[Article] An Analysis of the "Red Banners" (Akahata) : On the Function of the Color Red in Ancient Japan

application/pdf本稿では、『延喜式』にみえる赤幡が古代社会において果たした役割を検討することにより、赤色に対する色彩認識が人々の行動に与えた影響を明らかにすることを目的とした。 古代社会において赤色は、装着した人・物の内部にある汚穢等を鎮めると同時に外部の障害から保護する性質＝清浄性と結びついた色と認識され、この清浄性を前提に道路において人・物の進行や移動を汚穢から守りつつ実現させる機能も民俗社会で広く認められていた。そして、この赤色の性質は様々な局面で権力とも結び付き、赤色を支配し利用することが天皇家を中心とした公の力を表示することを意味した。そのため、赤幡は天皇の行幸時のほか、最高の清浄性が求められる供御物を運搬する際に道路において掲示され、他の進上物と区別する意味をもち、御膳食材やそれを食べる天皇らの身体の清浄性を維持する機能を果たしたと考えられる。 さらに、八世紀半ば以来供御物の標識とされてきた赤幡は、贄を生産する集団、贄人に頒布されることになる。赤幡は元慶七年官符にみえる員外贄人が得た「腰文幡」や家牒と同様、贄人の生産活動のなかで交通許可証として機能するとともに贄人集団を組織化して特権身分を表示した。 また、延喜天暦年間までに内廷官司が旧来の腰文幡ではなく赤幡を贄人の標識として放つように変化したことを指摘し、その背景には、元慶七年官符からうかがえる「潔齋」を基準とした贄人の差異化が困難な状況が存在したと推定した。供御を口実にした弱民圧迫行為が贄人自身の「潔齋」を破綻させ、その行為は最も「潔清」が求められた天皇の食事にも「汚黷」を及ぼすという論理が存在したのである。赤幡班給は他の家政機関が発給する標識との差異化を意図したもので、清浄性をもつ赤色が贄や贄人、御膳に要求された清浄性をめぐる危機的環境のなかで必要とされ、贄人の身体の「潔齋」を守り、特権身分を保証する意味をもったと考えられる。This paper aims to shed light on how the understanding of the color red in ancient Japan influenced the activities of the people through an examination of the role that the red banners (akahata 赤幡) that appear in the Engishiki fulfilled in ancient society. In ancient Japan the color red was believed to have the power to assuage the impurities found in people and things, as well as the power to protect them from external threats. It is on the basis of these purifying properties that this conception of red came to widely recognized also in folk societies, where red was used on the streets to protect the movement and circulation of people and goods from impurity. In this way, the qualities of the color red came in various contexts to be linked with political authority, and ruling over the color red and its usage became a public expression of power within the polity centered upon the monarch and his family. For this reason, red banners were only displayed on the road in occasion of royal visits and other contexts that required the highest level of purity, such as the transportation of the monarch's meals. We think the red banners functioned as a tool to preserve the purity of the foodstuffs for the monarch and, consequently, of body of the monarch who would consume them, thus creating a clear distinction with offerings of other sorts. In addition, starting from mid-eighth century, the red banners, which had by this time become a mark of the monarch's meals, would also be distributed to groups involved in the production of offerings (nie 贄), known as niebito 贄人. At that time, the red banners functioned within the production activities of the niebito as circulation permits, similarly to the koshibumi no hata 腰文幡 and lineage documents obtained by niebito who weren't members of organized groups, as seen in a directive from the Council of State issued in the seventh year of Gangyō (883). At the same time, they were an attestation of the process of institutionalization that groups of niebito were going through, and an indication of their privileged status. Between the Engi (901-923) and Tenryaku (947-957) eras, the offices located inside the royal palace did no longer use the old koshibumi no hata as a mark for niebito, and instead switched to the red banners. We surmise that the context for this shift can be seen in the difficulties that emerged as a consequence of the process of differentiation that took place within niebito groups, who were indicated as a standard of ritual purity (kessai 潔斎) in the directive of the Council of State from 883. Using the preparation of the monarch's meals as a pretexts, acts meant to oppress the population were carried out by such groups, thus compromising the ritual purity that niebito were subjected to. Discourses that saw those actions as "polluting" (otoku 汚黷) the meals of the monarch, which required the highest level of ritual purity, started to emerge. The distribution of red banners was meant to differentiate its recipients from other administration offices, and was made necessary by this dangerous environment that had developed and that threatened the purity that was required in the preparation of food for the monarch. In this context, the color red was meant to protect and guarantee the ritual purity of the body of the niebito.departmental bulletin pape