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The Man Who Chose Harmony in an Age of Blood | Prince Shōtoku
血の時代に、和を選んだ人 | 聖徳太子- Hiragana Times
- Aug 23, 2026
IBUKI – Hiragana Times September 2026 issue
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The Man Who Chose Harmony in an Age of Blood | Prince Shōtoku
血の時代に、和を選んだ人 | 聖徳太子
Returning to the Origins of This Nation
第一部:この国の始まりに立ち返る
Fertile land, enriched by minerals from volcanic soil. Deeply indented coastlines where fish carried by warm and cold currents gather to spawn. In the mountains, deer, wild boar, and sansai (wild mountain vegetables). Japan is an island nation blessed with the bounty of both sea and mountain.
火山によるミネラルが豊富な肥沃な土地。暖流と寒流に運ばれた魚が集まり、産卵する入り組んだ海岸。山には、鹿、猪、そして山菜。海の幸、山の幸に恵まれた島国日本。
Throughout the Jōmon period, which lasted for more than ten thousand years, no evidence of large-scale warfare has been found in this archipelago. It was not an age of enclosing land or fighting over it. Nature’s bounty was abundant, and there was little reason to sustain conflict. Rather than enclosing the land, people lived within nature itself.
縄文時代、一万数千年の間、この列島には大規模な戦いの形跡がありません。土地を囲い込み、奪い合う時代ではありませんでした。自然の恵みは豊かにあり、戦いを続ける理由もなかったのでしょう。人々は土地を囲い込むのではなく、自然の中で暮らしていました。
In time, people began arriving from the Asian continent. Rice cultivation was introduced, land ownership began, iron was forged into weapons, and powerful clans arose throughout the country. Even so, traces remain of Japan’s efforts to avoid conflict. One is the myth of Kuni-yuzuri—the “yielding of the land.” Rather than seizing the land through battle, it was received when another willingly yielded it.
やがて大陸から人が渡り始めます。稲作が入り、土地の所有が始まり、鉄が武器に変わり、各地に豪族が立ち上がっていきます。それでもこの国は争いを避けることに努めた形跡が残っています。「国譲り」という神話です。戦って奪うのではなく、譲り受ける。
Thus, according to tradition, Emperor Jinmu became Japan’s first emperor. His imperial edict declares: “Let us nurture righteousness and thereby govern all under heaven.” In other words, let us continue to consider together what righteousness means. This starting point—the refusal to define righteousness once and for all—has been passed down to the present day, through to Japan’s 126th emperor.
そうして最初の天皇となった神武天皇の詔には、「正しきを養い、もって天下を治めん」——正しさを皆で考え続けよう、と書かれています。この「正しさを固定しない」出発点が、現在に至る第126代天皇まで引き継がれていきます。
In the sixth century, East Asia underwent a dramatic transformation. In China, the Sui dynasty unified the entire country, and a superpower on an entirely different scale emerged. Its waves reached Japan. Within Japan itself, forces backed by continental civilization were rising and beginning to clash with the ancient order.
六世紀、東アジアが激変します。中国で隋が全土を統一し、桁違いの超大国が出現しました。その波は日本にも届いていました。国内にも大陸の文明を後ろ盾にした勢力が台頭し、古来の秩序とぶつかり始めていたのです。To reject it, or to accept it? At this moment, one figure made a decisive choice: Prince Shōtoku. He embraced Buddhism without abandoning Shintō. He chose to bring together within a single vessel two civilizations: the Japanese civilization that had lived in communion with the spiritual presence of nature since Jōmon times, and the continental civilization that possessed the power to reshape nature itself.
排除するか、受け入れるか。このとき、一人の人物が決断を下します。聖徳太子です。太子は神道を捨てずに仏教を取り入れる。縄文以来の自然の霊性と共に在った日本文明と、自然を変える力を持った大陸の文明を、一つの器の中で融合させる道を選びました。
This fusion later came to be known as Shinbutsu-shūgō—the syncretic union of Shintō and Buddhism—and it would shape the country for more than a thousand years. Even today, Japanese people hold weddings at Shintō shrines and funerals at Buddhist temples. They celebrate Christmas, listen to temple bells on New Year’s Eve, and visit shrines at the beginning of the new year. No one finds this strange. Follow that sensibility back to its roots, and it leads to the great work of Prince Shōtoku.
