2026-09-07

Shinobu Orikuchi - Wikipedia 折口 信夫

Shinobu Orikuchi - Wikipedia

Shinobu Orikuchi

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Shinobu Orikuchi
BornFebruary 11, 1887
 Japan Osaka
DiedSeptember 3, 1953 (aged 66)
Other name折口 信夫 (a pen name:釋 迢空)
EducationKokugakuin University (Bachelor of Letters, Doctor of Letters)
Occupationsethnologist, linguist, folklorist, novelist, and poet
PartnerHarumi Orikuchi
Japanese name
Kanji折口 信夫
Hiraganaおりくち しのぶ
Transcriptions

Shinobu Orikuchi (折口 信夫, Orikuchi Shinobu; 11 February 1887–3 September 1953), also known as Chōkū Shaku (釋 迢空, Shaku Chōkū), was a Japanese ethnologist, linguist, folklorist, novelist, and poet. As a disciple of Kunio Yanagita, he established an original academic field named "Orikuchiism" (折口学, Orikuchigaku), which is a mixture of Japanese folklore, Japanese classics, and Shintō. He produced many works in a diversity of fields covering the history of literature, folkloric performing arts, folklore itself, Japanese language, the classics study, Shintōology, ancient study, and so on. Yukio Mishima once called him the "Japanese Walter Pater".

Biography

Orikuchi was born in the former Nishinari, Ōsaka (now part of Naniwa-ku, Osaka). After graduating with a degree in Japanese literature from Kokugakuin University in 1910, he started to teach Japanese and Chinese classics at junior high schools. In 1919, he was employed as a part-time instructor in Kokugakuin University. In 1922, he was promoted to professor. In 1924, he was hired as a professor at Keio University as well; afterward, he taught at two different universities until he died. As a poet, he and Kitahara Hakushu established a tanka magazine called Nikkō ("Sunshine") in 1924. In 1925, he published Between the Sea and the Mountains (海山の間, Umi Yama no Aida), his first tanka book, which is highly esteemed.

In 1934, he received a doctorate for his study on the Man'yōshū. He also established the Japan Folklorists Society (日本民俗協会). As a folklorist, Yanagita was known for rejecting every sexual subject; Orikuchi, in contrast, was very open-minded to these matters. He became a model for the protagonist in Mishima's short story Mikumano Mōde (三熊野詣), while his novel Shisha no Sho was the basis for a film by Kihachiro Kawamoto.

Personal life

Orikuchi was a homosexual (nanshokuka). Harumi Orikuchi (折口春洋), scholar of Japanese literature and poet, was his de facto partner. Harumi died in the Battle of Iwo Jima.

Major works

  • Umi Yama no Aida (海やまのあひだ, "Between The Sea And The Mountains") – Tanka book
  • Haru no Kotobure (春のことぶれ, "The Spring Forerunner") – Tanka book
  • Shisha no Sho (死者の書, "The Book of the Dead") – Novel, translated into English in 2016 by Jeffrey Angles (ISBN 978-0816688104)[1]
  • Kodai Kenkyū (古代研究, "The Ancient Study") – Treatise on folklore and literature in ancient Japan
  • Kabuki San (かぶき讃, "Viva Kabuki") – Kabuki review

See also

Sources

  • 加藤守雄『わが師折口信夫』朝日新聞社(1967)
  • 諏訪春雄『折口信夫を読み直す』講談社現代新書(1994)
  • 山折哲雄、穂積生萩『執深くあれ 折口信夫のエロス』小学館(1997)
  • 富岡多恵子『釈迢空ノート』岩波書店(2000)
  • 安藤礼二『神々の闘争 折口信夫論』講談社(2004)

References

  1.  Flanagan, Damian (15 April 2017). "'The Book of the Dead': The first complete translation of Shinobu Orikuchi's classic". The Japan Times. Retrieved 23 February 2022.
===

折口信夫

出典: フリー百科事典『ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』
折口 信夫おりくち しのぶ
生誕1887年2月11日
大阪府西成郡木津村
死没1953年9月3日（66歳没）
東京都新宿区信濃町
墓地石川県羽咋市
職業民俗学者、国語学者、歌人
言語日本語
国籍日本の旗 日本
最終学歴國學院大學国文科卒業
ジャンル民俗学、詩歌
 ウィキポータル 文学
テンプレートを表示

折口 信夫（おりくち しのぶ〈のぶを〉[注 1]、1887年〈明治20年〉2月11日 - 1953年〈昭和28年〉9月3日）は、日本の民俗学者、国文学者、国語学者であり、釈迢空（しゃく ちょうくう）と号した詩人・歌人でもあった。

折口の成し遂げた研究は、「折口学」と総称されている。柳田國男の高弟として民俗学の基礎を築いた。みずからの顔の青痣（あざ）[注 2]をもじって、靄遠渓（あい・えんけい＝青インク、「靄煙渓」とも）と名乗ったこともある。

経歴

出生から修学期
「折口信夫生誕の地」の碑と文学碑（大阪市浪速区敷津西1丁目）

1887年2月11日、大阪府西成郡木津村（現：大阪市浪速区敷津西1丁目・鷗町公園）に父秀太郎、母こうの四男として生まれた。信夫の祖父の造酒之介が、飛鳥坐神社の社家の出身ということもあり、終生、折口はそれを自慢していた（養子なので直接血縁はないと言われている）。1890年より木津幼稚園に通う。1892年、木津尋常小学校（現在の大阪市立敷津小学校）に入学。1894年、叔母えいから贈られた『東京名所図会』の見開きに初めて自作歌を記した。感謝の念篤く、後年『古代研究』にこの叔母への献詞を載せている。1896年、大阪市南区竹屋町にあった育英高等小学校に入学。

1899年4月、大阪府第五中学校（後の天王寺中学）に入学。この頃には大阪の名所旧跡の地理に詳しくなっており、放課後や日曜日には友人とよく御勝山古墳の辺りを散歩していたとされる[2]。中学の同級生には武田祐吉（国文学者）、岩橋小弥太（国史学者）、西田直二郎などがいた。1900年夏に大和の飛鳥坐神社を一人で訪れた。その折に、9歳上の浄土真宗の僧侶で仏教改革運動家である藤無染（ふじ・むぜん）と出会って初恋を知ったという説がある。富岡多惠子によると、迢空という号は、このとき無染に付けられた愛称に由来している可能性[3]があるという。

1901年、15歳になったこの年に父親から橘千蔭『万葉集略解』[注 3]を買ってもらった[4]。作歌にも励み、『文庫』『新小説』に投稿した短歌一首ずつが入選。しかし1902年に中学の成績が下がり、暮れに自殺未遂。1903年3月にも自殺未遂したが、「作歌多し」であった。1904年3月、卒業試験にて、英会話作文・幾何・三角・物理の4科目で落第点を取り、原級にとどまる。この時の悲惨さが身に沁みたため、後年、教員になってからも、教え子に落第点は絶対につけなかった。同じく後年、天王寺中学から校歌の作詞を再三頼まれたが、かたくなに拒み続けたと伝えられる。大和に3度旅行した際、室生寺奥の院で自殺を図った若き日の釈契沖に共感、死への誘惑に駆られた。二上山が眼前に三輪山が遠方に、両方見える村の友人の屋敷に複数回滞在している。

1905年3月、天王寺中学校を卒業。医学を学ばせようとする家族の勧めに従って第三高等学校受験に出願する前夜、にわかに進路を変えて上京し、新設の國學院大學の予科に入学。藤無染と同居する。この頃に約500首の短歌を詠んだ。1907年、國學院予科を修了し、本科国文科に進んだ。この時期國學院大學において国学者三矢重松に教えを受け、強い影響を受けた。また短歌に興味を持ち、根岸短歌会などに出入りした。1910年7月、國學院大學国文科を卒業。卒業論文は「言語情調論」であった。

今宮中学教員として

卒業後は大阪に戻り、1911年10月に大阪府立今宮中学校の嘱託教員（国漢担当）となった[5]。1912年8月に伊勢、熊野を巡る旅に出た。1913年12月「三郷巷談」を柳田國男主催の『郷土研究』に発表し、以後、柳田の知遇を得た。

再上京

1914年3月、今宮中学校を退職し、上京。折口を慕って上京した生徒達を抱え、高利貸の金まで借りるどん底の暮らしを経験したという[6]。1916年、30歳に時に國學院大學内に郷土研究会を創設。『万葉集』全20巻（4516首）の口語訳上・中・下を刊行。1917年1月、私立郁文館中学校教員となった。同年2月には「アララギ」同人となり、選歌欄を担当することになった。一方で、國學院大學内に郷土研究会を創設するなどして活発に活動した。

1919年1月、國學院大學臨時代理講師に就いた。また、『万葉集辞典』を刊行。1921年7月 - 9月、柳田國男から沖縄の話を聞き、最初の沖縄・壱岐旅行に出た。1922年1月、雑誌『白鳥』を創刊する。同年4月には國學院大學教授となり、穂積忠らを教えた[7]。

1923年6月、慶應義塾大学文学部講師となり「三田文学」にも深く関わった。第2回目の沖縄旅行に出た。1924年1月、亡師三矢重松の「源氏物語全講会」を遺族の勧めで再興。後にこの会を慶應義塾大学に移し、没年まで活動を続けた。またこの年には「アララギ」を去って、北原白秋らと共に歌誌『日光』を創刊した。

1925年5月、処女歌集『海やまのあひだ』を刊行。1927年6月、國學院の学生らを伴って能登半島に採訪旅行し、藤井春洋の生家を訪ねた。1928年4月、慶應義塾大学文学部教授に昇格し、芸能史講座を開講した。1929年、川田順、斎藤茂吉、前田夕暮、松村英一、北原白秋らが設立した日本歌人協会（東京市本郷区駒込）[8]に加入。1932年、文学博士号を取得。日本民俗協会の設立に関わり、幹事となった。

1935年11月、大阪木津の折口家から分家。第3回目の沖縄旅行。1940年4月、國學院大學文学部に「民俗学」講座を設けた。愛知県三沢の花祭り、長野県新野雪祭りを初めて見た。

1941年8月、中国大陸を旅し、北京にて講演。同年12月8日、太平洋戦争（大東亜戦争）に突入し、藤井春洋は応召。1942年、『天地に宣る』を出版。1944年、藤井春洋は硫黄島に着任。春洋を養嗣子として入籍。1945年3月、第1回大阪大空襲で生家が焼失。大本営が藤井春洋のいる硫黄島の玉砕を発表。同年8月15日の終戦の玉音放送を聴くと、箱根山荘に40日間籠もった。

戦後

1948年4月、『古代感愛集』により日本芸術院賞を受賞[9]。同年12月には第1回日本学術会議会員に選出された。1949年7月、能登一ノ宮に戦死した春洋との父子墓を建立した。1950年と翌51年は宮中御歌会選者を拝命。

1953年7月初め箱根仙石原の別荘[注 4]に行くも健康がすぐれなかった。同年8月31日、衰弱が進んで慶應義塾大学病院に入院。同年9月3日、胃癌により永眠。養子として迎えて戦死した春洋と共に、気多大社がある石川県羽咋市一ノ宮町に建立した墓に眠る[10]。また、折口家の菩提寺願泉寺（大阪市）に分骨が納められている。

受賞・栄典

民俗学研究者として

柳田國男との関係

柳田國男との間には、以下のようなエピソードがあった。

1915年（大正4年）の『郷土研究』誌に載った論文で、互いに似通った折口と柳田の論文が前後して載せられるという事件があった。折口が昨年のうちに送ったものが採用されず、柳田の「柱松考」が3月号、折口の「髯籠の話」が4-5月号に載ったというものだが、それを後に振り返って折口が言った「先生の「柱松考」を先に見ていれば、わたしは「髯籠の話」など書かなかった」という言葉に、潔癖さ、厳しさが表れている。

