Research on the Literary Domain and Cultural Dynamics of the Heike Monogatari from the Middle Ages to the Early Modern Period

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 19K13079
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Early-Career Scientists
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Basic Section 02010:Japanese literature-related
• Research Institution: Kyushu Sangyo University
• Principal Investigator: mori satoko 九州産業大学, 基礎教育センター, 准教授 (20615356)
• Project Period (FY): 2019-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 説話文学 / 平家物語 / 伝承文学 / 在地伝承 / 直談 / 縁起 / 信仰 / 芸能

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The aim of this study is a contemporaneous and historical comparison of The Tale of the Heike to other literary works sharing the same subject matter, and to research the circumstances by which literature concerning the Heike clan was created and distributed. Our initial objective was to survey the overall literary landscape of medieval and early modern Japan by focusing on female-centric stories in The Tale of The Heike as ideal examples. However, the COVID-19 pandemic forced us to greatly reduce the scope of the study, including domestic and foreign research, and therefore the study did not proceed as originally planned. Therefore, we opted to be flexible in our targets for analysis, and explored the development of stories peripheral to The Tale of The Heike building on past research, and then through research carried out after the lifting of pandemic restrictions, made discoveries based on new findings on the development of stories of Hotoke-gozen in the Hokuriku region.

Free Research Field

日本文学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

研究成果の学術的・社会的意義は、原典としての『平家物語』からは内容及び時代的に隔たった言説が、歴史事象を伝える文芸としてどのように形成されていくのか、その生成及び流布の様相の一端を明らかにしたことである。具体的には、本文の改変が施されている後出の『平家物語』と、平家にまつわる諸文芸として、特に梓弓や畠山といった周辺説話と、北陸における仏御前説話等に着目し、それぞれの生成・変容・享受の実態と作品相互の影響関係等を同時代的・通史的に捉えながら、生成及び流布の様相の一端を解明した。加えて、COVID-19蔓延以前に訪問したNYPLでの調査結果を公表し、活動を制限された学会・社会に寄与した。