A Historical consideration on "The culture of writing letters on wood" seen from the historical, regional characteristics of wooden documents on which an incantation for magical purposes was written

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 17K03087
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Japanese history
• Research Institution: Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties
• Principal Investigator: Yamamoto Takashi 独立行政法人国立文化財機構奈良文化財研究所, 都城発掘調査部, 室長 (00359449)
• Project Period (FY): 2017-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: 木簡 / 出土文字資料 / 符ろく / 物忌 / 蘇民将来 / 急々如律令 / 日本史

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study considers the Japanese-style characteristic of "The culture of writing letters on wood". The clue is collection of wooden documents on which an incantation for magical purposes was written (jufu mokkan), as a clue.
Research results are published "Corpus of texts on wooden documents on which an incantation for magical purposes was written (jufu mokkan) from Japan". This book is a collection of documents which collected jufu mokkan more than 1,000 points comprehensive. I wrote a short paper about historical development and classification of jufu mokkan, and presented basic research materials for jufu mokkan.

Free Research Field

日本古代史

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究において作成した『呪符木簡集成（稿）』は、宗教や祈りに関わる広義の呪符木簡を網羅的に収集した資料集で、1000点を超える資料の釈文（木簡に記された文字）を一覧することができた。平安時代後半以降の呪符には、定型化した表現がみられるものも多く、類例の蓄積は、かつて読めなかった文字をあらたに解読する手がかりとなりうる。日本の呪符木簡を内容別に網羅した資料集が完成したことで、既存釈文の再検討や、新出土資料の効率的な解読に資するであろう。