そして、柳田も「（折口君という人は）真似と受け売りの天性嫌いな、幾分か時流に逆らっていくような、今日の学者としては珍しい資質を具えている」と、その点では認めていた。ただし、「マレビト」を認めない柳田と折口の間に論争があったのも事実である[12]。両者は国学発展の祖に当たる賀茂真淵・本居宣長と同じく、教えを受けながらも正当だと思ったところは譲らず、真理の追究を磨く学者の関係を持っていたといえる。なお、『遠野物語』（現行版は角川ソフィア文庫）に折口の跋文（後書き）がある。

柳田は、折口よりも12歳年上で、1945年（昭和20年）夏の第二次世界大戦終結時には、共に60歳を越えていた。戦後にのぞみ、重い口調で柳田は折口へ「折口君、戦争中の日本人は桜の花が散るように潔く死ぬことを美しいとし、われわれもそれを若い人に強いたのだが、これほどに潔く死ぬ事を美しいとする民族が他にあるだろうか。もしあったとしてもそういう民族は早く滅びてしまって、海に囲まれた日本人だけが辛うじて残ってきたのではないだろうか。折口君、どう思いますか」と問い、しばらく両者は深く思い沈んでいたという。折口には、18年間を共にした養嗣藤井春洋の硫黄島玉砕という重い出来事があった。その追悼の念は徹底的であり、終戦の玉音放送を聴くと四十日間の喪に服し、自分が死ぬまで遺影前の供養を欠かさなかったという。第二次世界大戦（太平洋戦争・大東亜戦争）で失った戦死者の鎮魂は大きな課題で、戦没者が生前に殉じる価値を見出そうとした皇国の国体などといった観念も昭和天皇の人間宣言とともに潰え果てていた。日本人の神や魂といった問題の意識は柳田も共有していて、折口はその問題を、晩年の論考「民族史観における他界観念」に収斂させていくこととなる[13]。

柳田が民俗現象を比較検討することによって合理的説明をつけ、日本文化の起源に遡ろうとした帰納的傾向を所持していたのに対し、折口はあらかじめマレビトやヨリシロという独創的概念に日本文化の起源があると想定し、そこから諸現象を説明しようとした演繹的な性格を持っていたとされる。

歌人・国文学者として

歌人としては正岡子規の「根岸短歌会」、後「アララギ」に「釈迢空」の名で参加し、作歌や選歌をしたが、やがて自己の作風と乖離し、アララギを退会する。1924年（大正13年）北原白秋と同門の古泉千樫らと共に反アララギ派を結成して『日光』を創刊した。

迢空賞

迢空賞は1967年に折口信夫にちなんで設けられた短歌賞で、短歌界では最も格式ある賞とされている。

  • 中学校時代に出版されて間もない「国歌大観」を一夏掛け精読し、兄の友人であった加藤順三に｢和歌の表現の至りつくしたのは、玉葉集・風雅集ですよ。｣と語った[14]。
  • 同性愛者（男色家）であり、以下のようなエピソードが伝わる。
    • 折口は高弟の加藤守雄に同衾を強要しようとしたことがあった（未遂）。養子の折口春洋（旧姓藤井）は家計をすべて預かり、事実上の配偶者だった。折口春洋の死後は、1947年から岡野弘彦が書生として同居し、死期を看取った。
    • このような折口の性的指向に対して柳田は批判的で、折口の前で加藤に向かって「加藤君、牝鶏（おそらく鶏姦の意）になっちゃいけませんよ」と忠告した[15]こともある。
    • 折口自身は「同性愛を変態だと世間では言うけれど、そんなことはない。男女の間の愛情よりも純粋だと思う。変態と考えるのは常識論にすぎない」と述べている[16]。
    • 『口ぶえ』という、男子中学生同士の恋を叙情的に描いた若い頃の男色小説がある。
  • 折口が主査となり博士号を授与した、西角井正慶、高崎正秀、藤野岩友、今泉忠義、大場磐雄の高弟五人を指して折口信夫の五博士という。各博士たちは、折口の学問を継承し、各自の分野において優れた業績を残した。「五博士」という言い方は、折口自身が言い始めた。大場磐雄による西角井正慶の追悼文（「西角井正慶さんのみたまにささげる詞」『芸能』第13巻第2号（通巻144号） 1971年2月）には、「先生（引用者注・折口信夫）によつて学位を頂き、先生から五博士と呼んで下さつた仲間」と書かれている。
  • 1931年（昭和6年）に石川県立大聖寺高等女学校の校歌[17]を手がけたことを皮切りに20数校の校歌および國大音頭の作詞を手がける[18][19]。
  • 昭和の初め頃の数年間、コカインを常用していた。そのために嗅覚がほとんど失われていた。「まれびと」や「日本文学の発生」といった初期の代表的論文はコカインを常用していた時期に執筆したものである[20]。
  • 小谷野敦は、折口の「まれびと」等を収めた『古代研究』を、何を根拠にしているのか分からない断言が次々と出て来る、しかも文章も奇妙で、文学作品としかいえないものだとしている[21]。

家族・親族

系譜

折口家は木津の願泉寺門徒の百姓であったが、曽祖父彦七の時から商家となり、生薬と雑貨を商った[22]。

  • 祖父：造酒ノ介（みきのすけ）は元、大和の明日香村岡寺前の岡本善右衛門の八男であったが、同地の古社である飛鳥坐神社の累代の神主家飛鳥助信の養子となった上で、折口家に養子として入り、医を本業として従来の家業を兼ねた。
  • 父：秀太郎は河内国の名主の家の次男で、折口家の養子となり医を継いだ。信夫が生まれて7年のち双生児の弟が誕生するが、実は母こうが生んだのではなくて、同居する叔母ゆうと父の秀太郎との間に生まれたのであった。こうした家庭内の愛情にかかわる葛藤も、信夫の心に深い陰影を刻んだ[22]。
  • 長兄：医者の後を継いだ[4]。
（先妻）
彦次郎あゐ
彦七
秀太郎静
順
造酒ノ介
こう進
とよゆう信夫
えい親夫
つた
和夫

著作

全集・著作集

  1. 『古代研究 国文学篇』
  2. 『古代研究 民俗学篇 1』
  3. 『古代研究 民俗学篇 2』
  4. 『日本文学の発生序説：文学発生論』
  5. 『大和時代の文学・風土記の古代生活：古代文学論』
  6. 『万葉びとの生活』
  7. 『万葉集講義・日本古代抒情詩集』
  8. 『東歌疏・選註万葉集抄』
  9. 『口訳万葉集 上』
  10. 『口訳万葉集 下』
  11. 『万葉集辞典』
  12. 『言語情調論・副詞表情の発生(言語論)』
  13. 『新古今前後・世々の歌びと』
  14. 『恋の座・近代短歌』
  15. 『伊勢物語私記・反省の文学源氏物語：後期王朝文学論』
  16. 『国文学・短歌論・国語学』
  17. 『春来る鬼・仇討ちのふおくろあ』
  18. 『女の香炉・大倭宮廷の剏業期』
  19. 『石に出で入るもの・生活の古典としての民俗』
  20. 『民族史観における他界観念・神道宗教化の意義：神道・国学論』
  21. 『日本芸能史六講』
  22. 『かぶき讃』
  23. 『日本文学啓蒙』
  24. 『海やまのあひだ・春のことぶれ』
  25. 『倭をぐな』
  26. 『古代感愛集・近代悲傷集』
  27. 『死者の書・身毒丸』
  28. 『花山寺縁起・東北車中三吟』
  29. 『歌の円寂するとき』
  30. 『切火評論・雲母集細見』
  31. 『自歌自註・短歌啓蒙』
  32. 『山の音を聴きながら』
  33. 『零時日記・海道の砂』
  34. 『日記・書簡・補遺』
  35. 『万葉集短歌輪講・手帖』
  36. 『年譜・著述総目録・講義目録・全集総目次・短歌索引』
  37. 『総索引』
  38. 『別巻1 折口信夫講義』
  39. 『別巻2 折口信夫輪講』
  40. 『別巻3 折口信夫対談』
  • 旧版『折口信夫全集』（全31巻）中央公論社 1954-1957
    • 新訂版 (全31巻・別巻1) 中央公論社 1965-1968、再訂版 1972-1974／中公文庫 1975-1976、総索引1978
  • 『折口信夫全集 ノート編』（全18巻・別巻1）中央公論社
    • 『折口信夫全集 ノート編 追補編』（全5巻）中央公論社
    1970-1988（折口博士記念古代研究所編、併せて約18年かけ刊行）
  • 『折口信夫芸能史講義 戦後篇』全2巻、慶應義塾大学出版会 2015-2016
    伊藤好英・藤原茂樹・池田光編、池田彌(弥)三郎による没年までの講義ノートを書籍化
  • 『精選折口信夫』全6巻、岡野弘彦編・長谷川政春解題、慶應義塾大学出版会 2018-2019 - ※電子書籍も刊
  1. 『異郷論・祭祀論』
  2. 『文学発生論・物語史論』
  3. 『短歌史論・迢空短歌編』
  4. 『芸能史論』
  5. 『随想ほか・迢空詩編』
  6. 『アルバム』
  • 『日本現代文学全集53 折口信夫集』講談社 1969
  • 『日本近代文学大系46 折口信夫集』角川書店 1972　
  • 『近代日本思想大系22 折口信夫集』広末保責任編集、筑摩書房 1975
歌集・歌論　
※は電子書籍版も刊
  • 歌集『海やまのあひだ』改造社 1925
  • 歌集『春のことぶれ』梓書房 1930
  • 歌集『山の端』八雲書店 1946
  • 歌集『遠やまひこ』好学社 1948
  • 歌人論『世々の歌びと』鎌倉文庫 1949
  • 歌集『倭をぐな』中央公論社 1955
  • 『釋迢空詩集』思潮社 現代詩文庫 1975
  • 『万葉集 日本古典文庫』上下 河出書房新社 1976、新版1988
  • 『釋迢空短歌綜集』河出書房新社、1987
  • 『釈迢空全歌集』岡野弘彦編、角川ソフィア文庫 2016※
  • 『口訳万葉集』上中下 岩波現代文庫（持田叙子解説）2017
  • 『歌の話・歌の円寂する時 他一篇』岩波文庫 2009※
    歌論、他は女流短歌史、岡野弘彦解説
  • 『釈迢空歌集』富岡多惠子編、岩波文庫 2010
  • 『折口信夫古典詩歌論集』藤井貞和編、岩波文庫 2012※
創作作品
  • 『死者の書』
    • 『死者の書・身毒丸』中公文庫 改版1999。川村二郎解説
  • 『死者の書』池田彌三郎注解、持田叙子新版解説、角川ソフィア文庫 2017※
  • 『死者の書・口ぶえ』安藤礼二注・解説、岩波文庫 2010※
国文学・芸能関係論
  1. 『祭りの発生』2002
  2. 『祝詞の発生』2003
  3. 『国文学の発生』2003
  4. 『女房文学から隠者文学へ』2004
対話
  • 『折口信夫対話』角川選書 1975-1978 - 池田彌三郎・加藤守雄ほか編
  1. 日本の詩歌 - 谷崎潤一郎、川端康成等との対談・座談など
  2. 古典と現代
  3. 万葉集輪講
  • 新編『折口信夫対話集』安藤礼二編・解説、講談社文芸文庫 2013
天皇・神道論
  • 「御即位式と大嘗祭と」『歴史教育』3-8、歴史教育研究會 1928.12
  • フレイザー「穀物の神を殺す行事」折口訳、『土俗と伝説』1巻第1-2号、文武堂 1918.8
  • 「原始信仰」『郷土科学講座』1、郷土科学研究会 1931.9
  • 「剣と玉」(上代文化研究会公開講演会筆記)『上代文化』7、上代文化研究会 1931.12
  • 「皇子誕生の物語」『『東京日日新聞』東京日日新聞社 1933.12
  • 「大倭宮廷の剏業期」『改造』14-1、改造社 1933.1
  • 「道徳の発生」『表現』2-4、表現社 1933.4
  • 「神道の新しい方向」第一放送 1946.6
    • 「神道の新しい方向」『民俗学の話』共同出版社 1949.6
  • 「神道宗教化の意義」(関東地区神職講習会講演筆記) 1946.8
    • 「神道宗教化の意義」神社新報社 1947.10
  • 「女帝考」『思索』3 1946
  • 「神道の友人よ」『神社新報』27 神社新報社 1947
  • 「民族教より人類教へ」(神社本庁創立満一周年記念講演会筆記)『神社新報』27 神社新報社 1947
  • 「民族史観における他界観念」『古典の新研究』1 角川書店 1952.10

