open access

https://doi.org/10.14943/b.edu.127.1

https://hdl.handle.net/2115/64070

Seminar : Understanding the Multicultural World : Dawn Songs in the East and the West

日本語

歴史的視点

2016-12-20

北海道大学大学院教育学研究院

北海道大学大学院教育学研究院紀要

127

1-8

As Arthur T. Hatto showed in his voluminous edition EOS （The Hague 1961）, the dawn song is a polygenetical phenomenon all over the world. The old Japanese version is called Kinuginu which today means that several layers are worn upon another: Under these layers a man and a woman spent the night together. The theme of these songs is, as everywhere else, the pain of and after departure. One of the features of Kinuginu is its historical character because this alba is not a social game but part of ritualized customs. Evidences from many medieval documents reveal that these songs were thoroughly related to reality, so that it is sometimes possible to reconstruct the process of who sent a poem to whom and when and how in court society. The sense that not only men but also women － virgins or not － do not hesitate to engage in a sexual relationship seems to have spread all over medieval Japan. Moreover, it is well known that this art of‘freedom’lingered until several decades ago in many regions of Japan. In this seminar, students from various backgrounds select a subject they are interested in, compare it with the Japanese equivalent and formulate a hypothesis that could add insight to both research fields.

紀要論文

Version of Record

1882-1669