Disappearance of Yobai and Dissolution of Village

application/pdf従来，民俗学では，性の問題を取り扱うことは少なかった。また，男の視点からのみ，議論が展開することが多かった。ここでは，水俣病の発生の問題を，地域共同体の崩壊のなかでみようとし，とくに夜這いといわれる共同体的な性の交換制度の崩壊について，議論した。 明治に入って，日本の近代化は，新興寡占地主を生み，土地の集中をもたらした。貨幣経済の浸透とともに，土地を持たない農民の間では，相互扶助関係は崩壊し，性の相互交換としての男と女の助け合い関係としての夜這いが衰退した。 一方，工場を持たない天草などのより貧困な地域からは，女が売りに出され，近代都市の周辺に売春街が形成された。男の心は，新興地主も，伝統的な旧家も，そして工場労働者も，売春へと向かい，そこに放蕩を繰り返し，没落していった。 それは，近代における人間の経済のエロチシズムであったのかもしれないが，その行き着く先は，水俣病という自己破滅であった。In folklore, the problem of sex has not often been dealt with, and in the cases it was discussed only from the male viewpoint. In this paper, the author attempts to examine the occurrence of Minamata disease in relation to the collapse of the local community, and especially to the collapse of the communal system of sexual give-and-take, called “Yobai”. In the Meiji era, the modernization of Japan brought with it the concentration of land in the hands of newly-risen oligarch landlords. As the monetary economy permeated society, the mutual aid relationship collapsed among landless farmers, and Yobai, as a mutual aid relationship between male and female in the form of sexual give-and-take, also disappeared. Meanwhile, women from poorer regions with no industry, such as Amakusa, were sold into prostitution, and red-light areas were formed in the urban fringes of the modern cities. Male of all classes, including newly-risen landlords, male in traditional families, and factory workers, turned to the prostitutes, indulging in dissipation and finally ruin. This was perhaps an economic form of eroticism for modern male ; however, it eventually resulted in self-destruction, in the form of Minamata Disease, one of most pitiable injury.departmental bulletin pape