代表歌

春のことぶれ 卒業する二兎人に
  • 道なかに人かへりみずたちつくす道祖神とわれとさびしと言はむ
  • 櫻の花ちりぢりにしもわかれ行く遠きひとりと君もなりなむ 「今昔秀歌百撰83」選者：山本直人
  • 葛の花踏みしだかれて、色あたらし。この山道を行きし人あり (海やまのあひだ)
  • いきどほる心すべなし。手にすゑて、蟹のはさみをもぎはなちたり (海やまのあひだ)
  • 水底に、うつそみの面わ沈透(シヅ)き見ゆ。來む世も、我の寂しくあらむ (海やまのあひだ)

校歌(作詞)

主な評論・評伝

関連文献は数百冊あり、下記はあくまで一部、品切絶版を多く含む。

門下生の回想・研究
  • 『折口信夫回想』池田彌三郎・加藤守雄・岡野弘彦編、中央公論社、1968年
  • 岡野弘彦『折口信夫伝 その思想と学問』 中央公論新社、2000年／ちくま学芸文庫、2020年
  • 岡野弘彦解説「粉河寺の朝の少年折口」-『古代研究I 祭りの発生』中公クラシックス、2002年
  • 岡野弘彦『最後の弟子が語る 折口信夫』 平凡社、2019年
  • 西村亨『折口信夫とその古代学』 中央公論新社、1999年
  • 西村亨『折口名彙と折口学』 桜楓社、1985年
  • 塚崎進『釈迢空・折口信夫の人生』 桜楓社、1987年
  • 加藤守雄『折口信夫伝 釈迢空の形成』 角川書店、1979年 - 評伝研究
  • 『迢空・折口信夫研究』 池田彌三郎・加藤守雄、角川書店、1973年 - 弟子2人の対話集
  • 『池田彌三郎著作集 7 折口信夫研究』 角川書店、1979年
  • 池田彌三郎『私説折口信夫』 中公新書、1972年 - 入門書
  • 『折口信夫 まれびと論 日本民俗文化大系 2』池田彌三郎編著、講談社、1978年 - 著作抜粋と解説
  • 池田彌三郎『まれびとの座 折口信夫と私』 中央公論社、1961年。中公文庫、1977年 - 回想記・日記
  • 池田彌三郎『わが幻の歌びとたち 折口信夫とその周辺』 角川選書、1978年 - 日記。オンデマンド版で再刊
  • 池田彌三郎『孤影の人 折口信夫と釈迢空のあいだ』 旺文社文庫、1981年
  • 『柳田国男と折口信夫』 池田彌三郎・谷川健一、思索社、1980年／岩波同時代ライブラリー、1994年 - 対話集
  • 『折口信夫事典』 西村亨編、大修館書店、1988年、増補版1998年
  • 『迢空・折口信夫事典』 有山大五・石内徹・馬渡憲三編、勉誠出版、2000年
  • 『折口信夫・釈迢空 その人と学問』 國學院大學折口博士記念古代研究所・小川直之編
    おうふう、2005年。没後50年記念出版、9名10編の論考
折口に関する論考集
  • 『折口信夫 日本文学研究資料叢書』 同刊行会編・有精堂出版、1972年、新版1989年
  • 『現代詩手帖 臨時増刊 特集折口信夫・釋迢空』1973年6月号、思潮社
鷲巣繁男 高橋睦郎 伊藤幹治ほか
  • 『短歌 臨時増刊号 迢空・折口信夫特集』1973年11月号、角川書店
馬場あき子 伊馬春部 宮柊二ほか
  • 『折口信夫 人と思想』 谷川健一編、三一書房、1974年
  • 『折口信夫 文芸読本』河出書房新社、1976年、新版 1984年
室生犀星 山本健吉 前登志夫ほか
川村二郎 佐藤正英ほか
  • 『別冊国文学 折口信夫必携』 岡野弘彦・西村亨編、学燈社、1987年、新版 1993年
  • 『柳田国男と折口信夫 学問と創作の間 日本文学研究資料新集』高橋広満編、有精堂出版、1989年
  • 『谷川健一全集 第19巻 人物2 折口信夫 ほか』 冨山房インターナショナル、2008年
  • 『現代思想 総特集 折口信夫』臨時増刊2014年4月号、青土社
安藤礼二 藤井貞和 小松和彦ほか
主に文学者たちの評伝研究
  • 戸板康二『折口信夫坐談』 中央公論社、1972年、のち中公文庫 - 折口の片言隻句を記述
  • 山本健吉『釈迢空』 角川選書、1972年 - 折口門下の一人
  • 穂積生萩『私の折口信夫』 中公文庫、2001年
  • 山折哲雄『物語の始原へ 折口信夫の方法』 小学館、1997年
  • 『執深くあれ 折口信夫のエロス』山折哲雄・穂積生萩 対話、小学館、1997年
  • 藤井貞和『折口信夫の詩の成立 詩形／短歌／学』 中央公論新社、2000年
  • 藤井貞和『釈迢空 詩の発生と<折口学> 私領域からの接近』 講談社学術文庫、1994年
  • 吉増剛造『生涯は夢の中径 折口信夫と歩行』 思潮社、1999年
  • 富岡多恵子『釋迢空ノート』 岩波書店、2000年／岩波現代文庫、2006年
  • 富岡多恵子・安藤礼二 『折口信夫の青春』 ぷねうま舎、2013年
  • 安藤礼二『神々の闘争 折口信夫論』 講談社、2004年／講談社文芸文庫、2024年
  • 安藤礼二『折口信夫』 講談社、2014年
  • 持田叙子『歌の子詩の子、折口信夫』 幻戯書房、2016年
  • 持田叙子『折口信夫 秘恋の道』 慶應義塾大学出版会、2018年
  • 伊藤好英『折口信夫 民俗学の場所』 勉誠出版、2016年
  • 辰巳正明『折口信夫 東アジア文化と日本学の成立』 笠間書院、2007年
  • 奈良橋善司『釈迢空 折口信夫論』 おうふう、2003年
  • 石内徹『折口信夫 日本の作家100人、人と文学』 勉誠出版、2003年
  • 木村純二『折口信夫 いきどほる心 再発見日本の哲学』 講談社、2008年／講談社学術文庫、2016年
  • 上野誠『魂の古代学 問いつづける折口信夫』 新潮選書、2008年
    • 新版『折口信夫 魂の古代学』 角川ソフィア文庫、2014年
  • 上野誠『折口信夫的思考 越境する民俗学者』 青土社、2018年
  • 林浩平『折口信夫 霊性の思索者』 平凡社新書、2009年
  • 植村和秀『折口信夫 日本の保守主義者』 中公新書、2017年
  • 斎藤英喜『折口信夫 神性を拡張する復活の喜び』 ミネルヴァ書房〈日本評伝選〉、2019年
  • 小川直之『柳田國男と折口信夫』 吉川弘文館〈歴史文化ライブラリー〉、2026年
図版
  • 『折口信夫紀行 武田太郎写真集』風書房、1974年
    • 増訂版『折口信夫の世界 回想と写真紀行』 芸能学会編、岩崎美術社、1992年
  • 『精選折口信夫VI アルバム』 岡野弘彦編、國學院大學折口博士記念古代研究所監修、慶應義塾大学出版会、2019年
  • 『折口信夫と古代を旅ゆく』 芳賀日出男写真・解説、慶應義塾大学出版会、2009年
映像
  • 『ビデオ・学問と情熱17 折口信夫』 岡野弘彦監修、紀伊國屋書店、2000年
    • DVD版『学問と情熱 折口信夫 人間を深く愛する神ありて』 同上、2007年

折口信夫が登場する作品

小説
折口がモデルの作品
漫画
上）ISBN 978-4-04-715161-1[35]
中）ISBN 978-4-04-715196-3[36]
下）ISBN 978-4-04-715227-4[37]

主な引用文献

  • 『新潮日本文学アルバム26 折口信夫』 岡野弘彦解説、新潮社、1985年 - 入門書
  • 加藤守雄『わが師 折口信夫』 文藝春秋、1967年。朝日文庫、1991年12月 - 回想
  • 岡野弘彦『折口信夫の晩年』 中央公論社、1969年。中公文庫、1977年・復刊1991年。慶應義塾大学出版会、2017年
  • 岡野弘彦『折口信夫の記』 中央公論社、1996年

脚注

注釈

  1.  岩橋小弥太によると、本来の読み方は「のぶを」であって、國學院在籍時から「しのぶ」と名乗るようになったという[1]。
  2.  この痣から、中学時代は「インキ婆々」というあだ名がついていた[1]。
  3.  江戸後期の歌人加藤千蔭の筆名、1800年（寛政12年）『万葉集』二十巻を注釈した著述で、明治以降も度々刊行された。折口が読んだのは明治33年版。
  4.  没後に別荘は、國學院大學の厚生施設「叢隠居」に改修された。

出典

  1.  岩橋小弥太「折口信夫博士の思出」、『國學院雑誌』69巻11号（1968年11月） p.25
  2.  “生野区内の史跡・旧跡”. 大阪市. 2025年4月8日閲覧。
  3.  富岡多惠子『釋迢空ノート』
  4.  芳賀日出男『折口信夫と古代を旅ゆく』慶應義塾大学出版会 2009年
  5.  天文学者の萩原雄祐は府立今宮中学校時代に折口に師事した。
  6.  加藤守雄『わが師 折口信夫』118頁
  7.  『穂積忠』 - コトバンク
  8.  『日本歌人協会』《文芸年鑑 昭和5年版》、409頁。
  9.  「朝日新聞」1948年4月29日（東京本社発行）朝刊、2頁。
  10.  “折口信夫父子の歌碑”. のと千里浜 観光ガイド. はくい市観光協会. 2023年5月31日時点のオリジナルよりアーカイブ。2024年8月17日閲覧。
  11.  『朝日新聞』1957年2月28日（東京本社発行）朝刊、11頁。
  12.  折口信夫『古代研究I』12–13頁
  13.  折口信夫『古代研究I』14–20頁
  14.  折口信夫『歌の話・歌の円寂する時 他一篇』解説岡野弘彦（岩波文庫、2009年）
  15.  『わが師 折口信夫』 204-205頁には「土間に下りていた折口先生の表情がみるみる蒼白になった。じっとうつむいたまま、立ちすくんでいられる。…“柳田先生はいつもぼくをいじめなさる。ぼくのだいじにしている弟子を、みんなとってしまわれる”ほとんど泣きべそをかくような声であった」という記述がある
  16.  『わが師 折口信夫』 208頁。
  17.  “大聖寺高等女学校校歌”. 石川県立大聖寺高等学校. 2024年10月14日閲覧。
  18.  “校歌を考える”. 東京東筑５３期の会. 2024年10月14日閲覧。
  19.  福岡県立東筑高等学校の作詞については折口によるものではないという異説がある
  20.  岡野弘彦『折口信夫の記』p230、中央公論社, 1996。岡野弘彦『折口信夫の晚年』p76ほか、中公文庫, 1977
  21.  小谷埜敦『日本売春史』新潮社、2007年、32頁。
  22.  『新潮日本文学アルバム 26 折口信夫』より
  23.  “「木島日記」 大塚 英志 - KADOKAWA”. KADOKAWA. 2022年1月30日閲覧。
  24.  “「木島日記」 大塚 英志 - KADOKAWA”. KADOKAWA. 2022年1月30日閲覧。
  25.  “「木島日記」 大塚 英志 - KADOKAWA”. KADOKAWA. 2022年1月30日閲覧。
  26.  “「木島日記 乞丐相」 大塚 英志 - KADOKAWA”. KADOKAWA. 2022年1月30日閲覧。
  27.  “「木島日記 乞丐相」 大塚 英志 - KADOKAWA”. KADOKAWA. 2022年1月30日閲覧。
  28.  “「木島日記 乞丐相」 大塚 英志 - KADOKAWA”. KADOKAWA. 2022年1月30日閲覧。
  29.  “「木島日記 もどき開口」 大塚 英志 - KADOKAWA”. KADOKAWA. 2022年1月30日閲覧。
  30.  “「木島日記 もどき開口 上巻」 大塚 英志 - 星海社”. 星海社. 2023年4月25日閲覧。
  31.  “「木島日記 もどき開口 下巻」 大塚 英志 - 星海社”. 星海社. 2023年4月25日閲覧。
  32.  新編『殉教』解説高橋睦郎（新潮文庫、1982年、改版2004年）、初刊（新潮社、1965年）
  33.  佐藤秀明『日本の作家100人 三島由紀夫』（勉誠出版、2006年）
  34.  初刊は全4巻（角川書店、1999-2003年）
  35.  “「木島日記 上」 大塚 英志 - KADOKAWA”. KADOKAWA. 2022年1月30日閲覧。
  36.  “「木島日記 中」 大塚 英志 - KADOKAWA”. KADOKAWA. 2022年1月30日閲覧。
  37.  “「木島日記 下」 大塚 英志 - KADOKAWA”. KADOKAWA. 2022年1月30日閲覧。

