イッケ伝承史のなかの墓標と過去帳

――文字をめぐる想像と実践――

抄録

  Today, in Japanese villages, residents can see the accumulation of records which tell their long history with no trouble. For example, Bohyo (gravestones built and managed by each household) and Kakocho (death registers written by Buddhist priests) record much information of the dead, such as posthumous Buddhist names and the year of a person's death, by some characters.

  This paper focuses on people's sense of values concerning Bohyo and Kakocho, based on the fieldwork in Mikajimahorinouchi, Tokorozawa City, located in the Sayama Hills of Saitama Prefecture. The society in Horinouchi is characterized by Ikke, a group of families having the same surname and origin. Members in Ikke families often have much interest in Bohyo and Kakocho. Here I discuss the following problems: How was a strong sense of values formed in the history of this village? and How are such records given their function?

  This paper shows the important role of bohyo and Kakocho in residents consciousness. They are looked at as the evidence of the considerable age of the family, and are expected to explain their vague genealogy. These values were probably established after the Meiji Period, in which the Ikke groups were finally constructed and people began to have interest in their genealogy.

  Furthermore, we can find interestihg phenomena in the function of Bohyo and Kakocho. That is, people overestimate both records and put too much confidence in its ability, as if the records could definitely answer difficult questions about their unclear history. The sense of value is formed in a distorted and excessive way, whether or not people can actually read sufficient meaning about genealogy from the characters on Kakocho and bohyo.