この融合は、後に「神仏習合」と呼ばれ、千年以上この国を貫きます。今も日本人は結婚式を神社で挙げ、葬式を寺で行い、クリスマスを祝い、除夜の鐘を聞き、初詣に行きます。誰もそれに違和感を持っていません。その原点を遡ると、聖徳太子の偉業に繋がっています。
The Seventeen-Article Constitution promulgated by Shōtoku begins with a single line: “Harmony is to be valued.” Wa wo motte tōtoshi to nasu. What, then, is wa? Surely it was not merely a slogan meaning, “Let us all get along.” This is the story of the true meaning—and the resolve—behind those words.
太子が制定した十七条憲法は、「和を以て貴しと為す」の一行から始まります。「和」とは何なのか。「みんな仲良く」という標語ではないはずです。その真意と覚悟の物語を辿ります。
An Age of Blood
第二部:血が流れる時代
Shōtoku was born in 574, during the Asuka period. At that time, two powerful forces were locked in fierce conflict over the wave of Chinese civilization arriving from the continent: the Soga clan and the Mononobe clan.
太子が生まれたのは574年。飛鳥の時代。この時代の日本は、大陸から押し寄せる中国文明の波をめぐり、二つの勢力が激しくぶつかっていました。蘇我氏と物部氏です。The Soga possessed knowledge of the continent and extensive connections there. They sought to introduce continental civilization into Japan—systems of government, architecture, medicine, diplomacy, and, at the heart of it all, Buddhism. The Mononobe, by contrast, were among the imperial family’s oldest allies, their lineage reaching back to the founding myths of the nation. They had long guarded its rituals, its military traditions, and the spiritual life of the land.
蘇我氏は大陸の知識と人脈を持ち、大陸の文明——統治の仕組み、建築、医学、外交、そしてその中核にある仏教——を国に取り込もうとしていました。一方の物部氏は、建国の神話にまで遡る天皇家の最古の盟友——祭祀、武、そしてこの国の霊性を守ってきた一族です。
In 587, armed conflict finally erupted. Shōtoku was fourteen years old and is said to have taken part. The immediate cause of the clash was the strong resistance of Mononobe no Moriya, head of the Mononobe clan, to the acceptance of continental civilization with Buddhism at its core.
587年、ついに武力衝突が起きます。太子14歳。この戦いに加わったとされています。この衝突の発端は、物部氏の長・物部守屋が、仏教を中核とする大陸文明の受容に強く抵抗したことにあります。Shōtoku sided with the Soga. Yet this was not a religious war between Buddhism and Shintō. Shōtoku did not reject Shintō. Even Shitennō-ji, the temple he later founded, had a Shintō shrine within its grounds. What Shōtoku chose was not the Soga clan itself, but the path of coexistence. The true divide was coexistence versus exclusion. The battle ended in victory for the Soga side, and Moriya was slain. Yet this cannot have been the outcome Shōtoku truly desired. The Mononobe were ancient allies who had walked alongside the imperial family for centuries.
この争いで、太子は蘇我氏の側に立ちました。しかしこれは「仏教 対 神道」の宗教戦争ではありません。太子は神道を否定していません。後に建てた四天王寺にも神社が併設されています。太子が選んだのは蘇我氏ではなく、共存という道でした。構図は「共存 対 排除」だったのです。戦いは蘇我氏側の勝利に終わり、守屋は討たれました。しかしこれは、太子が心から望んだ結末ではなかったはずです。物部氏は何百年も天皇家と共に歩んできた盟友だったからです。
Then, in 592, an even more shocking event occurred. Emperor Sushun, who was on the throne at the time, was assassinated by Soga no Umako, head of the Soga clan. It is the only assassination of an emperor recorded in Japan’s official histories. Moreover, Umako is believed to have been the father of Shōtoku’s wife—in other words, his father-in-law. His own father-in-law had killed an emperor who was also a member of Shōtoku’s family. Shōtoku carried that reality with him when he became regent the following year.
そして592年、さらに衝撃的な事件が起きます。当時の天皇であった崇峻天皇が、蘇我氏の頭領・蘇我馬子によって暗殺されたのです。日本の正史に記された、唯一の天皇の暗殺事件です。しかも蘇我馬子は、太子の妻の父——つまり義父であったとされています。自らの義父が親族でもある天皇を殺した。太子はその現実を背負いながら、翌年、摂政に就きます。
It was an age in which an emperor could be murdered. Shōtoku was only nineteen. The words that would later emerge—”Harmony is to be valued”—were not gentle idealism. They were words of resolve, wrung from an age of blood.
