第276回白眉セミナー ： Legitimizing the Margins: Myths and the Self-Identification of an Outcast Village (shukumura) in Early Modern Japan
- ドゥーリナ アンナ 特定准教授（15期・人間・環境学研究科）
- 2025/10/21 4:45pm
- 学術研究支援棟地下会議室1＆2
- 英語
- オンサイト、Zoom
要旨
This paper explores how the inhabitants of Katsura Shuku, an outcast village that existed on the eastern bank of the Katsura River in Kyoto until the early Meiji era, employed medieval myths and their connection with Iwashimizu Shrine to legitimize their social position and protect their rights. Through petitions to the landowner and Edo officials, as well as “origin stories” (yuisho), the villagers portrayed themselves as “divine people of bows and arrows,” linking their identity to the legendary Empress Jingū and her conquest of foreign lands. Based on my recent case study of a group of documents from the Kyoto City Historical Archives, I demonstrate how marginalized groups in early modern Japan constructed their self-identity by appropriating narratives of shrine service and tracing their origins to the distant past.