Hakoiri musume men’ya ningyo 箱入娘面屋人魚

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Commentary by Satō Satoru

Posted March 20, 2018
Original unedited text in Japanese follows

Even within kusazōshi, a literary genre that unites text and image, this work can be seen as a kibyōshi. Some publications, including Shōsetsu nenpyō, attribute this unsigned work to Utagawa Toyokuni I. There is, however, no evidence for this, and more recently Kitao Shigemasa is seen as the more likely artist.

The story in Hakoiri musume men’ya ningyotakes place in Nakasu, an area of reclaimed land that in 1771 (Meiwa 8) became one of Edo’s bustling commercial districts. [1] It was demolished as a result of the Kansei reforms (Kansei 1, 1789), and thereafter it became a thriving center in order to support the rule of the undersea Dragon God (Ryūgū 竜宮). Urashima Tarō (浦島太郎), the male lover of the youngest princess of the Dragon God, sires a mermaid child with a woman there named Okoi (carp). The beautiful mermaid is depicted as a combination of famous onnagata actors of the time such as Segawa Kikunojō III 三代目瀬川菊之丞 (1751–1810), Yamashita Mangiku山下万菊 (1763–1791), Iwai Hanshirō IV 四代目岩井半四郎 (1747–1800), and Nakayama Tomisaburō (中山富三郎). Urashima secretly abandons the mermaid child who then jumps into a fishing boat in Shinagawa Bay owned by a man named Heiji. She woes Heiji, who makes her his wife.

Word about the couple spread, and people rush to get protective talismans reading “a fisherman’s place is Heiji’s [peaceful] place” (釣宿平次宿). The tale continues with a pastiche of scenes from kabuki plays, such as Mugen no kane 無間の鐘 (The bell of Mugen) and Kuzunoha no kowakare 葛の葉の子別れ (The separation of Kuzunoha’s child), with the mermaid then being taken in by the Maizuruya brothel in Ōiso. Customers flee at the mermaid’s fishy smell, and she is returned to Heiji. Drawing on the saying that “if you lick a mermaid you will live for a thousand years,” Heiji starts a business that invites customers to pay for the opportunity to lick the mermaid. He becomes enormously successful but he also licks the mermaid often, so much so that he becomes a child. At that point Urashima Tarō appears with Okoi and opens the treasure box (tamatebako) from the Dragon God princess, which assists in restoring Heiji to his prime.

This work skillfully incorporates the gossip, restaurants, and events of the city of Edo. It also touches upon the unveiling of the Kannon bodhisattva of the Urashima Temple at the Fukagawa Hachimangū Shrine in the eighth month of 1790 (Kansei 2).

書名　箱入娘面屋人魚
執筆者佐藤悟

挿絵と本文が一体となった草双紙の中でも黄表紙と呼ばれる作品である。画工については落款がなく、『小説年表』その他が歌川豊国とするが、根拠はなく、近年は北尾重政によるものとされている。明和8年（1771）に埋め立てられて、江戸有数の繁華街となった中洲は寛政元年（1789）に改革の一環として取り払らわれ、竜宮の支配所となったため、繁華の地となる。乙姫の男妾の浦島太郎はそこのお鯉との間に人魚を儲けるが、人知れず捨て子とする。釣舟の平次は品川沖で人魚に飛び込まれる。この人魚は三代目瀬川菊之丞、山下万菊、四代目岩井半四郎、中山富三郎といった当時の歌舞伎の女形を合わせたような美人で、平次に言い寄るので女房にする。世間の噂となり、「釣宿平次宿」という厄除札を求めるものが殺到する。歌舞伎の「無間の鐘」や「葛の葉の子別れ」などをもじった場面が続き、人魚は大磯の遊女屋舞鶴屋に抱えられる。人魚は生臭いので客が逃げ出し、人魚は平次に返される。人魚を嘗めると千年の寿命を保つと言われているので、人魚を嘗めさせる商売を始め、平次は繁昌する。平次は人魚を嘗めすぎて、子どもになってしまうが、浦島太郎とお鯉が現れ、玉手箱を開けると、平次はちょうどよい男盛りとなる。これは寛政二年8月に深川八幡宮で浦島寺観世音の出開帳があったことを踏まえている。江戸市中の巷説や料理屋、事件などを巧みに取り入れた作品といえる。

Selected readings:
Hanasaki Kazuo 花咲一男, Edo no ningyo tachi 『江戸の人魚たち』（Nagareyama City: Taihei Shooku, 1978).

Hanasaki Kazuo 花咲一男, Edo sakanazuri hyaku sugata 『江戸魚釣り百姿』(Tokyo: Miki Shobō, 1978).

Suzuki Jūzō 鈴木重三et al., Kibyōshi 2 「黄表紙」, vol. 2, Santō Kyōden zenshū『山東京伝全集』, 18 vols. (Tokyo: Perikansha, 1993–2017).

Tanahashi Masahiro 棚橋正弘, ed., Edo gesakuzōshi 『江戸戯作草紙』(Tokyo: Shōgakkan, 2000).

Copies in other collections:
National Diet Library, Tokyo
Tokyo Metropolitan Library
Waseda University Library, Tokyo

[1] This author believes that the men’ya here was perhaps a doll shop located in Edo’s Hongoku-chō (in present-day Nihonbashi, Chūō-ku in Tokyo) and that the title is a parody on the high-quality “dolls” (musume, or “daughter”; the title literally, “Dolls of the men’ya, ‘daughters’ in boxes”) placed in boxes, but this requires further research.

Hakoiri musume men'ya ningyō