天皇が殺される時代。太子はこの時19歳。後に誕生する「和を以て貴しと為す」という言葉は、こうした血の中から絞り出された決意の言葉だったのです。No One Wanted the Throne
第三部:誰も天皇になりたくなかった
After Emperor Sushun was assassinated, the throne stood empty. The court turned to Shōtoku’s aunt to become the next sovereign. She declined, and it was only after officials of every rank pleaded with her three times that she finally accepted the throne. Thus emerged Japan’s first reigning empress: Empress Suiko. It was an age when even an emperor could be killed. Everyone knew that ascending the throne could cost them their life.
崇峻天皇が暗殺された後、皇位は空きました。群臣が次の天皇に望んだのは、太子の叔母でした。しかし彼女はこれを辞退し、百官が三度にわたって願い出た末、ようやく玉座を引き受けます。日本で最初の女帝、推古天皇の誕生です。天皇さえ殺される時代。その座に就くことが命と引き換えになり得ると、誰もが知っていたのです。
Yet one woman accepted that burden. Perhaps what Suiko was called upon to provide was not the strength to subdue others by force. In the midst of conflict, what was needed was the strength to avoid creating new enemies, and to hold different factions together within a single nation…
それでも、その重責を一人の女性が引き受けた。推古天皇に求められたのは、相手を力で屈服させる強さではなかったかもしれません。争いの渦中で新たな敵を作らず…Unlock Full Article | 記事全文を読む
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Yanagita Kunio: A Life in Dialogue with the Depths of This Land
柳田國男:この国の肚と、対話し続けた生涯- Hiragana Times
- Jul 23, 2026
IBUKI: The Breath of the People – Hiragana Times August 2026 issue
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Yanagita Kunio: A Life in Dialogue with the Depths of This Land
柳田國男:この国の肚と、対話し続けた生涯
Japan is an island nation floating in the Northern Hemisphere, at the eastern edge of the Eurasian continent.
日本は、地球の北半球、ユーラシア大陸の東のはしに浮かぶ島国です。Surrounded by the sea, rich in mountains, and blessed with vividly changing seasons, it has also long lived face to face with the forces of nature—earthquakes, typhoons, heavy rains, heavy snow, and volcanic eruptions.
海に囲まれ、山が多く、四季は鮮やかにめぐる一方で、地震や台風、大雨、大雪、火山噴火など、自然の脅威とも向き合ってきました。This land, both harsh and abundant, has taught the people who live here to endure, to help one another, and to hold nature in awe and reverence.
この厳しくも豊かな土地は、そこに生きる人々に、耐えること、助け合うこと、そして自然を畏れ敬う心を教えてきました。Within it live the ways of people who have inhabited this land since ancient times, as well as the wisdom of those who crossed the sea to arrive here. In more recent times, too, there are those who have made their lives in this country and, while being shaped by Japan’s climate and culture, have become part of what forms Japan today.
そこには、太古からこの地に生きてきた人々の営みと、海を渡ってきた人々の知恵があります。さらに近年この国に住み、日本の風土に染まりながら、この国をともに形づくる人々の息吹もあります。In this section, through the lives of figures shaped by Japan’s climate, land, and history, we trace the breath of the people that lives within this nation.
このコーナーでは、日本の風土と歴史が育んだ人物たちを通して、この国の「民のいぶき」をたどります。
On the night of a summer matsuri, without realizing it, we touch upon a certain world. Welcoming the kami, remembering our ancestors, facing what cannot be seen—there was a man who spent his entire life gazing into this disposition of the heart. He was the father of Japanese folklore studies, Yanagita Kunio.
夏祭りの夜、私たちは知らず知らず、ある世界に触れています。神を迎え、先祖を思い、目に見えないものと向き合う——その心の在りようを、生涯をかけて見つめた人がいます。日本民俗学の父、柳田國男です。Yanagita was born and raised in Tsujikawa, in Hyōgo Prefecture. He was born the sixth of eight brothers into the Matsuoka family, who had practiced medicine for generations (the name Yanagita came later, through adoption). Of the eight, three died in early childhood, and five grew up. The house where he was born, Yanagita would later call “the smallest house in Japan.”
柳田が生まれ育ったのは、兵庫県の辻川。代々、医を家業とする松岡家の、八人兄弟の六番目として生まれました(柳田姓は、後に養子による)。八人のうち三人は、幼いうちに世を去り、育ったのは五人。その生家を、柳田はのちに「日本一小さな家」と呼びました。A family of scholarly blood, and yet their life was cramped and poor. In that small house, the parents and the eldest son’s couple were forced to live together; wife and mother-in-law quarreled, until at last the eldest brother divorced—and this confinement, the young Yanagita came to know in his very skin as he grew.
