<論説>霊元天皇の奥と東福門院

Abstract

本稿では、霊元天皇在位時の奥について、天皇の「母」である東福門院の役割に注目し、幕府の動向にも留意して具体的に検討した。天皇幼年時の奥は、東福門院と三条西実教などが統括する体制であった。皇継をめぐって禁闕騒動が起こると、幕府と後水尾院・東福門院は奥の統制を強め、鷹司房子を入内させて皇継問題を整理するとともに、女院を中心に作成された掟書によって、伝奏や禁裏附が「御前」の情報を直接入手する体制が整えられた。しかし奥の争いや天皇の成人により女院の影響力が減退すると、その体制は形骸化していった。女院や後水尾院の没後、天皇は奥の再編成を進め、譲位にあたっては外戚の女中を禁裏奥に配置して院政の基盤としたのである。

In this article I examine the developments in the Inner Palace and female officials at the time of Emperor Reigen's accession to the throne, focusing on the role of Tofukumon'in, his mother-in-law, and also heeding the moves of the shogunal government. The Inner Palace during the period of the emperor's childhood was under the control of Tofukumon'in and Sanjonishi Sanenori. When the Inner Palace was thrown into turmoil over the imperial succession in an incident known as the Kinketsu Sodo (the disturbance over the absence of an imperial heir), Go-Mizuno'in, the emperor's father, and Tofukumon'in had Takatsukasa Fusako formally made empress after consultation with the shogunal authorities, and an intensification of issue of imperial succession would thereby be averted by simply waiting for her giving birth to a prince. In addition, Tofukumon'in was chiefly responsible for producing the rules to be followed by the female officials of the Inner Palace, and the buke tenso, the imperial courtier charged with managing communications between the court and the shogunal government, and the kinri-zuki (the samurai official dispatched by the shogunal authorities to oversee and protect the court) perfected a system that could directly grasp the movements of the emperor within the Inner Palace. However, struggles within the Inner Paiace were incessant, and when the influence of Tofukumon'in waned after the emperor reached maturity, the system grew rigid. After the deaths of Tofukumon'in and Go-Mizuno'in, the emperor proceeded with a re-organization of the Inner Palace, and on his abdication to his son Emperor Higashiyama, he installed in the Inner Palace of Emperor Higashiyama female officials who were his maternal relatives with whom he was closely associated in order that he could exercise a powerful influence on the Inner Palace even after he had left the throne.