The Illustration of a Kappa in Hiraga-Gennai’s <i>Nenashi-gusa</i>

Yoshida Tsukasa

doi:10.20815/kinseibungei.112.0_13

Bibliographic Information

Other Title

平賀源内『根南志具佐』のカッパ図
ヒラガゲンナイ『コンミナミシグサ』ノカッパズ

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Description

Nenashi-gusa (1763) is Hiraga-Gennai’s drama which was based on the death by drowning of Ogino-Yaegiri, an “oyama” kabuki actor. In the drama a kappa (a Japanese water goblin) plays an important part as a guide who sends Yaegiri to hell. There is an illustration of the kappa in the fifth volume, but very little has been said about it except in Teiri Nakamura’s Kappa-no-nihon-shi (1996). It is very likely that the author borrowed the illustration from Gotō-Rishun’s Zuikan-shashin (1757) with the aim of entertaining his acquaintances who must have noticed that it implicitly referred to the reported appearance of a kappa in the year before the publication of the drama. In addition to an analysis of the illustration, this article explores the structural similarity between Nenashi-gusa and its sequel, the probable influence of the author’s personal relations through herbal medicine on the formation of the drama, and so on.

Journal

Kinsei Bungei

Kinsei Bungei 112 (0), 13-26, 2020

Nihon kinsei bungaku kai (The Japanese Early Modern Literature Association)