藤原佐理書状　去夏帖　について―榑の単位は材か村か―

In this article Miss Tamura studies minutely the Kyo-ka Jō, one of the famous letters in the excellent handwriting of FUJIWARA no Sari (or Sukemasa) (944–998), counted among the “San (3) Seki” Three Best Calligraphers of the middle Heian Period. She endeavours to interpret the text of the letter as correctly as possible. Not a few false interpretations hitherto believed to be true are corrected. To mention some among them : (1) In this letter under date of “25th day of the 10th month,” Sari writes “Kyo-ka (literally: Passed-summer) I moved from my house.” Many commentators interpret kyo-ka by “the summer of last year.” Miss Tamura, however, citing convincing examples from old records, proves that kyo-ka means “this last summer,” and that, consequently, the “kyo-ka” written in the 10th month (the first month of winter under the lunar calendar) is no other than the summer of this current year. This correction is of great consequence, for it leads to the difference of one full year in the treatment not only of kyo-ka but also of “kyo-shun” (passed-spring) and of “kyo-shū” (passed-autumn) found in many documents and records. (2) Sari was eager to obtain “two thousand 村 of kure timber” to repair his dilapidated house with. This Chinese character for the unit of kure timber, seen not only in this letter of Sari's but also in other old documents and books, is taken for 材 (zai) by almost all students including specialists in architectural history, probably because 材, the prime meaning of which is ‘timber,’ seems more suitable for kure. In Sari's autograph and original letter, however, the character in question is written clearly in the form of 村 not of 材. Moreover, Miss Tamura's thoroughgoing examination of the Shōsōin documents of the Nara Period (8th century) in which the character appears very often, ascertains it is undeniably 村. To our utter astonishment, students have overlooked the mention of “村” as the unit of kure timber in the I-Ro-Ha Ji-rui-shō (late 12th century,) one of the most noted old dictionaries of Japan. The next thing to which we should pay attention is the pronunciation of the character “村” While 村 meaning “village” is read as “son,” the above-mentioned I-Ro-Ha Dictionary tells us that 村 meaning the unit of kure timber is read as “sun.” This reminds us of another irregular pronunciation, that is, 寸, a unit of length, is likewise read as “sun,” deviating from the correct pronunciation “son.” As these two characters, the unit of kure timber and the unit of length, are both connected with architecture, Miss Tamura supposes the two units, 寸 and 村, together with the irregular pronunciation common to them, were adopted not directly from China but by way of Korea in company with the architectural technique which was no doubt introduced from Korea into Japan in ancient times.