<論説>近現代日本における年中行事の日取りの変遷 --改暦・軍隊・皇室・メディア・鉄道・経済・感染症・排日移民法etc...-- (特集 : まつり)

Abstract

本稿では、社寺祭礼など年中行事の近現代史について、その日取りの変遷を新聞や日誌といった経年的に蓄積された史料を用いて丁寧に調べていくという手法によって、各地の年中行事の日取りの変遷を検討した。これにより、改暦・軍隊・皇室・メディア・鉄道・経済・感染症・排日移民法など、実に様々な要因に規定されながら各地の年中行事が紆余曲折に満ちた日取りの変遷を経てきたことを明らかにした。このような研究手法は、いわゆる「創られた伝統」論をめぐってしばしば見られる二つの問題点（「創られた伝統」の起源に関心が集中してその後の過程が看過される、ナショナリズムに関心が集中して資本主義など他のさまざまな要因が捨象される）の改善にも資するものである。さらに、大学や高校などの教育現場で学生たちがこの手法を用いて身近な年中行事の近現代史についてみずから調べるように促すことによって、歴史教育に活かすこともできる。

This paper focuses on the changes in the dates of various annual events in modern Japan, stressing how frequently these dates were changed under the influence of a startling number of factors, as including calendar reforms, the military, the imperial family, the media, railways, the economy, infectious diseases, and anti-Japanese immigration laws. In addressing this issue, I examine the following four annual events. The first event is the Hakata Matsubayashi parade 博多松囃子. Originally people in Hakata used to hold the event in order to offer New Year's greetings to the lord of the domain. However, after the Meiji Restoration, it became necessary for them to invent a new purpose that could jusify this event. After much trial and error, they finally made a decision to connect it with the army's annual memorial service 陸軍の招魂 祭. Though this change enabled them to justify the event without facing criticism for observing old customs, it also invited a serious problem in the sense that the date of the parade often had to be changed whenever that of the army's memorial service was changed. Next, I examine the dates of the Tōka Ebisu Festival 十日戎 ̶held at Nishinomiya Shrine between the 9th and 11th day of the first month. The first calendar reform in 1872 produced two Tōka Ebisu Festivals, one based on the new calendar and the other based on the old (lunar-solar) calendar. The national railway promoted the latter by discounting fares and running extra trains because apparently the latter became more popular than the former. In 1905, Hanshin Electric Railway opened and started to promote both Tōka Ebisu Festivals, which made them nearly equally popular. However, after the second calendar reform in 1910, the festival based on the old calendar became unpopular. It was also the case with the Obon (お盆) in Nagasaki that the date changed under the influence of the calendar reforms. Unique to Nagasaki was that it faced the treat of infectious diseases very often because it was an international port. People often had difficulty balancing public health and the economy. As my last example, I take a close look at the Yokohama Port Opening Anniversary. It was originally held on July 1 of the new calendar, which was chosen to mark the opening of the Yokohama port in 1859. However, in 1928, the mayor suddenly proposed changing it to June 2 based on the old calendar. Previous research had failed to clarify his motivation for this proposal. However, I point out the fact that in 1924 July 1 became had become a date that could not help but remind most Japanese of an intolerable event. That was the passing of the Anti-Japanese Immigration Law in the United States. It is very likely that the mayor wanted to separate the anniversary from July 1 because celebrating the anniversary on that date could obviously invite criticism from all over Japan. Keeping these examples in mind, I would like to stress that, when we discuss the histories of annual events in modern times, it is essential to take a close look at historical sources such as newspapers or diaries, from which we can see precisely how a certain annual event changed over modern times. This method can be helpful when we try to solve one major problem that is often seen with studies inspired by Hobsbawm's model of the ‘invention of tradition’. The problem is that these studies tend to concentrate excessively on the origin of a certain invented tradition that inevitably causes scholars to overlook subsequent processes. This method can also contribute to the improvement of history education because not just professional scholars, but also ordinary students, can try this method and enjoy making exciting discoveries.