谷崎潤一郎『少将滋幹の母』(全)その１前編

Captain Shigemoto’s Mother by Jun’ichirō Tanizaki – Part 1 The story of Captain Shigemoto’s Mother begins not with the captain himself, but with a richly layered literary prelude. In this first reading, we follow Tanizaki as he gently opens the curtain on the Heian court, beginning with the amusing legend of Heijū (平中)—a notorious lover whose most famous seduction involved not tears, but ink from a water pot. His romantic misadventures, once whispered among nobles and even echoed in The Tale of Genji, serve here not as mere anecdotes but as a way to conjure a vanished world: one in which even longing had rules. Through these early digressions, Tanizaki does more than offer historical background—he builds an atmosphere. We are introduced to a world of aristocratic elegance and emotional restraint, where passion plays out in glances, gestures, and unanswered letters. Beneath the beauty, there is political calculation; behind the poetry, an ache that cannot be named. This is a slow and dignified beginning—what Zeami would call the jo (序), or prelude, in Noh theater. But within the silences of this courtly overture lies the deep emotional undercurrent that will guide the tale. The reading is delivered in the original Japanese, one sentence at a time, with special care given to the rhythm and stillness of the prose. Thank you, as always, for listening. —Kasumi