関連項目

外部リンク

===

Walter Pater

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Walter Pater
Pater in the 1890s (photograph by Elliott & Fry)
Born4 August 1839
Stepney, London, Middlesex, England
Died30 July 1894 (aged 54)
Oxford, England
Resting place
Holywell Cemetery
EducationThe Queen's College, Oxford
OccupationsAcademic, essayist, writer
Writing career
LanguageEnglish
GenresArt criticism, literary criticism, literary fiction
Notable worksThe Renaissance (1873), Marius the Epicurean (1885)
Notable awardsHonorary LL.D, University of Glasgow (1894)
Movement
Aestheticism

Walter Horatio Pater (4 August 1839 – 30 July 1894) was an English essayist, art and literary critic, and fiction writer, regarded as one of the great stylists. His first and most often reprinted book, Studies in the History of the Renaissance (1873), revised as The Renaissance: Studies in Art and Poetry (1877), in which he outlined his approach to art and advocated an ideal of the intense inner life, was taken by many as a manifesto (whether stimulating or subversive) of Aestheticism.[1][2]

Early life

Born in Stepney in London's East End, Walter Pater was the second son of Richard Glode Pater, a physician who had moved to London in the early 19th century to practise medicine among the poor. Dr Pater died while Walter was an infant and the family moved to Enfield. Walter attended Enfield Grammar School and was individually tutored by the headmaster.

In 1853 he was sent to The King's School, Canterbury, where the beauty of the cathedral made an impression that would remain with him all his life. He was fourteen when his mother, Maria Pater, died in 1854. As a schoolboy Pater read John Ruskin's Modern Painters, which helped inspire his lifelong attraction to the study of art and gave him a taste for well-crafted prose. He gained a school exhibition, with which he proceeded in 1858 to Queen's College, Oxford.[3]

As an undergraduate, Pater was a "reading man", with literary and philosophical interests beyond the prescribed texts. Flaubert, Gautier, Baudelaire and Swinburne were among his early favourites. Visiting his aunt and sisters in Heidelberg, Germany,[4] during the vacations, he learned German and began to read Hegel and the German philosophers.[5] The scholar Benjamin Jowett was struck by his potential and offered to give him private lessons. In Jowett's classes, however, Pater was a disappointment; he took a Second in Literae Humaniores in 1862. As a boy Pater had cherished the idea of entering the Anglican clergy, but at Oxford his faith in Christianity had been shaken. In spite of his inclination towards the ritual and aesthetic elements of the church, he had little interest in Christian doctrine and did not pursue ordination. After graduating, Pater remained in Oxford and taught Classics and Philosophy to private students. (His sister Clara Pater, a pioneer of women's education, later taught ancient Greek and Latin at Somerville College, of which she was one of the co-founders.[6]) Pater's years of study and reading now paid dividends: he was offered a classical fellowship in 1864 at Brasenose on the strength of his ability to teach modern German philosophy,[7] and he settled down to a university career.

Career and writings

The Renaissance

Pater as a young don at Brasenose

The opportunities for wider study and teaching at Oxford, combined with formative visits to the Continent – in 1865 he visited Florence, Pisa and Ravenna – meant that Pater's preoccupations now multiplied. He became acutely interested in art and literature, and started to write articles and criticism. First to be printed was an essay on the metaphysics of Coleridge, 'Coleridge's Writings', contributed anonymously in 1866 to the Westminster Review. A few months later his essay on Winckelmann (1867), an early expression of his intellectual and artistic idealism, appeared in the same review, followed by 'The Poems of William Morris' (1868), expressing his admiration for romanticism. In the following years the Fortnightly Review printed his essays on Leonardo da Vinci (1869), Sandro Botticelli (1870), and Michelangelo (1871). The last three, with other similar pieces, were collected in his Studies in the History of the Renaissance (1873), renamed in the second and later editions The Renaissance: Studies in Art and Poetry. The Leonardo essay contains Pater's celebrated reverie on the Mona Lisa[8] ("probably still the most famous piece of writing about any picture in the world"[9]); the Botticelli essay was the first in English on this painter, contributing to the revival of interest in him;[10] while the Winckelmann essay explored a temperament with whom Pater felt a strong affinity.[11] An essay on 'The School of Giorgione' (Fortnightly Review, 1877), added to the third edition (1888), contains Pater's much-quoted maxim "All art constantly aspires towards the condition of music" (i.e. the arts seek to unify subject-matter and form, and music is the only art in which subject and form are seemingly one). The final paragraphs of the 1868 William Morris essay were reworked as the book's 'Conclusion'.

This brief 'Conclusion' was to be Pater's most influential – and controversial[12] – publication. It asserts that our physical lives are made up of scientific processes and elemental forces in perpetual motion, "renewed from moment to moment but parting sooner or later on their ways". In the mind "the whirlpool is still more rapid": a drift of perceptions, feelings, thoughts and memories, reduced to impressions "unstable, flickering, inconstant", "ringed round for each one of us by that thick wall of personality"; and "with the passage and dissolution of impressions... [there is a] continual vanishing away, that strange, perpetual weaving and unweaving of ourselves". Because all is in flux, to get the most from life, we must learn to discriminate through "sharp and eager observation": for

every moment some form grows perfect in hand or face; some tone on the hills or the sea is choicer than the rest; some mood of passion or insight or intellectual excitement is irresistibly real and attractive for us, – for that moment only.

Through such discrimination we may "get as many pulsations as possible into the given time": "To burn always with this hard, gem-like flame, to maintain this ecstasy, is success in life." Forming habits means failure on our part, for habit connotes the stereotypical. "While all melts under our feet," Pater wrote, "we may well catch at any exquisite passion, or any contribution to knowledge that seems by a lifted horizon to set the spirit free for a moment, or any stirring of the senses, or work of the artist's hands. Not to discriminate every moment some passionate attitude in those about us in the brilliancy of their gifts is, on this short day of frost and sun, to sleep before evening." The resulting "quickened, multiplied consciousness" counters our insecurity in the face of the flux.[13] Moments of vision may come from simple natural effects, as Pater notes elsewhere in the book: "A sudden light transfigures a trivial thing, a weathervane, a windmill, a winnowing flail, the dust in the barn door; a moment – and the thing has vanished, because it was pure effect; but it leaves a relish behind it, a longing that the accident may happen again."[14] Or they may come from "intellectual excitement", from philosophy, science and the arts. Here we should "be for ever testing new opinions, never acquiescing in a facile orthodoxy"; and of these, a passion for the arts, "a desire of beauty", has (in the summary of one of Pater's editors[15]) "the greatest potential for staving off the sense of transience, because in the arts the perceptions of highly sensitive minds are already ordered; we are confronted with a reality already refined and we are able to reach the personality behind the work".

Reception and aftermath

The Renaissance, which appeared to some to endorse amorality and "hedonism", provoked criticism from conservative quarters, including disapproval from Pater's former tutor at Queen's College, from the chaplain at Brasenose College and from the Bishop of Oxford.[16] Margaret Oliphant, reviewing the book in Blackwood's Magazine, dismissed it as "the very madness of fantastic modernism trying to foist its own refinements into the primitive mind and age" and "rococo from beginning to end,—in its new version of [...] the Epicureans’ gay despair".[17] George Eliot condemned it as "quite poisonous in its false principles of criticism and false conceptions of life".[18]

In 1874 Pater was turned down at the last moment by his erstwhile mentor Benjamin Jowett, Master of Balliol, for a previously-promised proctorship. In the 1980s, letters emerged documenting a "romance"[19] with a nineteen-year-old Balliol undergraduate, William Money Hardinge, who had attracted unfavorable attention as a result of his outspoken homosexuality and blasphemous verse, and who later became a novelist.[19] Many of Pater's works focus on male beauty, friendship and love, either in a Platonic way or, obliquely, in a more physical way.[20] Another undergraduate, W. H. Mallock, had passed the Pater-Hardinge letters to Jowett,[21] who summoned Pater:

"Pater's whole nature changed under the strain" (wrote A. C. Benson in his diary) "after the dreadful interview with Jowett. He became old, crushed, despairing – and this dreadful weight lasted for years; it was years before he realised that Jowett would not use them."[22]

In 1876 Mallock parodied Pater's message in a satirical novel The New Republic, depicting Pater as 'Mr Rose', a typically effete English aesthete.[note 1] The satire appeared during the competition for the Oxford Professorship of Poetry and played a role in convincing Pater to remove himself from consideration. A few months later Pater published what may have been a subtle riposte: 'A Study of Dionysus' the outsider-god, persecuted for his new religion of ecstasy, who vanquishes the forces of reaction (The Fortnightly Review, Dec. 1876).[19]

Marius the Epicurean and Imaginary Portraits

Walter Pater lived at 2 Bradmore Road in North Oxford (the right-hand house with a blue plaque) between 1869 and 1885 with his sisters, including Clara Pater, a pioneer of women's education.[23]
Plaque at 2 Bradmore Road, Oxford

Pater was now at the centre of a small but gifted circle in Oxford – he had tutored Gerard Manley Hopkins in 1866 and the two remained friends till September 1879 when Hopkins left Oxford[24][25] – and he was gaining respect in the London literary world and beyond. Through Swinburne he met figures like Edmund Gosse, William Bell Scott, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti.[26] He was an early friend and supporter of the young pre-Raphaelite painter Simeon Solomon.[27][28] Conscious of his growing influence and aware that the 'Conclusion' to his Renaissance could be misconstrued as amoral, he withdrew the essay from the second edition in 1877 (he was to reinstate it with "slight changes" in the third in 1888[note 2]) and now set about clarifying and exemplifying his ideas through fiction.[29]

To this end he published in 1878 in Macmillan's Magazine an evocative semi-autobiographical sketch titled 'Imaginary Portraits 1. The Child in the House', about some of the formative experiences of his childhood – "a work", as Pater's earliest biographer put it, "which can be recommended to anyone unacquainted with Pater's writings, as exhibiting most fully his characteristic charm."[30] This was to be the first of a dozen or so "Imaginary Portraits", a genre and term Pater could be said to have invented and in which he came to specialise.[31][32] These are not so much stories – plotting is limited and dialogue absent – as psychological studies of fictional characters in historical settings, often personifications of new concepts at turning-points in the history of ideas or emotion. Some look forward, dealing with innovation in the arts and philosophy; others look back, dramatising neo-pagan themes. Many are veiled self-portraits exploring dark personal preoccupations.[33]

Planning a major work, Pater now resigned his teaching duties in 1882, though he retained his Fellowship and the college rooms he had occupied since 1864, and made a research visit to Rome. In his philosophical novel Marius the Epicurean (1885), an extended imaginary portrait set in the Rome of the Antonines, which Pater believed had parallels with his own century,[34] he examines the "sensations and ideas" of a young Roman of integrity, who pursues an ideal of the "aesthetic" life – a life based on αἴσθησις, sensation, perception – tempered by asceticism. Leaving behind the religion of his childhood, sampling one philosophy after another, becoming secretary to the Stoic emperor Marcus Aurelius, Marius tests his author's theory of the stimulating effect of the pursuit of sensation and insight as an ideal in itself. The novel's opening and closing episodes betray Pater's continuing nostalgia for the atmosphere, ritual and community of the religious faith he had lost. Marius was favourably reviewed and sold well; a second edition came out in the same year. For the third edition (1892) Pater made extensive stylistic revisions.[35]

In 1885, on the resignation of John Ruskin, Pater became a candidate for the Slade Professorship of Fine Art at Oxford University, but though in many ways the strongest of the field, he withdrew from the competition, discouraged by continuing hostility in official quarters.[36] In the wake of this disappointment but buoyed by the success of Marius, he moved with his sisters from North Oxford (2 Bradmore Road[23]), their home since 1869, to London (12 Earls Terrace, Kensington), where he was to live (outside term-time) till 1893.

