午夜剧场

From Golden Bat and Horaman in Anpanman to Brook in One Piece, skeleton characters have been popular in every era. While they evoke death and evil, they are also perceived as reliable and even adorable. When and how did this image of the skeleton originate?

Many stories about skeletons have been told since ancient times, but the cheerful skeleton first appears in the Muromachi period Otogi-zoshi (companion tale) titled "Genchusodaga." The story depicts a traveling monk dozing in a Buddhist hall who converses with a skeleton that emerges from a grave, featuring a banquet where skeletons play hand drums and flutes while dancing. It goes on to depict everything—from a man and woman embracing to the man's death, the funeral procession, and the remaining woman's renunciation of the world to engage in Buddhist dialogue—entirely through skeletons, narrating a skeleton's life. It caricatures the concept of "Shoji Ichinyo" (the oneness of life and death), suggesting that humans are all the same skeletons once their skin is removed, with no distinction between male and female, and no difference even between life and death. The title "Genchusoda," derived from Zen terminology, implies realizing the emptiness of the world through a skeleton in a dream, and the work can be regarded as a Hogo (Buddhist sermon) picture scroll teaching Zen principles.

In later years, the first half of this work was adapted and published under the title "Ikkyu Gaikotsu" (Ikkyu's Skeleton), attributed to the Rinzai monk Ikkyu Sojun. The comical skeletons seemingly fascinated people, becoming a popular work that was printed many times during the Edo period. The roots of the skeletons in modern anime can be traced back to these narrative skeletons that originated in the Muromachi period.

In fact, this work was once literally considered a "phantom." Although it was introduced by the Japanese literature scholar Masao Okami in 1973, the owner was unknown and no other manuscripts were known to exist, leading to the belief that it had been lost. As a researcher of Muromachi narratives, I pursued this phantom skeleton picture scroll and discovered that it was preserved at Kakuman-ji Temple in Osaka. It was also found that manuscripts exist at the National Museum of Japanese History and the Yomei Bunko. Furthermore, in recent years, a new picture scroll was put up for sale at an antiquarian bookstore in Kyoto, revealing that there are as many as four extant manuscripts of this work once thought to be a phantom.

The background for the production of skeleton narrative paintings in the Muromachi period likely includes the prosperity of Otogi-zoshi featuring anthropomorphized animals and plants (known as Iruimono) and the influence of skeleton paintings from China's Song Dynasty. The narrative painting technique was likely used to explain difficult Zen philosophy to people in an easy-to-understand way. By being linked with illustrations, a new image was added to the skeleton. The source of the reliable and adorable skeletons we envision today lies here.

Muromachi narrative paintings are full of hints for exploring the roots of modern culture. The fact that new manuscripts are still being discovered today, allowing us to tackle new mysteries, is the true thrill of research.