Intertextuality and Corporality in Chikamatsu Monzaemon’s Shutendōji makurakotoba

Abstract

The Shutendōji 酒呑童子 legend prototype is believed to have taken shape during the Nanbokuchō 南北朝 period (1336–1392). The oldest known surviving text containing the legend is the Ōeyama emaki 大江山絵巻 (Illustrated Scroll of Ōeyama), produced in the latter half of the fourteenth century and now held at the Itsuō Museum of Art 逸翁美術館. The legend was thereafter widely disseminated through numerous other later emaki versions (e.g., Ōeyama emaki, Ōeyama ki 大江山記, and Shutendōji ezōshi 酒顚童子絵草子).1 It was also presented in formats ranging from Muromachi monogatari 2 室町物語 (i.e., otogi-zōshi 御伽草子) to illustrated manuscripts among the group of texts known as Nara ehon 奈良絵本 (e.g., Ōeyama 大江山). It is also one of the twenty-three short works collected in the famous Otogi bunko 御伽文庫 series by Shibukawa Seiemon 渋川清右衛門, published in illustrated woodblock-print editions during the early modern period.3 However, the Shutendōji story, which was reworked into various depictions in illustrated scrolls and books, did not take only visual forms. It was also brought to three-dimensional life through the performing arts, including noh, puppet Intertextuality and Corporality in Chikamatsu Monzaemon’s Shutendōji makurakotoba