<論説>柳田民俗学と東大新人会 : 大間知篤三を中心に

Abstract

一九二〇年代後半の学生社会運動を主導した東京帝大新人会の活動家の一部が運動離脱後、柳田国男の民俗学に傾倒した現象は、かつて民衆への洞察を欠いたことに対する彼等の自省から生じたとの位置づけがなされている。だが活動家時代、彼等の多くが福本主義を旺盛に摂取し、三〇年代以降は翼賛運動下でアジア主義に傾斜していく行程は、「山村生活調査」に見られる着実な民俗採集の積み重ねを基調とし、安直な他民族の習俗との比較や論断を許さない柳田の方法論との間に元々齟齬をきたす可能性を秘めていた。自らも新人会出身者であると同時に敗戦前、柳田の薫陶を最も受けた民俗学者の一人である大間知篤三が旧「解党派」の水野成夫、浅野晃等と国民思想研究所に於ける家族制度調査、『アジア問題講座』の編集を通して「民間伝承の会」とは別個の思想環境を維持し、戦後柳田から離れていく軌跡はそのことを示唆している。戦時下に行われた轗軻のマルクス主義者と柳田の交流は、柳田民俗学の包容力に寄せて取り上げられる以外に、「師とその弟子」という関係に於ける蕩藤を内包していたのである。

In the 1930's Yanagita Kunio 柳田國男 developed his own style of folk research and in 1935 established the Folk Society 民間伝承の会, which many leftists joined as a result of the thought control activities of the government. Some of these, who had been members of Todai Shinjinkai 東京帝大新人会, and who had been leaders in the students' social movement of the 1920's devoted themselves to Yanagita's folklore studies. It has been thought that they sought to develop their insight into the people and their native culture by studying Yanagita's work after their conversion from communism. However, at the level of their patterns of thought, there remained a remarkable inconsistency between Yanagita's inductive method, collecting pieces of folk vocabulary by fieldwork, and the ideas of most of the former Shinjinkai members, who had been fascinated by 'Fukumoto-ism' 福本主義 and expected the people to be directed by the elite. These latent differences became more apparent as they participated ideologically in Japanese aggression against other Asian countries and sought to persuade Yanagita to develop a systematic theory applicable to the whole of Asia. This strained relationship is particularly noticeable in the case of folklorist Omachi Tokuzo 大間知篤三, who had been the leader of Shinjinkai in the late 1920's. While Omachi was one of the most skilled in Yanagita's method, he was a member of the National Thought Research Institute 国民思想研究所, a facility for the protection of converts, at which he was engaged in research into the customs of Japanese families. Furthermore, in 1939 he accepted a post at the National University of Manchuria 満州建国大学, conducting investigations into minority groups in Manchuria until the end of the war. Under these circumstances, Omachi established his own methodology, by which the researcher can interpret folk phenomena structurally through intensive fieldwork. Thus, Yanagita's tolerance for leftists, and his 'teacher-pupil' relationship with former Shinjinkai members, hid a variety of complications.