<論説>北政所考 : 中世社会における公家女性 (特集 : 家族)

Abstract

鎌倉期以降の中世における公家女性については、平安期に比べ実態的解明が未だ不十分な状況にある。本稿では、中世における北政所(摂政・関白となった男性の正妻) への叙位およびその家政機関の実態を明らかにするとともに、摂関家における婚姻形態の変化が北政所という地位に及ぼした影響を跡づけた。これにより、鎌倉期～室町期の公家女性に関する研究の空白部分を多少とも明らかにするとともに、従来は「家」妻として評価されてきた北政所に、新たな角度から光を当てている。 摂政・関白(就任予定者を含む) の妻への叙位は、平安中期から鎌倉中期にかけては朝覲行幸などの勧賞として主に行われていたが、鎌倉中期の半ば頃からは、摂関の妻たること自体を理由として従三位に叙されるようになる。それに伴い、北政所の家政機関設置および従三位獲得は、基本的に夫の摂関就任に連動することとなった。北政所の政所始においては、政所のほか蔵人所・侍所も置かれ、自身の家政機関を有する北政所は、公家社会に対しては権門に準ずる役割も果たした。そして、婚姻形態の変化に伴い嫁取儀礼によって摂関家に迎えられるようになった妻は、将来北政所となる可能性が高まった。しかし、室町期には嫁取儀礼を経ることなく摂関家の「家」妻の役割を果たす女性も出現し、北政所の定義は揺らぎを見せることになる。 以上のような北政所の実態をふまえると、中世の北政所は「家」外部にある朝廷や公家社会との関係においても、その存在意義を有していたと考えられる。

Kitanomandokoro (北政所) was the title given to wives of regents(sessho 摂政) and chancellors (kanpaku関白). Previous Studies have pointed out that kitanomandokoro played key roles in their husbands' households (ie 家). In this paper, the author approaches the medieval kitanomandokoro from different perspectives. Almost no serious studies have yet been undertaken on the kitanomandokoro from the end of the Heian period to the Muromachi period. Filling that historical blank and increasing the number of studies on medieval noblewomen are also purposes of this paper. Women who could have court ranks in medieval noble society were consorts of emperors, court ladies, wives of courtiers, and so on. Medieval emperors conferred court ranks on them at the onna-joi (女叙位), an investiture for women, and on other opportunities. From the mid-Heian to the mid-Kamakura period, lawful wives of regents and chancellors (sekkan 摂関) had been granted ranks askenjo (勧賞), a reward for service to an emperor's family. A wife of the sekkan served the imperial family indirectly and could be the recipient of kenjo when her husband did them a service that merited it. From the middle of the mid-Kamakura period, however, the kitanomandokoro were able to receive at least the Junior Grade of the Third Court Rank (jusanmi従三位) simply for being the wife of the sekkan. This indicates that emperors, ex-emperors and court nobles recognized kitanomandokoro as a title worthy of such rank. A kitanomandokoro was able to have her own household management organization. In the mid-and-late-Heian period, setting up such an organization was not necessarily related to her acquisition of court rank, although her husband's assumption of office as sekkan provided the opportunity to begin her mandokoro (政所), an administrative headquarters for household management. After jusanmi rank became one of the characteristics of a kitanomandokoro, the rank became associated with appointment of her keishi (家司), who were the main staff of the mandokoro. At her mandokoro-hajime (政所始), a ceremony marking the beginning of household management organization, a kuroudodokoro (蔵人所) and samuraidokoro (侍所) were established with the mandokoro, Most of the staffing in these offices was occupied by those who served her husband, but this fact does not mean her household management organization existed only for her husband's ie. The author thinks the organization also operated for other noble groups because she played her own role in noble society. In the early-and-mid-Kamakura period, the marriage style for the sons of the sekkan was changing from mukotorikon (婿取婚) to yometorikon (嫁取婚). Mukotorikon was the style in which a bridegroom started his marriage by visiting the bride's dwelling, and yometorikon style in which a bride came to the bridegroom's house on their wedding day. From the mid-Kamakura period, the procedures for a yometorikon wedding were arranged by sekkan families. Yometorikon weddings gave the bride of the son of a selkkan a strong possibility of becoming kitanomandokoro, because she could lead a settled life in a sekkan family's residence from the beginning of marriage. In the late-Kamamura period, the ex-emperor Kameyama married his two daughters to the sons of sekkan. That means kitanomandokoro was considered a suitable title for imperial princesses. In the Muromachi period, wives of sekkan who married in formal wedding ceremonies could be called kitanomandokoro. In the same period, however, some sons of sekkan did not go through the due formalities of a wedding to marry daughters of dainagon (大納言) and chunagon (中納言), who were both court nobles of lower status compared to the fathers of many of the previous kitanomandokoro. Those daughters who became actual wives of sekkan without official ceremonies were not necessarily called kitanomandokoro, even if they performed the task as wives in the ie. The presence of this new type of wife of sekkan made the concept of kitanomandokoro ambiguous. This paper as a whole makes it clear that medieval kitanomandokoro had the significance not only in the ie of a sekkan but also in noble society, which was constituted of courtiers ministrant to the emperors.