Walter Pater lived with his sisters at 12 Earls Terrace, Kensington (house with blue plaque) between 1885 and 1893.[23]
Blue plaque, 12 Earls Terrace, Kensington
The Bodleian copy of An Imaginary Portrait (1894), re-bound for the Library in 1916 by Katharine Adams (1862–1952) with her cover-design

From 1885 to 1887, Pater published four new imaginary portraits in Macmillan's Magazine, each a study of misfits, men born out of their time, who bring disaster upon themselves – 'A Prince of Court Painters' (1885) (on Watteau and Jean-Baptiste Pater, with Pater's only female narrator), 'Sebastian van Storck' (March 1886) (17th-century Dutch society and painting, and the philosophy of Spinoza), 'Denys L'Auxerrois' (October 1886) (Dionysus and the medieval cathedral- and organ-builders), and 'Duke Carl of Rosenmold' (1887) (the German Enlightenment). These were collected in the volume Imaginary Portraits (1887; second edition, with stylistic revisions, 1890). Here Pater's examination of the tensions between tradition and innovation, intellect and sensation, asceticism and aestheticism, social mores and amorality, becomes increasingly complex. Implied warnings against the pursuit of extremes in matters intellectual, aesthetic or sensual are unmistakable. The second portrait, 'Sebastian van Storck', a powerful critique of philosophical solipsism, has been described as Pater's most subtle psychological study.[37][38]

Appreciations, Plato and Platonism, and An Imaginary Portrait

In 1889 Pater published Appreciations, with an Essay on Style, a collection of previously-printed essays on literature. It was well received. 'Style' (reprinted from the Fortnightly Review, 1888) is a statement of his creed and methodology as a prose-writer, ending with the paradox "If style be the man, it will be in a real sense 'impersonal' ". The volume also includes an appraisal of the poems of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, first printed in 1883, a few months after Rossetti's death; 'Aesthetic Poetry', a revised version of the William Morris essay of 1868 minus its final paragraphs; and an essay on Thomas Browne, whose mystical, Baroque style Pater admired. The essay on Coleridge reprints 'Coleridge's Writings' (1866) but omits its explicitly anti-Christian passages;[39] it adds paragraphs on Coleridge's poetry that Pater had contributed to T.H. Ward's The English Poets (1880). When he reworked his 1876 essay 'Romanticism' as the 'Postscript' to Appreciations, Pater removed its references to Baudelaire (now associated with the Decadent Movement), substituting Hugo's name in their place.[40] In the second edition of Appreciations (1890) he suppressed the essay 'Aesthetic Poetry' – further evidence of his growing cautiousness in response to establishment criticism.[41] All subsequent reprints of Appreciations ("to the dismay of every reader since 1890", as Gerald Monsman put it[42]) have followed the second edition.

In 1893 Pater and his sisters returned to Oxford (64 St Giles, now the site of Blackfriars Hall, a permanent private hall of the University of Oxford). He was now in demand as a lecturer. In this year appeared his book Plato and Platonism. Here and in other essays on ancient Greece Pater relates to Greek culture the romanticism-classicism dialectic which he had first explored in his essay 'Romanticism' (1876). "All through Greek history," he writes, "we may trace, in every sphere of activity of the Greek mind, the action of these two opposing tendencies, the centrifugal and centripetal. The centrifugal – the Ionian, the Asiatic tendency – flying from the centre, throwing itself forth in endless play of imagination, delighting in brightness and colour, in beautiful material, in changeful form everywhere, its restless versatility driving it towards the development of the individual": and "the centripetal tendency", drawing towards the centre, "maintaining the Dorian influence of a severe simplification everywhere, in society, in culture". Harold Bloom noted that "Pater praises Plato for Classic correctness, for a conservative centripetal impulse, against his [Pater's] own Heraclitean Romanticism," but "we do not believe him when he presents himself as a centripetal man".[43] The volume, which also includes a sympathetic study of ancient Sparta ('Lacedaemon', 1892), was praised by Jowett.[44] "The change that occurs between Marius and Plato and Platonism," writes Anthony Ward,[45] "is one from a sense of defeat in scepticism to a sense of triumph in it."

In the early summer of 1894 'The Child in the House' was for the first time issued in book form, in a limited edition of 250 copies, "reprinted with loving care"[46] by the Daniel Press of Oxford, as An Imaginary Portrait, and described by Gosse as "a precious toy for bibliomaniacs".[4] It sold out in under an hour.[47] "I quite love your child," wrote Emily Daniel to Pater, presenting him with a copy. Pater in reply expressed pleasure in seeing his child "so daintily attired".[47]

On 30 July 1894, Pater died suddenly in his Oxford home of heart failure brought on by rheumatic fever, at the age of 54. He was buried at Holywell Cemetery, Oxford.[48][49]

Greek Studies, Miscellaneous Studies, Gaston de Latour and other posthumous volumes

In 1895, a friend and former student of Pater's, Charles Lancelot Shadwell, a Fellow and later Provost of Oriel, collected and published as Greek Studies Pater's essays on Greek mythology, religion, art and literature. This volume contains a reverie on the boyhood of Hippolytus, 'Hippolytus Veiled' (first published in Macmillan's Magazine in 1889), which has been called "the finest prose ever inspired by Euripides".[50] In genre another "imaginary portrait", the sketch illustrates a paradox central to Pater's sensibility and writings: a leaning towards ascetic beauty apprehended sensuously. The volume also reprints Pater's 1876 'Study of Dionysus'.

Copy of Polykleitos' 'Diadumenos', discussed by Pater in 'The Age of Athletic Prizemen' (1894)

In the same year Shadwell assembled other uncollected pieces and published them as Miscellaneous Studies. This volume contains 'The Child in the House' and another two obliquely self-revelatory Imaginary Portraits, 'Emerald Uthwart' (first published in The New Review in 1892) and 'Apollo in Picardy' (from Harper's Magazine, 1893) – the latter, like 'Denys L'Auxerrois', centering on a peculiarly Paterian preoccupation: the survival or reincarnation of pagan deities in the Christian era. Also included were Pater's last (unfinished) essay, on Pascal, and two pieces that point to a revival in Pater's final years of his earlier interest in Gothic cathedrals, sparked by regular visits to northern Europe with his sisters.[51] Charles Shadwell "in his younger days" had been "strikingly handsome, both in figure and feature",[52] "with a face like those to be seen on the finer Attic coins";[53] he had been the unnamed inspiration[54] of an unpublished early paper of Pater's, 'Diaphaneitè' (1864), a tribute to youthful beauty and intellect, the manuscript of which Pater gave to Shadwell. This piece Shadwell also included in Miscellaneous Studies. Shadwell had accompanied Pater on his 1865 visit to Italy, and Pater was to dedicate The Renaissance to him and to write a preface to Shadwell's edition of The Purgatory of Dante Alighieri (1892).

In 1896 Shadwell edited and published seven chapters of Pater's unfinished novel Gaston de Latour, set in turbulent late 16th-century France, the product of the author's interest in French history, philosophy, literature, and art. Pater had conceived Marius as the first novel of "a trilogy of works of similar character dealing with the same problems, under altered historical conditions";[55] Gaston was to have been the second, while the third was to have been set in England in the late 18th century.[56] In 1995 Gerald Monsman published Gaston de Latour: The Revised Text, re-editing the seven chapters and editing the remaining six which Shadwell and Clara Pater had withheld as too unfinished.[57][6] "Through the imaginary portrait of Gaston and Gaston's historical contemporaries – Ronsard, Montaigne, Bruno, Queen Marguerite, King Henry III – Pater's fantasia confronts and admonishes the Yellow Nineties, Oscar Wilde not least."[58] In an 1891 review of The Picture of Dorian Gray in The Bookman, Pater had disapproved of Wilde's distortion of Epicureanism: "A true Epicureanism aims at a complete though harmonious development of man's entire organism. To lose the moral sense therefore, for instance the sense of sin and righteousness, as Mr. Wilde's heroes are bent on doing so speedily, as completely as they can, is ... to become less complex, to pass from a higher to a lower degree of development."[59]

Essays from The Guardian, edited by Gosse, a selection of Pater's anonymous 1886–1890 book-reviews from the journal also known as 'The Church Guardian',[60] and an Uncollected Essays were privately printed in 1896 and 1903 respectively (the latter was republished as Sketches and Reviews in 1919). An Édition de luxe ten-volume Works of Walter Pater, with two volumes for Marius and including all but the pieces in Uncollected Essays, was issued in 1901; it was reissued, in plainer form, as the Library Edition in 1910. Pater's works were frequently reprinted until the late 1920s.[61]

Influence

Toward the end of his life Pater's writings were exercising a considerable influence. The principles of what would be known as the Aesthetic Movement were partly traceable to him, and his effect was particularly felt on one of the movement's leading proponents, Oscar Wilde, who paid tribute to him in The Critic as Artist (1891). Among art critics influenced by Pater were Bernard Berenson, Roger Fry, Kenneth Clark and Richard Wollheim: among early literary Modernists, Marcel Proust, James Joyce, W. B. Yeats, Paul Valéry, Ezra Pound, T. S. Eliot and Wallace Stevens;[43] and Pater's influence can be traced in the subjective, stream-of-consciousness novels of the early 20th century. In literary criticism, Pater's emphasis on subjectivity and on the autonomy of the reader helped prepare the way for the revolutionary approaches to literary studies of the modern era. The Paterian sensibility is also apparent in the political philosophy of Michael Oakeshott. Among ordinary readers, idealists have found inspiration in his desire "to burn always with this hard, gemlike flame", in his pursuit of the "highest quality" in "moments as they pass."

Critical method

Pater's critical method was outlined in the 'Preface' to The Renaissance (1873) and refined in his later writings. In the 'Preface', he argues initially for a subjective, relativist response to life, ideas, art, as opposed to the drier, more objective, somewhat moralistic criticism practised by Matthew Arnold and others. "The first step towards seeing one's object as it really is," Pater wrote, "is to know one's own impression, to discriminate it, to realise it distinctly. What is this song or picture, this engaging personality in life or in a book, to me?" When we have formed our impressions we proceed to find "the power or forces" which produced them, the work's "virtue". "Pater moves, in other words, from effects to causes, which are his real interest," noted Richard Wollheim.[62] Among these causes are, pre-eminently, original temperaments and types of mind; but Pater "did not confine himself to pairing off a work of art with a particular temperament. Having a particular temperament under review, he would ask what was the range of forms in which it might find expression. Some of the forms will be metaphysical doctrines, ethical systems, literary theories, religions, myths. Pater's scepticism led him to think that in themselves all such systems lack sense or meaning – until meaning is conferred upon them by their capacity to give expression to a particular temperament."[62]

Theory, hypothesis, beliefs depend a great deal on temperament; they are, so to speak, mere equivalents of temperament.

— Marius the Epicurean, Chapter XX.

