<論説>日本中世における非人身分の成立と穢観念

Abstract

一九七〇～八〇年代、日本中世の非人研究は飛躍的に進展した。だが、非人身分の成立と清目や穢れの関係等について、研究者の理解は大きく異なり、それらが課題として残っていた。そこで本稿はこれらの検討を通し、次のような諸点を指摘した。①清水坂非人と河原者は、各々乞者と屠児と淵源を異にしつつも、律令制社会の変化のなかで集団化し、自己編成を遂げ誕生した身分であった。そして十三世紀以降、両者が全一的に捉えられ、非人身分という社会階層の一つとして扱われた。②非人身分による権門等の清目への関与も、自らが獲得した乞庭や草場の安定的支配のためであり、彼等が清目を担ったことが、非人身分化の原因ではなかった。③非人身分の穢観念は、世間の汚穢や神との関係で避けられた穢れでもない、仏教思想を背景に付加された観念であった。非人は清目により穢れた存在となったのではないし、もともと穢れた存在と考えられていたわけでもなかった。

From the 1970s to the 1980s, research on hinin 非人, the outcasts classified as nonhuman who composed the lowest social status in medieval Japan, made dramatic progress. However, researchers differed greatly in their understanding of the relationship between the establishment of hinin status and kiyome 清目, the process of purification that included the disposal of corpses, and the fact that hinin were considered polluted or unclean (kegare 穢). These differences have not been fully resolved and have remained points of contention. This paper's goal is to elucidate these issues as I believe it is important to consider the process of their formation from the early medieval period onward. As a result of the study, the following several points were clarified. First, this paper examined the requirements for being considered a hinin and of hinin status, and then clarified the nature of hinin status. Physical deformity was a necessity for being considered a hinin, and receiving charity was not a prerequisite. Even if one were a hinin with a physical deformity, it was essential to belong to an autonomous group that carried out certain social functions in order to gain hinin status. Therefore, not all who were called hinin had hinin status. It became clear that in Kyoto at the beginning of the 14th century beggars who lived in the territories of temples and shrines and at the burial ground of Rendaino 蓮台野 as well as the Kiyomizuzaka hinin (hereafter Saka hinin) and Kawaramono had hinin status. Second, in regard to the establishment of hinin status, I examined the Saka hinin and Kawaramono and clarified that although they differed in origin, they were each self-organized and established statuses in the context of changes in Ritsuryō based society. The Saka hinin were originally beggars who began to gather below the Kiyomizuzaka burial ground, when the government system for feeding the poor collapsed, and they became an organized group with hinin status that monopolized the territory as a place for begging (kotsuba 乞庭) in Kyoto. On the other hand, under the Ritsuryō system, prey suppliers (etori 餌取) for falconers and butchers (toni 屠児), who were involved in raising and feeding falcons or in dismembering cows and horses, lived along the riverbanks near the burial grounds. Later, the toni came to dominate the entire Kamogawa River basin and monopolized the territory (kusaba 草場) where they exercised their duties, organizing themselves as a group with hinin status known as Kawaramono. As a result, around the 13th century, the Saka hinin and Kawaramono, etc. were taken as a single whole, and hinin status came to recognized as one social strata. Third, it became clear that kiyome was a necessary function in all sectors of society, and that the service rendered by the Saka hinin and Kawaramono to power blocs (kenmon 権門) and others by kiyome was to guarantee stable control of the kotsuba and kusaba, which they had acquired, and this was like the response taken by other groups living under the kenmon structure. The interpretation that kiyome performed by the hinin was organized by the kenmon is illogical, and it is unreasonable to assume that because beggars and toni were responsible for kiyome this was a factor in their having hinin status. In short, previous studies that had attempted to discover the principle behind the birth of hinin status and their relationship with the kenmon through kiyome were not valid. Fourth, I pointed out that the concept of pollution of hinin status was not due to defilement through contact with the mundane world nor the pollution that was to be shunned in relation to the kami, but was a concept propounded or emphasized by Buddhists. Against the backdrop of Buddhist prohibitions on meat eating, Kawaramono, whose business was the dismemberment of dead cows and horses, were thought to be eaters of cow and horse meat, which others would never choose to eat, in other words, they were seen as hinin, and as a result, they were considered unclean and deformed. On the other hand, against the backdrop of the Buddhist idea of karma and the concept of the sanctity of bathing, the physical symptoms of lepers came to be emphasized as unclean, and this concept of pollution was imposed on all Saka hinin. Accompanying this unification of hinin status, those of hinin status were seen as members of a social class that was itself unclean. Thus, hinin status was made into an unclean one by medieval society, and it was not a result of performing kiyome, nor had it originally been considered unclean.