桃源と地獄 : 風流小説としての『草枕』

機関リポジトリ Web Site

書誌事項

タイトル別名
  • トウゲン ト ジゴク フウリュウ ショウセツ ト シテ ノ クサマクラ
  • PARADISE AND HELL : KUSAMAKURA, PURSUIT OF A FURYU WORLD

この論文をさがす

抄録

In 1897, Kinnosuke Natsume (Soseki) made a ten-day visit to Oama Hot Springs near Kumamoto. The experience became the basis of one of Soseki's earlier works, Kusamakura (1906). In this work, a young artist goes to the rustic hot springs to escape the common world that embraces Westernization. While staying at the inn, the young artist ponders over the meaning of ideal beauty, and is pushed about by the mysterious daughter of the inn's owner. Through these events, Soseki develops an argument for the relationship between the furyu ideal and reality. The work begins with a spring scene of a lark singing among rape blossom fields that spread as far as the eye can see. Time passes slowly, almost as if it has come to a stand still, and interaction with the humorous Buddhist priest and barber make the hot springs a Shangri-La. The young artist blends into this calm rhythm, practically on the border of losing himself; however, he cannot help but analyze this border. Next, the heroine Nami appears. She is strong, intelligent, and sensitive, and she provokes and makes fun of men. She is the same type of "new woman" as Fujio in Gubijinso and Mine in Sanshiro. However, in this world of Shangri-La, Nami is at once a woman of reality and a woman of myth - Ophelia of the Nagara Maiden. As a result, the young artist is thrown about by Nami's ability to transform herself from a nymph to a femme fatale, and we are presented with the image of paradise and hell being back-to-back. At the end of the story, the young artist leaves this Shangri-La together with Nami and the others to return to the rest of the world, where Westernization is taking place. There is no choice but to return to reality. However, in the final scene, Nami sees her ex-husband craning his head out the window as the train departs. At that moment, Nami's expression is filled with pity, and the young artist who observes this feels he has finally seen what he was searching for. It is the moment when the furyu world and world of human affairs meet for an instant.

This borderline is the final destination that Soseki reaches in this story.

収録刊行物

詳細情報 詳細情報について

問題の指摘

ページトップへ