Style

Pater was much admired for his prose style, which he strove to make worthy of his aesthetic ideals, taking great pains and fastidiously correcting his work. He kept on his desk little squares of paper, each with its ideas, and shuffled them about attempting to form a sequence and pattern.[63] "I have known writers of every degree, but never one to whom the act of composition was such a travail and an agony as it was to Pater," wrote Edmund Gosse, who also described Pater's method of composition: "So conscious was he of the modifications and additions which would supervene that he always wrote on ruled paper, leaving each alternate line blank."[64] He would then make a fair copy and repeat the process, sometimes paying to have drafts printed, to judge their effect. "Unlike those who were caught by Flaubert's theory of the unique word and the only epithet," wrote Osbert Burdett,[65] "Pater sought the sentence, and the sentence in relation to the paragraph, and the paragraph as a movement in the chapter. The numerous parentheses deliberately exchanged a quick flow of rhythm for pauses, for charming little eddies by the way." At the height of his powers as a writer, Pater discussed his principles of composition in the 1888 essay 'Style'. A. C. Benson called Pater's style "absolutely distinctive and entirely new", adding, however, that "it appeals, perhaps, more to the craftsman than to the ordinary reader."[66] To G. K. Chesterton, Pater's prose, serene and contemplative in tone, suggested a "vast attempt at impartiality."[67]

Modern editions

  • Pater, Walter (1964), Brzenk, Eugene J (ed.), Imaginary Portraits: a new collection, NY: Harper. Contains "An English Poet", The Fortnightly Review, 1931.
  • ——— (1970), Evans, Lawrence (ed.), Letters, Oxford: Clarendon, ISBN 0-19-953507-8.
  • ——— (1973), Uglow, Jennifer (ed.), Essays on Literature and Art, Everyman Library, London: Dent. Includes several essays in their original periodical form.
  • ——— (1980), Hill, Donald L (ed.), The Renaissance – Studies in Art and Poetry; the 1893 text, University of California Press. An annotated edition of Pater's revised text.
  • ——— (1982) [1974], Bloom, Harold (ed.), Selected Writings, NY: Signet.
  • ——— (1983), Bloom, Harold (ed.), Plato and Platonism, NY: Chelsea House.
  • ——— (1986), Small, Ian (ed.), Marius the Epicurean, Oxford: World's Classics (facsimile of the 1934 Everyman's Library edition text, with new introduction and notes).
  • ——— (1994) [1985], Levey, Michael (ed.), Marius the Epicurean, Middlesex: Penguin.
  • ——— (1995), Monsman, Gerald (ed.), Gaston de Latour: The Revised Text, Greensboro: ELT Press; University of North Carolina.
  • ——— (2010), Beaumont, Matthew (ed.), Studies in the History of the Renaissance, Oxford World's Classics, OUP, ISBN 978-0-19-953507-1, ISBN 0-19-953507-8. An annotated edition of the 1873 text.

The 'Oxford' Pater

Brasenose College, Oxford (centre). Pater's rooms were on the upper floor above the oriel window, left.
Pater's grave in Holywell Cemetery, Oxford (before 1907)
The Pater family tree, from Thomas Wright's biography, 1907
Memorial to Pater in Brasenose chapel: ὡς φιλοσοφίας μὲν οὔσης μεγίστης μουσικῆς... 'for the study of philosophy is the noblest and best of "music" ' (Socrates in Jowett's translation of Phaedo)

From 2019 the Oxford University Press began publishing its ten-volume Collected Works of Walter Pater, the first complete annotated edition. It prints Pater's latest revisions as the 'copy text', with earlier variants recorded in notes (the editors consider Pater a judicious reviser of his own work[68]); and it includes periodical and academic articles left out of the 1901 and 1910 Works, Pater's Letters, and unpublished manuscript material.

  • Vol. I. The Renaissance, ed. Fraser, Hilary (2026)
  • Vol II. Marius the Epicurean ( — )
  • Vol. III. Imaginary Portraits, ed. Ostermark-Johansen, Lene (2019) [nine Portraits]
  • Vol. IV. Gaston de Latour, ed. Monsman, Gerald (2019)
  • Vol. V. Studies and Reviews, 1864–1889, eds. Brake, Laurel, & Jakeman, Robyn (2026)
  • Vol. VI. Appreciations; Studies and Reviews, 1890–1895 ( — )
  • Vol. VII. Plato and Platonism ( — )
  • Vol. VIII. Classical Studies, ed. Potolsky, Matthew (2020)
  • Vol. IX. Correspondence, ed. Seiler, Robert (2023)
  • Vol. X. Manuscripts ( — )

In literature

  • Arthur Conan Doyle uses Pater as a cultural marker in his 1898 novel The Tragedy of the Korosko. Discussing one of a party steaming up the Nile, he says "Mr. Cecil Brown...was a young diplomatist from a Continental Embassy, a man slightly tainted with the Oxford manner, and erring upon the side of unnatural and inhuman refinement, but full of interesting talk and cultured thought...He chose Walter Pater for his travelling author, and sat all day, reserved but affable, under the awning, with his novel and his sketch-book upon a camp-stool beside him."
  • Wilde's Lord Henry Wotton in The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890) incessantly and willfully misquotes Pater's Renaissance and Marius.[69]
  • In W. Somerset Maugham's 'The Magician' (1908), Pater's reverie on the Mona Lisa is quoted by Oliver Haddo in his seduction of Margaret. (Penguin 1967 edition, pp 85–86).
  • In talk among the young in Maugham's Of Human Bondage (1915), Pater is named as one of the few Victorians whose work done after forty should be saved from the bonfire. (Chapter 41)
  • H. L Mencken in his work The American Language (1919) mentions Pater twice as a contrast to common English usage in Britain.
  • Pater's The Renaissance is praised as a "wonderful new volume" in Edith Wharton's novel The Age of Innocence (1920), set in the 1870s.
  • In Sinclair Lewis's Arrowsmith (1925) (chap. 1), Professor Gottlieb tells his medical students (in his accented English), "Before the next lab hour I shall be glad if you will read Pater's Marius the Epicurean, to derife [sic] from it the calmness which iss [sic] the secret of laboratory skill."
  • In Maugham's 1939 novel Christmas Holiday, in a scene in the Louvre before the Mona Lisa (Chapter 8), "Mrs Mason, a faint enigmatic smile on her lips, in a low but thrilling voice repeated the celebrated lines that two generations ago wrought such havoc on the aesthetic young".
  • Pater is referenced in Yukio Mishima's Forbidden Colors (1951), page 21 in the Alfred Marks translation. First edition, Knopf, New York, 1968.
  • Citations from Pater's The Renaissance are sprinkled throughout Frederic Tuten's novel The Adventures of Mao on the Long March (1971).
  • Lines from the 'Conclusion' to Pater's Renaissance are quoted among the sixth formers in Julian Mitchell's play Another Country (1982).
  • Pater, with several of his colleagues, appears as a minor character in Tom Stoppard's play The Invention of Love (1997).
  • Pater is the subject of a poem by Billy Collins titled 'The Great Walter Pater'.
  • R. P. Lister poked gentle fun at Pater's ideas in his poem 'The Gemlike Flame'.[70]

Notes

  1.  The New Republic was first published in Belgravia magazine, June to December 1876, with book publication in March 1877. The parody contributed to Pater's decision to drop the 'Conclusion' (Mallock's main source for Mr Rose) in the second edition of The Renaissance, published in June 1877. (Tillotson, G., 'Pater, Mr Rose, and the Conclusion to The Renaissance ',  Essays and Studies by Members of the English Association, Vol.32, 1946, pp.44-60)
  2.  "Though they are slight in volume," wrote Geoffrey Tillotson in 1946, "they cannot be called slight in substance. Some of them change the values in sentences which use crucial terms like 'religion' and 'morality'. What was at first recommended to all as a system of life came to be recommended only to those included in the conveniently vague term 'children of this world'."

References

  1.  Patmore, Derek, Walter Pater: Selected Writings (London, 1949), p.11
  2.  Ostermark-Johansen, L. (ed.), The Collected Works of Walter Pater: Imaginary Portraits (Oxford, 2019), p.31
  3.  Edwards, DL (1957), A History of the King's School, Canterbury, p. 126.
  4.  Edmund Gosse, 'Walter Pater: A Portrait' (September 1894), reprinted in Gosse's Selected Essays: First Series (London, 1928), pp.27-58
  5.  Levey 1978, chapters 1–4.
  6.  Ostermark-Johansen, L. (ed.), The Collected Works of Walter Pater: Imaginary Portraits (Oxford, 2019), p.xlii
  7.  Wright 1907, p. 211.
  8.  "The Aesthetic Movement: Walter Pater on the Mona Lisa". USA: Boston College. Archived from the original on 8 August 2018. Retrieved 5 December 2012.
  9.  Levey 1978, p. 125.
  10.  Levey 1978, p. 138.
  11.  Monsman, Gerald, Walter Pater's Art of Autobiography (New Haven, 1980), p.140
  12.  "Walter Pater's Renaissance (1873) and the British Aesthetic Movement"], II. Reception: branchcollective.org/?ps_articles=rachel-teukolsky-walter-paters-renaissance-1873-and-the-british-aesthetic-movement Rachel Teukolsky
  13.  Pater, Walter (1873), "Conclusion", Studies in the History of the Renaissance, London: MacMillan and Co..
  14.  Pater, Walter, "Joachim du Bellay", Studies in the History of the Renaissance.
  15.  Uglow, Jennifer, Introduction in Pater 1973, p. 10.
  16.  Levey 1978, pp. 142–3.
  17.  Oliphant, Margaret (November 1873). "New Books" (PDF). Blackwood's Magazine. 114 (697): 607–8 – via George Eliot Archive.
  18.  George Eliot, letter to John Blackwood, 5 November 1873, quoted in Denis Donoghue's Walter Pater: Lover of Strange Souls (New York, 1995), p.58
  19.  Inman 1991.
  20.  Eribon, Didier (2004), Insult and the Making of the Gay Self, Lucey, Michael (transl.), Duke University Press, pp. 159–79, ISBN 0-8223-3371-6
  21.  Information given by Edmund Gosse to A. C. Benson (Benson's Diary, 73, 1 September 1905); Walter Pater: An Imaginative Sense of Fact, ed. Philip Dodd (London, 1981), p.48
  22.  A. C. Benson, Diary, 73, 1 September 1905; Walter Pater: An Imaginative Sense of Fact, ed. Philip Dodd (London, 1981), p.48
  23.  Warr, Elizabeth Jean (2011). The Oxford Plaque Guide. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press. pp. 96–97. ISBN 978-0-7524-5687-4.
  24.  Monsman, Gerald (1974), "Pater, Hopkins and the self", Victorian Notes.
  25.  Dodd, Philip, ed. (2017) [1981]. Walter Pater: An imaginative Sense of Fact. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-1138165915..
  26.  Levey, Michael, The Case of Walter Pater (London 1978), p.112
  27.  Levey, Michael, The Case of Walter Pater (London 1978)
  28.  Kaylor, Michael Matthew, Secreted Desires: The Major Uranians - Hopkins, Pater and Wilde (Masaryk University, Brno, 2006) p.82
  29.  Pater, Walter, explanatory footnote in reinstated 'Conclusion' to The Renaissance: Studies in Art and Poetry (3rd [1888] and subsequent editions)
  30.  A.C. Benson, Walter Pater (London, 1906), p.79
  31.  A.C. Benson, Walter Pater (London, 1906), p.122
  32.  Monsman, Gerald, Walter Pater's Art of Autobiography (New Haven, 1980), p.26
  33.  Monsman, Gerald, Walter Pater's Art of Autobiography (New Haven, 1980), p.7, p.28, p.68-78
  34.  Pater, Marius the Epicurean, Chapter XVI
  35.  Walter Pater, Marius the Epicurean, ed. Ian Small (Oxford, 1986), Textual Note
  36.  Levey 1978, p. 73.
  37.  Seiler, R. M. (ed.), Walter Pater: The Critical Heritage (London, 1980), p.163; p.171
  38.  Brzenk, Eugene J. (ed.), Walter Pater: 'Imaginary Portraits': a new collection (New York, 1964), p.12
  39.  Dodd, Philip, ed. (1977), Prose Studies.
  40.  Monsman, Gerald, Walter Pater's Art of Autobiography (New Haven, 1980), p.154
  41.  Levey 1978, p. 185.
  42.  Monsman, Gerald, Walter Pater's Art of Autobiography (New Haven, 1980)
  43.  Pater, Walter; Bloom, Harold, Introduction to 'Selected Writings' of Walter Pater, New York.
  44.  Wright 1907, p. II.165.
  45.  Ward 1966, p. 194.
  46.  Henry Daniel in the Daniels' 1894 limited edition of An Imaginary Portrait ('The Child in the House')
  47.  Ostermark-Johansen, L. (ed.), The Collected Works of Walter Pater: Imaginary Portraits (Oxford, 2019), appendix on the 1894 Daniel edition
  48.  Pater's grave in Holywell Cemetery, Oxford, before 1907
  49.  Wilson, Scott. Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons, 3d ed.: 2 (Kindle Locations 36375-36376). McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers. Kindle Edition.
  50.  Lucas, F. L. (1924) [Boston 1923], Euripides and his Influence, Our Debt to Greece and Rome, London: G. G. Harrap & Co., p. 172.
  51.  Rothenstein, Sir William (1894), Walter Pater (lithograph; JPEG) (portrait), Odyssée theater.
  52.  "Obituary", The Times, 14 February 1919.
  53.  Wright, Thomas, The Life of Walter Pater (London, 1907), Vol.1 p.218; Levey, Michael, The Case of Walter Pater (London, 1978), p.102
  54.  Benson, AC (1906), Walter Pater, p. 10.
  55.  Evans, Lawrence (ed.), Letters of Walter Pater(Oxford, 1970), letter 28 January 1886
  56.  Levey, Michael, The Case of Walter Pater (London, 1978), p.190
  57.  Monsman, Gerald, Gaston de Latour: The Revised Text (Greensboro, 1995)
  58.  Monsman, Gerald, Gaston de Latour: The Revised Text (Greensboro, 1995), dustjacket quotation
  59.  Pater, Walter, "A Novel by Mr Oscar Wilde", The Bookman, 1, Nov. 1891, pp.59–60; reprinted in Walter Pater: Sketches and Reviews (1919)
  60.  Laurel Brake, 'Pater the Journalist: Essays from The Guardian', English Literature in Transition, 1880-1920, ELT Press, Volume 56, Number 4, 2013
  61.  Seiler, R. M. (ed.), Walter Pater: The Critical Heritage (London, 1980), Introduction
  62.  Wollheim, Richard (22 September 1978), "The Artistic Temperament", The Times Literary Supplement (review), p. 1045.
  63.  Ward 1966, p. 21.
  64.  Gosse, Edmund (1896) [1894], "Walter Pater: A Portrait", Critical Kit-Kats.
  65.  Burdett, Osbert, Introduction to Marius the Epicurean, Everyman Library, London: J. M. Dent, 1934.
  66.  A. C. Benson, Walter Pater (London, 1906), p.115
  67.  Chesterton, GK (1913), "1", The Victorian Age in Literature.
  68.  Higgins, Lesley, and Latham, David (general eds.), Collected Works of Walter Pater, Voll. III., p.xiii
  69.  Monsman, Gerald, Gaston de Latour: The Revised Text (Greensboro, 1995), Introduction p.xl
  70.  Cole, William, ed. (1959). The Fireside Book of Humorous Poetry. New York: Simon and Schuster.

