earticle

영어

The purpose of this study is to investigate characteristics of women employees depicted in the Modern Japanese biographical literatures such as Saikaku novels and Ganajosi,especially in 󰡔Miyakohujokukagami󰡕and 󰡔Sikidookagami󰡕, an encyclopedia of bawdy house. The employees of the Edo era are those who work and get paid by the owner during designated contract period, not like slaves or servants of the previous era. Thus, the relationship between the women employees and their owner is not subordinate as found in slaves and servants, which is subordinate. In other words, the time when the relationship of employment as an employer and employee is established is the Edo era. However, one of the interesting aspects of this relationship is that the ower has a private right of sanction and he or she goes unpunished by law even though the owner infringes women employees’ sexual right. As such, women employees’ life is the one as the socially disadvantaged. In spite of their social status as the underprivileged as expressed in the works, their existence is different from other women who are samurais’, farmer’s, or merchant’s wives. In a male-dominated society, those women’s existence is mainly to carry on their husband side’s family line as the ownership of properties or lands belongs to their husband, as bread earner. To sum up, it is not too much to say that the women employees’ life is the one as independent and dynamic workers, who bravely participate in economic activity for the livelihood of their family.

일본어

近世の前期の文学である西鶴の小説と仮名草子の『都風俗鑑』、遊郭の百科事典である『色道大鏡』に現れる女の奉公人について考察した。 江戸時代の奉公人は主人を決めて定まった契約期間に勤労を提供し給料をもらう勤労者で、前時代の老婢や下人といった身分的な隷属関係ではなく、雇用関係の身分であった。いわば、雇用主と雇用人という雇用の関係が定着したのは江戸時代である。 ところで、主人は奉公人に対しての私的の制裁権をもっており、主人は女の奉公人を性的に侵害しても法的に処罰を受けなかった。このように雇用人としての立場は非常に弱いものであり、社会的な弱者として生きていかねばならないのが女の奉公人の在り様であった。 しかし、彼らは男性が一家の家長として土地や不動産などの所有権をもっている男性中心社会で武士階級や富裕な農民·商人の妻が主にその家の子孫を生むために存在するのとは異なった。 つまり、女の奉公人たちは一家の生計のために堂々と経済活動に加った主体的で力動的な人生を生きた勤労者たちであったといっても過言ではないだろう。