学問の血筋でありながら、暮らしは狭く、貧しい。狭い家に親夫婦と長男夫婦が無理に同居し、嫁と姑がいさかい、ついには長兄が離縁する——その窮屈さを、幼い柳田は、肌で知って育ちました。Why must this house be so small? Why must people crowd together, only to turn against one another? The shape of a house, and the human heart. The seed of that question had already taken root within him, here in this small house.
なぜ、家はこれほど狭いのか。なぜ、人は寄り集まって、いがみ合わねばならないのか。家のかたちと、人の心。その問いの芽は、すでにこの小さな家で、彼の中に宿っていたのです。
When Yanagita was nine, the family moved to Hōjō, also in Hyōgo, the home village of his mother. And there, Yanagita saw a scene he would never forget for the rest of his life. A famine. That year, hunger struck the village.
柳田が9歳のとき、一家は、同じ兵庫の、母の故郷である北条へ移ります。そしてその地で、柳田は、生涯忘れえぬ光景を見ました。飢饉です。その年、村を飢えが襲いました。A wealthy merchant house built a stove beneath its eaves and cooked rice gruel to give away. Gaunt, wasted people, holding earthenware pots, formed a long line. A single bowl of gruel, held out. A bony hand, receiving it. This scene, they say, went on for a whole month. The young Yanagita must have watched that line without once blinking. In Japan, a land that should have been blessed with abundant harvests—why must people go so hungry?
豊かな商家が、軒先に竈を築いて、粥を炊き出す。痩せ細った人々が、土瓶を提げて、長い列をつくる。差し出される、一杯の粥。それを受け取る、骨ばった手。その光景が、ひと月ものあいだ、続いたといいます。少年の柳田は、まばたきもせず、その列を見つめていたことでしょう。実りの国であるはずの日本で、なぜ、人はこれほど飢えるのか——。
In time, while still a boy, Yanagita went east, to rely on his eldest brother. This brother, Kanae, was fifteen years his senior—a brother who was almost like a father. He had become a doctor, and had opened a practice in Fukawa, in Ibaraki, on the banks of the Tone River. There, under his brother’s roof, Yanagita came upon another scene.
やがて柳田は、少年のころ、いちばん上の兄を頼って、東の地へ移ります。長兄の鼎は、柳田より十五も歳が離れた、父のような兄でした。医者となり、利根川のほとりの茨城・布川で、医院を開いていた。その兄のもとで、柳田は、もうひとつの光景に出会います。
In a temple in Fukawa, a single painting had been offered. What it depicted was this—a mother raising her hand against her newborn child. “Mabiki.” The reality of the common people, who, in their poverty, had no choice but to give up a child they could not raise. On the paper screen behind the mother, her shadow fell like a demon, and beside her, a Jizō, grieving for the lost child, stood quietly. Yanagita could not move from before that painting.
布川の寺に、一枚の絵が奉納されていました。そこに描かれていたのは——生まれたばかりの我が子に、母親が手をかける姿でした。「間引き」です。貧しさゆえに育てることのできぬ子を、諦めるしかなかった、民の現実。母の背後の障子には、その影が鬼のように映り、傍らには、亡き子を悼む地蔵が、静かに立っていました。柳田は、その絵の前から、動けませんでした。
The line of people waiting for food, seen in his home province. The figure of a mother giving up her child, seen in the temple. Just behind the modern age, with all its striving for wealth, people had been living lives this desperate. Why must people starve to death? Why must a mother give up her own child? These questions never left Yanagita, all his life. And they crystallized into a single conviction—famine must be wiped from this world.
故郷で見た、飢えに並ぶ人々の列。寺で見た、子を諦める母の姿。豊かさを競う近代の、すぐ裏側で、人々はこれほど切実に生きてきた。なぜ、人は飢えて死なねばならないのか。なぜ、母は、わが子を諦めねばならないのか。この問いは、生涯、柳田を離しませんでした。そして、ひとつの信念へと結晶します——飢饉を、この世から、絶やさねばならない。That resolve set him on the path of agricultural policy. He studied agricultural administration at Tokyo Imperial University and became an official in the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce. A nation shaped so that its people would never go hungry—this he sought to build from the side of the institutions. Yet, as he walked through villages across the country, another question began to take root in Yanagita’s heart.
その志が、彼を、農政の道へ進ませました。東京帝国大学で農政を学び、農商務省の官僚となります。民を飢えさせぬ国のかたちを、彼は、制度の側から築こうとしたのです。けれど、全国の村々を歩くうちに、柳田の心に、もうひとつの問いが芽生えます。Continue Reading In Hiragana Times
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