Sources

  • Bann, Stephen, ed. (2004), The Reception of Walter Pater in Europe, Thoemmes Continuum.
  • Benson, A. C. (1906), Walter Pater, London: Macmillan.
  • Cecil, David (1955), Walter Pater: the Scholar-Artist, Rede Lecture.
  • Donoghue, Denis (1995), Walter Pater: Lover of Strange Souls, New York: Knopf.
  • Gosse, Edmund (1896), "Walter Pater: A Portrait", Critical Kit-Kats, London: Heinemann. 
  • Hough, Graham (1949), The Last Romantics, London: Duckworth.
  • Inman, Billie Andrew (1991), "Estrangement and Connection: Walter Pater, Benjamin Jowett, and William M. Hardinge" (PDF), Pater in the 1990s, retrieved 21 December 2015
  • Levey, Michael (1978), The Case of Walter Pater (biography), London: Thames & Hudson.
  • Sharp, W. (1912), Papers Critical and Reminiscent.
  • Shuter, William F (1997), Rereading Walter Pater, Cambridge Studies in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-01981-8
  • Thomas, Edward (1913), Walter Pater: A Critical Study, London: Martin Secker
  • Ward, Anthony (1966), Walter Pater: The Idea in Nature, London: MacGibbon and Kee.
  • Wright, S (1975), A Bibliography of the Writings of Walter H. Pater.
  • Wright, Thomas (1907), The Life of Walter Pater, London: Everett & Co..

Further reading

  • Hough, Graham (1949). "Pater" in The Last Romantics. London: Duckworth.
  • Inman, Billie Andrew (1991b), "Pater's Letters at the Pierpont Morgan Library", English Literature in Transition, 1880–1920, 34 (4): 406–17, ISSN 0013-8339. (Abstract: discusses six letters of Walter Pater at the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York City, addressed to George Moore, Arthur Symons, John Lane and others.)
  • Østermark-Johansen, Lene (2022). Walter Pater’s European Imagination. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-285875-7.

===
折口信夫 오리구치 시노부는 어떤 인물인가, 왜 일본에서 인기가 있는가, 어떤 종류의 인기가 있는가, 설명해주세요. 책을 한 권 읽는다면 어떤 책을 읽는 것이 좋을까요?
==

일본 근현대 지성사에서 대단히 독특하고 거대한 위치를 차지하는 오리구치 시노부(折口信夫, 1887~1953)에 대해 정리해 드리겠습니다.

<오리구치 시노부는 누구인가>

오리구치 시노부는 일본의 민속학자, 국문학자이자 <샤쿠 초쿠(釈迢空)>라는 필명으로 활동한 가인(歌人) 겸 소설가다.

야나기타 구니오(柳田國男)와 더불어 일본 근대 민속학의 양대 지주로 꼽힌다. 야나기타가 관료적이고 경험주의적인 시선으로 일본 농촌 사회의 관습과 설화를 체계화했다면, 오리구치는 고대 문헌과 현장 민속, 그리고 인간 내면의 종교적·예술적 충동을 직관적으로 결합해 독자적인 <오리구치학(折口学)>을 구축했다.

그의 핵심 사상은 다음과 같다.

  • <마レビ토(まれびと)론>: 바다 너머 상심향(常世國, 토코요노쿠니)에서 주기적으로 찾아와 인간 세상에 축복과 풍요를 가져다주는 신적인 내방자 개념이다. 그는 일본의 신앙, 축제, 연극(노, 가부키)의 원류가 이 외부에서 찾아온 존재를 맞이하고 대접하는 의례에서 출발했다고 보았다.

  • <고대 연구와 예술의 융합>: 학문적 분석에 머물지 않고, 고대인의 감성과 신화적 사유를 자신의 단가(短歌)와 소설 속에 직접 재현해 낸 보기 드문 르네상스적 지식인이었다.

<왜 일본에서 인기가 있는가, 어떤 종류의 인기인가>

오리구치의 인기는 일반적인 대중적 베스트셀러 작가의 인기라기보다는, <지식인, 문학가, 서브컬처 창작자들에게 지대한 영감을 주는 컬트적·신화적 인기>에 가깝다.

  • <지성사적 매혹 (마르지 않는 영감의 원천)>: 그의 문장은 실증주의적 논문이라기보다는 시적이고 신비주의적이며 주술적인 색채를 강하게 띤다. 논리적 빈틈이 있을지언정 상상력을 자극하는 폭발력이 엄청나기 때문에 미시마 유키오, 오에 겐자부로, 나카가미 겐지 같은 전후 대표 작가들이 끊임없이 그를 다시 읽고 오마주했다.

  • <중심이 아닌 '주변부'를 향한 시선>: 천황제와 국가 중심의 지배 이데올로기가 강요되던 시대에, 그는 방랑 예능인(괴뢰자, 맹인 법사 등), 차별받던 천민, 여성, 변방의 신앙 등 소외된 주변부의 시선에서 일본 문화의 원형을 탐구했다. 이 독특한 소수자적 감수성은 현대 비판적 인문학에서도 높이 평가받는다.

  • <삶 자체의 드라마성>: 그는 당대에 보기 드문 동성애자였으며, 자신의 양자이자 제자였던 후지이 하루미가 태평양 전쟁(이오지마 전투)에서 전사하자 비통 속에서 남은 생을 보내는 등 개인적 생애 자체도 비극적이고 낭만적인 서사를 품고 있다. 이러한 요소들이 겹쳐 문예계에서는 거의 신화화된 인물로 소비된다.

<책을 한 권 읽는다면: 추천 도서>

오리구치 시노부의 세계에 입문하기 위해 한 권을 꼽는다면 단연 소설 <죽은 자의 서(死者の書)>다.

학술 논문집인 <고대 연구(古代研究)>가 그의 이론적 정수이지만, 방대한 고어와 독창적 용어로 가득 차 있어 읽기가 매우 난해하다. 반면 <죽은 자의 서>는 그의 <마レビ토> 신앙, 고대 신토와 불교의 충돌, 죽음과 재생, 그리고 지극한 에로티시즘이 하나의 문학적 결정체로 집약된 걸작이다.

나라(奈良) 시대의 비극적인 황자 오쓰 황자(大津皇子)의 유령과, 그 영혼을 위로하기 위해 만다라를 짜는 귀족 처녀 후지와라노 주조히메(中将姫)의 영적 교감을 다룬다. 고대 일본의 주술적 풍경과 언어의 울림을 가장 생생하게 체험할 수 있는 작품이다.

학술적 개론을 먼저 파악하고 싶다면, 그의 대표 논문들을 엮어 해설을 덧붙인 선집류(예: 이와나미 문고의 <고대 연구: 민속학 편> 발췌본)나 현대 연구자가 쓴 입문 평전을 곁들여 보는 것도 좋다.

==

오리구치 시노부(折口信夫, 1887–1953)는 일본에서 단순히 “유명한 민속학자”라기보다, 일본의 고대·종교·문학·예능을 하나의 거대한 상상력으로 연결한 독특한 지식인입니다. 그의 영향력이 워낙 독자적이어서 일본에서는 지금도 그의 학문을 별도로 <折口学(오리구치학)>이라고 부릅니다. 사용자가 올려주신 자료에서도 그를 국문학자·민속학자·시인·소설가로 소개하면서, <古代研究>, <死者の書>, <海やまのあひだ> 등을 대표작으로 들고 있고, 사후의 방대한 연구서와 작품의 만화·영화화까지 열거하고 있습니다.

먼저 한 문장으로 말한다면,

오리구치는 “일본인은 옛날에 무엇을 믿었는가?”를 묻기보다, “신·죽은 자·외부에서 찾아오는 존재와 인간의 만남에서 일본의 종교·문학·예술이 어떻게 생겨났는가?”를 상상적으로 복원하려 했던 사람입니다.

그래서 역사가라기보다 <시인의 감각을 가진 민속학자>에 가깝습니다.

1. 오리구치 시노부는 어떤 사람인가

오리구치는 오사카에서 태어나 國學院大學에서 국문학을 공부했습니다. 일본 민속학의 창시자로 평가받는 야나기타 구니오(柳田國男)를 스승으로 받들었고, 國學院大學과 慶應義塾大學에서 가르쳤습니다. 그런데 야나기타의 단순한 제자는 아니었습니다. 國學院은 지금도 오리구치가 국학과 민속학을 결합하여 독자적인 학문을 만들었다고 설명합니다.

그에게는 사실상 두 개의 이름과 두 개의 얼굴이 있습니다.

  • 折口信夫 — 국문학자·민속학자·종교학자
  • 釈迢空(샤쿠 초쿠, Shaku Chōkū) — 시인·소설가

그런데 이 둘을 분리하면 오리구치를 이해하기 어렵습니다. 그의 학문 자체가 문학적이고, 그의 소설과 시 역시 자신의 민속학적 사상을 표현하는 방법이기 때문입니다. 慶應의 연구자도 이를 “연구자 折口信夫와 문학자 釈迢空의 일체”라고 설명합니다.

