近世期における「正成の妻」像の変容

『太平記』に登場する正成は、智仁勇の三徳を兼備した武将で、天皇のために命を捧げた英雄として広く知られているが、近世期以降はその教訓的な側面が正成伝説の普及を支える肝要な要素となっていく。 　　『太平記』において正行の母は、父正成の戦死を悲しみ自ら命を絶とうとする正行を諌め、正成の遺訓の意味を再度教え諭す。このエピソードが端緒となり、その後正成の妻は良妻賢母として顕彰されていくことになる。 　　一方、近世前期に流行した「太平記読み」のテクストであった『理尽鈔』は、兵学中心の合戦談という性格から、正成の妻が正行に父の遺訓を教え諭す場面を省略し、その代わりに正成の首をめぐって足利直義と楠家の家臣間で繰り広げられた駆け引きに関するエピソードを挿入している。これは、合戦談の中では女性の存在が副次的にしか認識されないことから、『太平記』における正成の妻の情緒性豊かな描写が省略された結果と見られる。 　　このような『理尽鈔』における扱いとは別に、正成の妻は近世の早い時期から啓蒙目的の女訓書に登場している。仮名草子女訓書『本朝女鑑』では、『太平記』原典の正成の妻に関するエピソードが簡略な形で引かれており教訓を主眼とする女訓書の性質に即して、母として息子の誤りを戒める内容が中心になっている。 　　さらに、時代浄瑠璃においてはそれ以前とはやや異なる正成の妻のイメージが形成される。近松門左衛門の『吉野都女楠』において、正成の妻「菊水」は従来と同様に夫の遺志を継ぎ、息子を訓戒する良妻賢母として登場するが、その上に大力という性質をも兼ね備えた逞しい女性として描かれる。ここでは、男性のために自己を犠牲にする時代浄瑠璃の典型的な女性とは異なる、戦乱という苦難を生き抜く強い女性像が正成の妻に付与されていると言える。 　　一方、西沢一風・田中千柳の『南北軍問答』においては新しい趣向が設定され、正成の妻は女色に溺れる正行を訓戒する。正行の誤った行動を戒めるという点では、『太平記』と軌を一にするものの、正行が好色者として描かれる点に加えて、「泣男」杉本佐兵衛が正成の妻に代わって訓戒の内容を伝えるという点が新しい構想となっている。 　　このように、正成の妻は『太平記』から時代浄瑠璃に至るまで、良妻賢母としてのイメージを保ちながらも、その上に新たな趣向を取り入れつつ受容されていくことになる。

As he appears in the Taiheiki, Kusunoki Masashige is a military official who had a combination of the three virtues of wisdom, benevolence, and valor, and he is broadly known as a medieval hero who gave his life for the Emperor. After the passing of the Edo era, the instructive aspect of Kusunoki Masashige came to be emphasized, and this was the primary reason for dissemination of his legend. In the Taiheiki, the wife of Masashige persuades their son Masatsura, who is distraught over the death on the battlefield of his father, not to kill himself by reminding him of the meaning of the instruction which Masashige had left behind. With this episode as starting point, the wife of Masashige afterward became known to society as, in the Meiji-era phrase, “a good wife and wise mother.” However, in the Rijinshō, a retelling of the Taiheiki tales that was popular in the first half of the Edo era, the text treating Masashige’s legend consists mainly of war talk and military science. It omits the scene in which the wife of Masashige taught her son the dying injunctions of his father and instead inserts the episode about the confrontation between the enemy camp and the members of Masashige’s household over the treatment of Masashige’s severed head. This substitution for the extensive description of Masashige’s wife in the Taiheiki is seen as an example of the relegation of the existence of females to secondary position when the main subject is war talk. In contrast to the Rijinshō, the wife of Masashige appeared for the purpose of edification in the lesson books of the early Edo period addressed to women. In the instruction for women, Honchō jokan, the episode about the wife of Masashige in the original text of the Taiheiki is quoted in simplified form to suit the nature of instruction for women, the major purpose of which was to teach the example of a mother reasoning with her son to correct his wrongs. In the jidai jōruri genre, the image of the wife of Masashige is formed a little differently. In Chikamatsu Monzaemon’s Yoshino miyako onna Kusunoki, the wife of Masashige appears as in previous versions as a good wife and wise mother who disciplines her son to succeed to the legacy of her deceased husband, but in addition she is described as a sturdily built woman with physical strength and a strong character. Here, unlike the typical woman who sacrifices herself for a man in the jidai jōruri genre, the image of a strong woman who overcomes the troubles of war is granted to the wife of Masashige. In another example of this genre, Nanboku ikusa mondō, the authors, Nishizawa Ippû and Tanaka Senryû, added a new feature. In their account, the wife of Masashige preaches at the son for indulging in sex with women. The point at which she preaches at him for his wrongdoing is the same as in the Taiheiki. But in addition to the description of the son as a womanizer, there is another change: It is the servant Nakiotoko who delivers the admonition on behalf of the wife of Masashige. This can be said to be a new conception. In short, although the wife of Masashige maintained the image of good wife and wise mother from the medieval Taiheiki through the early modern jidai jōruri genre, over time new elements were added to the image and accepted.