KWAIDAN　『怪談。』

DEDICATED TO LAFCADIO HEARN

ラフカディオ・ハーンに捧ぐ

About one hundred years ago, during the Taisho Period,  there lived a lovely little girl named Okiku in a small village in Iwamizawa on the island of Hokkaido.  She had an elder brother Eikichi, who purchased a small doll for his beloved sister at an exposition held in Sapporo to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the foundation of Hokkaido.

いまから百年ほど昔、大正時代のことだった。北海道は岩見沢の小さな村にお菊というかわいらしい少女がいたという。お菊には栄吉という兄がいて、この少年は北海道開拓50周年を記念する札幌の博覧会で愛する妹に小さな人形を贖（あがな）った。

Okiku adored the doll.  She played house, went for a walk, and slept at night…whatever she did, she never parted with her newly acquainted friend, to whom she grew attached day by day.  The girl and the doll thus became inseparable, like twin sisters spending most of their time together.   However, as is often the case with a kwaidan or a spooky story, the likes of which Lafcadio Hearn might have loved to collect, Okiku suddenly passed away soon after catching a flu, and that is when things started to get weird.

お菊は人形を大変気に入り、ままごとをするとき、散歩に行くとき、そして夜寝るときも「新しいお友達」と離れることがなかった。人形に対する愛着は日に日に募り、ついには一心同体、いつも一緒に過ごす双子の姉妹のように互いに分かちがたい仲となったという。しかしながらハーンなら喜んで収集したであろうこの種の怪談話ではありがちなことだが、お菊はカゼをひくと間もなく亡くなってしまう。そしてこのときから事態は不思議な方向へと展開していく。

One day, as it turned out, her parents noticed that the hair of the doll was slightly longer than it had been before, and it was not long before they came to realize that its hair actually did keep growing.  Naturally, they assumed that the spirit of their deceased daughter had come over the doll and remained there as if she were still alive.  They named the doll after their daughter Okiku and prayed for her soul to rest in peace. 

ある日のこと、お菊の両親は人形の髪の毛が以前よりもほんの少し長くなっていることに気づく。そしてほどなく人形の髪が本当に伸びつつあることを確信するようになった。当然ながら、両親はお菊の魂が人形に宿ったものと考え、人形を娘にちなんでお菊と名付け娘の冥福を祈った。

Then about two decades down the road, when the family decided to move out of Hokkaido, they took the Okiku doll to a temple named Mannen-ji which was located in the district, to entrust it to the temple so that a memorial service could be held for the departed every year.

それから約20年の月日が流れ、一家は北海道を離れることになった。このとき家族はお菊人形を地域にある「万念寺」という寺に預け、供養を依頼することにした。

This is how the Okiku doll ended up where it has been preserved up to the present time.

これがお菊人形が今日に至るまで万念寺で大切に保存されることになった経緯だという。

One of the locals, who has lived in Iwamizawa since 1940’s, recalls that an MP task force from the Japanese Imperial Army visited the temple during World War II because they were concerned that the “haunted” doll might distract the people and cause social unrest in wartime, when the nation was faced with a crisis and everyone was  therefore expected to concentrate on the war effort.  Another story goes that a couple of researchers came from a company that produced human hair wigs because they intended to examine the doll so as to figure out  how human hair could continue to grow after it was separated from the scalp. 

1940年代から地元に住むというある古老によれば、戦時中には帝国陸軍の憲兵隊が寺を訪れたこともあったらしい。国家が危機に瀕し、国民は総て戦争協力に力を合わせるべき時世に「悪霊に憑かれた人形」などは人心を惑わし、社会不安を引き起こす懸念ありと考えたのだろう。そのほか戦後には人毛カツラを作る企業から研究員が来訪したこともあったとか。ひとたび頭皮から離れた人毛がどのようなしくみで伸び続けるのかを解明するためだった。

If your father, uncle, or your boyfriend happens to have a high level of androgenic hormone, I suggest that you encourage him to pay a visit to the Okiku doll.

キミのお父さん、おじさん、あるいは彼氏が男性ホルモン過剰ぎみのオノコならば、ひとつお菊人形へお参りを勧めてはいかが？

　　　　　　　　　　　　　『正則英語學校』＠神田錦町出身の英學者 柳浦でした　ωαγοτα…_φ(^Д^ )プギャー