2. 그의 가장 중요한 아이디어: <まれびと, 마레비토>

오리구치를 하나의 개념으로 기억한다면 <まれびと>입니다.

마레비토란 대략

다른 세계에서 때때로 인간 세계를 찾아오는 신성한 방문자

입니다.

먼 바다 저편, 산 너머, 죽은 자들의 세계 같은 <타계(他界)>로부터 신 또는 신적인 존재가 일정한 때에 마을에 찾아옵니다. 사람들은 그 방문자를 맞이하고 음식을 대접하고 제사를 지냅니다. 그 존재는 인간들에게 축복과 언어와 새로운 생명력을 가져옵니다.

이것을 오리구치는 단순한 지방 풍속 하나로 보지 않았습니다.

그는 여기에서

신의 방문
→ 제사
→ 신의 말
→ 노래와 이야기
→ 연극과 예능
→ 문학

이라는 거대한 발생 계보를 보았습니다.

실제로 國學院이 설명하는 것처럼, 오리구치에게 마레비토가 축복의 말을 하는 행위는 그의 <祭祀論> 및 <日本文学発生論>의 핵심입니다.

즉,

“문학은 개인 작가가 책상에서 만들어낸 것이 아니라, 원래는 신과 공동체 사이에서 행해진 의례적 언어였다.”

라는 것이 오리구치의 대담한 생각입니다.

이 지점에서 오리구치가 단순한 민속자료 수집가가 아니라는 점을 알 수 있습니다.

3. 야나기타 구니오와 무엇이 다른가

이 차이를 이해하면 오리구치가 왜 매력적인지도 잘 보입니다.

야나기타 구니오는 여러 지역의 풍속·전설·언어를 조사하고 비교하면서 역사적 변화 과정을 추적했습니다. 예를 들어 전국의 달팽이 명칭을 조사해서 언어의 지역적·역사적 변화를 복원하는 식입니다. 國學院도 이런 현지조사와 비교를 야나기타 방법의 특징으로 설명합니다.

오리구치는 훨씬 더 대담합니다.

<만엽집>, 고대 신화, 지방 제사, 오키나와의 종교의식, 연극, 언어 등을 서로 연결해서 그 배후에 존재했다고 생각되는 아주 오래된 정신세계를 복원하려 합니다.

따라서 아주 거칠게 구별하면

야나기타 구니오오리구치 시노부
생활과 민속의 역사신화·의례·문학의 발생
비교와 자료 축적직관과 구조적 복원
민중생활고대적 종교심성
상대적으로 경험적상대적으로 시적·가설적
<遠野物語><古代研究>, <死者の書>

입니다.

이것은 동시에 오리구치의 장점이자 약점입니다.

야나기타 자신도 오리구치의 통찰력이 놀랍게 적중하는 경우가 있다고 인정하면서도, 그의 지나친 직관과 추론에는 경계심을 보였습니다.

그래서 현대의 연구자들도 오리구치의 이론을 그대로 “고대 일본의 역사적 사실”로 받아들이지는 않습니다. 오늘날 고대 종교 연구에서도 야나기타·오리구치의 성과를 중요하게 여기면서 동시에 고고학과 다른 자료를 이용해 비판적으로 재검토합니다.

이 점은 상당히 중요합니다.

오리구치는 <증명된 고대사를 설명하는 학자>라기보다,

단편적인 흔적을 가지고 일본 고대 정신세계의 거대한 모형을 만든 사상가

로 읽는 것이 좋습니다.

4. 그런데 왜 일본에서 그렇게 인기가 있는가

여기에서 “인기”라는 말을 조금 구별해야 합니다.

오리구치는 무라카미 하루키처럼 일반 독자가 대량으로 읽는 작가는 아닙니다. 그의 글은 오히려 상당히 어렵습니다. 國學院의 연구자도 야나기타와 오리구치의 글이 난해하다고 말합니다.

그럼에도 불구하고 70여 년이 지나도록 끊임없이 읽힙니다.

저는 그의 인기를 대략 네 종류로 구별하는 것이 좋다고 봅니다.

① 학문적 인기 — 일본문화 연구자의 고전

국문학, 민속학, 종교학, 신도학, 공연예술 연구에서 오리구치를 피하기 어렵습니다.

<まれびと>
<常世>
<依代>
<語部>
<貴種流離譚>

같은 개념들은 이후 일본문화 연구의 어휘가 되었습니다.

그의 학문이 하나의 독립된 전통으로 간주되어 <折口学>이라고 불리는 것 자체가 그 위상을 보여줍니다.

② 문학적 인기 — “학자가 쓴 글”답지 않다는 매력

오리구치를 좋아하는 사람들은 그의 이론만 좋아하는 것이 아닙니다.

그에게는 일종의 몽환적 분위기가 있습니다.

밤, 바다, 산, 죽은 자, 먼 곳에서 오는 존재, 고대의 여인, 혼령, 기다림, 방문.

그래서 그의 글을 읽으면

“고대 일본을 설명받는다”

기보다

“고대인의 꿈속으로 들어간다”

는 느낌을 받을 때가 있습니다.

이 때문에 시인·소설가·연극인에게도 강한 매력을 가집니다.

③ 일종의 <cult intellectual> 인기

이것이 아주 특징적입니다.

오리구치를 좋아하는 독자들은 흔히 “그의 모든 이론이 맞다”고 생각해서 좋아하는 것이 아닙니다.

오히려

“이 사람만이 볼 수 있었던 일본이 있다.”

고 느낍니다.

정확성만으로 평가하기 어려운 사상가입니다.

프로이트, 니체, 미르체아 엘리아데 같은 사람들에게서도 비슷한 현상이 있습니다. 세부 이론은 많이 비판받았지만, 한번 그들의 개념을 알고 나면 세계를 이전과 똑같이 보기 어려워집니다.

오리구치의 <마레비토>도 그런 개념입니다.

④ 인간 오리구치에 대한 관심

오리구치 자신도 매우 복잡한 사람이었습니다.

평생 결혼하지 않았으며, 남성 제자들과의 강렬한 애정관계가 알려져 있습니다. 특히 후지이 하루미(藤井春洋)와의 관계는 그의 생애와 문학을 이해하는 중요한 요소로 다뤄져 왔습니다. 하루미는 이오지마 전투에서 사망했습니다.

오늘날에는 그의 동성애적 사랑, 고독, 스승과 제자의 관계, 죽음에 대한 감각까지 포함해서 오리구치를 다시 읽습니다. 그의 사랑과 학문·창작을 함께 다룬 전기적 작품까지 계속 나오고 있습니다.

따라서 최근의 오리구치 독자는 반드시 보수적인 “일본 전통주의자”만이 아닙니다.

오히려 문학·젠더·퀴어 연구자와 예술가들도 관심을 가집니다.

이 복합성이 오리구치를 쉽게 낡지 않게 만듭니다.

5. 그의 위험한 면도 있습니다

오리구치를 너무 낭만적으로만 읽어서는 곤란합니다.

그는

“현대의 풍습 속에 고대 일본인의 정신이 잔존하고 있다”

고 생각했습니다.

이 생각은 아주 매혹적이지만, 잘못 사용하면

“일본인에게는 태고부터 변하지 않는 고유한 정신이 있다.”

라는 일본문화 본질주의로 이동하기 쉽습니다.

더구나 오리구치가 활동하던 시기는 일본제국주의와 황국사상이 절정에 이르던 시기였습니다. 천황 제의와 大嘗祭 같은 문제도 그의 중요한 연구 대상이었습니다.

따라서 오늘날에는 그의 설명을

<고대 일본의 객관적 사실>

로 읽기보다

<20세기 전반 일본의 한 뛰어난 지식인이 고대 일본을 어떻게 상상했는가>

라는 두 겹의 시선으로 읽는 것이 가장 생산적입니다.

그렇게 읽으면 오리구치는 훨씬 흥미로워집니다.

6. 한 권만 읽는다면 저는 <死者の書>를 권합니다

뜻밖에 저는 주저하지 않고

折口信夫 <死者の書>

오리구치 시노부 <죽은 자의 책>

을 권하고 싶습니다.

<古代研究>가 아니라 이것을 먼저 권합니다.

이유가 있습니다.

<死者の書>에는 오리구치의 거의 모든 것이 들어 있기 때문입니다.

배경은 8세기 나라 시대입니다. 역사적인 오쓰 황자(大津皇子)의 죽은 영혼과, 후지와라 가문의 이라쓰메(郎女), 그리고 훗날 중장희(中将姫) 전설과 연결되는 세계를 겹쳐 놓습니다.

그러면서

  • 죽은 자와 산 자
  • 다른 세계와 이 세계
  • 영혼의 방문
  • 불교와 일본 토착신앙
  • 고대의 제사
  • 여성의 종교적 감수성
  • 기억과 기다림

이 모두가 결합합니다.

즉 오리구치가 논문에서 설명했던 <타계·마레비토·영혼·의례>를 소설 안에서 체험하게 합니다.

그래서 慶應의 오리구치 연구 서평에서도 <死者の書>를 그의 “연구와 창작의 중핵”에 있는 작품이라고 평가합니다.

지금도 KADOKAWA에서 문고판이 계속 출판되고 있고, 만화가 곤도 요코(近藤ようこ)가 두 권짜리 만화로도 만들었습니다.

다만 쉬운 소설은 아닙니다. 현대 일본인 독자도 “앞부분을 몇 차례 되돌아가며 읽어야 했다”는 식의 반응을 보입니다.

그 난해함 자체가 오리구치 문체의 일부입니다.

7. 그다음 한 권을 읽는다면

<死者の書>가 흥미로웠다면 그다음에는

<古代研究>

입니다.

이것이 오리구치의 학문적 본체입니다.

특히

  • <まれびと>
  • <常世>
  • 일본문학의 발생
  • 제사
  • 예능의 발생

이 서로 어떻게 연결되는지를 볼 수 있습니다.

慶應의 평가에서도 <古代研究>에는 이미 의대(依代), 이향(異郷), 마레비토에 이르는 오리구치학의 핵심이 거의 모두 갖추어져 있다고 합니다.

따라서 순서를 이렇게 권하고 싶습니다.

① <死者の書> — 오리구치의 세계를 먼저 “느낀다”
↓
② <古代研究> — 그 세계를 만드는 이론을 “이해한다”

반대로 처음부터 <古代研究>를 읽으면 “왜 이 사람을 이렇게까지 중요하게 생각하지?”라는 생각이 들 가능성이 꽤 높습니다.

마지막으로 오리구치의 위치를 한마디로 잡는다면

제가 보기에는 일본 근대지성사에서 오리구치는 매우 독특한 삼각형의 한 점입니다.

柳田國男 — 민속의 관찰과 역사
折口信夫 — 민속의 시적·종교적 심층
津田左右吉 — 문헌비판을 통한 신화의 역사화

특히 <쓰다 소키치와 오리구치 시노부>를 나란히 읽으면 아주 재미있습니다.

둘 다 일본 고대를 연구하지만 방향은 거의 반대입니다.

쓰다는 “신화를 역사적 사실로 믿어서는 안 된다”며 문헌을 해체해 들어갑니다.
오리구치는 “신화와 의례의 밑바닥에는 어떤 고대인의 정신세계가 있었는가?”를 찾아 더 깊숙이 들어갑니다.

그래서 한쪽은 <비판적 역사학>, 다른 한쪽은 <시적 고대학>이라고 해도 좋습니다.

동아시아 근대사상이라는 관점에서 보면, 오리구치의 진짜 중요성은 “일본의 전통을 찬양한 사람”이라는 데 있지 않습니다. 그는 근대화 이후에도 죽은 자, 신, 제사, 타계라는 오래된 층위가 인간의 의식과 문학 속에 계속 살아 있다고 생각했습니다. 바로 그 때문에 지금도 학자뿐 아니라 시인·소설가·예술가가 끊임없이 그에게 돌아갑니다.

그리고 이것이 일본에서 오리구치가 갖는 특유의 인기입니다. 대중적 스타의 인기가 아니라, <한번 빠진 사람은 평생 다시 찾아가게 되는 지식인>의 인기라고 하는 편이 정확합니다.

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