木簡に見る奈良時代の文字使用

Letters on Wooden Materials from Nara Period - Spreading of the Letters During the Kojiki Compilation Period

本稿は奈良時代において、一部の貴族、知識人、渡来人だけが、文章の読み書きができたと信じられてきたことに対し、検証するものである。 日本では712年に執筆された『古事記』が現在最古の書物として存在しているが、それは現存する最古の日本語の資料を意味する。これを執筆したのは太安万侶という貴族であり、歴史書という位置づけから有識人が書くのは當然だったと思われるが、読み物というよりは資料としての役割が大きかったことと、中国に対する日本の正當性を示す外交文書という位置づけもあったために、當時の一般人が文字の読み書きができたのかを判断する材料とはなりえなかった。 しかし、最近では、日本で約40万点にも上る木簡が発掘されており、712年以前の日本語の資料としての役割が期待されている状況である。 これら木簡を調査し、文字の習得が特殊な地位の人間だけはなかったことを探ろうと思う。

This paper will examine whether the nobles, intellectuals, and migrants were really the only ones who were able to read and write sentences during the Nara period. In Japan, Kojiki, which was written in 712, exists as the oldest book. This means that this is the oldest Japanese material that exists today. Kojiki was written by an aristocratic man named “Ono Yasumaro”. Since this book was categorized as a history book, it does seem natural that an intellectual like Ono wrote this. However, this book played a larger role as a document indicating Japan’s legitimacy against China rather than a reading material. Though written by an intellectual, since this book was categorized more as a diplomatic document, it was hard to consider from just this material whether ordinary people at this time were able to read and write characters or not. However, recently, approximately 400,000 wooden letters have been excavated in Japan. These wooden materials are said to be a good resource for investigating Japanese language before the year of 712. Relying on these wooden materials, this paper will show that people with special status were not the only ones who were able to acquire the skill to write letters.