei choshu shokafu Mokitsu is listed as having only one younger brother, Eikitsu. Thus “Arita” could not have been Mokitsu's younger brother. In the Kisenshi ni takusuru kotoba, “Arita” states that he is 81 years old. “Arita”'s age differs from the age of Mokitsu's grandchild Yasunao by only one year. Thus it is possible that “Arita, ” the author of Kisenshi ni takusuru Kotoba is none other than Yasunao. It remains unclear, however, why Yasunao would call himself the “younger brother” of Mokitsu, or why he wrote this deed of transfer.
According to the Rakusho tosei mitate sanpuku-tsui, a record dating from 1780, Royu II did not have much success. In fact, as can be learned from Yanagisawa Nobutoki's En'yu nikki, Royu I continued to be called “Royu” even after he had officially changed his name to Tairin. No compositions of Royu II have been transmitted. It appears, then, that Royu II took a back seat to the first Royu's extraordinary activities.
From the above mentioned documents the outlines of the history of the first few generations of Royu can be reconstructed. More research is necessary, however, on the context in which the Kisenshi ni takusuru kotoba was written.