本稿では中世までの日本古典文学を通じて、当時の日本社会の女性についての認識と、多様な権力が女性たちに加えた被害について考察して見た。最近国家権力による性暴力に関心が集中しており、特に韓日間に解決すべき難問となっているが、このような問題が近現代以後になって表だったように認識されがちであった。ところが、本考察によって分かるように、昔も種類と程度の差はあるが類似した問題を抱えていたことが確かめられる。例えば、過去日本の戦場において女性たちが性的搾取の対象となってきた歴史的事実は、後代の日本軍慰安婦問題と無関係でないと思われる。また、皇室の権力と女性問題においても、天皇が女性を私有化して贈与の対象と考えたり、一人の女性を二代にかけて天皇の后とした事例からは、女性でなくても人間としての最小限の権利さえ見られず、今日のような権利を話すことすら贅沢なことであった。 このような女性逼迫の底には根深い女性差別の意識が流れており、そこには五障三従、女人禁制のような儒仏の思想も一助したろうことをいなめない。 歴史的に見ると、長い間女性は権力の被害を受けてきており、その背景には男性中心の考え方が存在していたが、今日のジェンダー問題もかつて行なわれた女性逼迫に対する反作用的性格もあることを否定しがたいだろう。即ち、過去は過去の問題で終わるのではなくて現在に繋るということであり、現実を直視するためにも古典に対する再解釈は意味があり、必要性も大きいと言えよう。

Through classical literature until the Middle Ages in Japan, we looked at the perceptions of women in Japanese society at that time and the damage inflicted on women by various authority. Recently, attention has been focused on sexual violence by state power, and it has become a difficult issue to solve, especially between Korea and Japan, which has been recognized as prominent since modern times. However, as we can see from this study, there were similar problems in the past, although there were differences in type and degree. For example, the former japanese historical facts that women have been subject to exploitation on battlefield are irrelevant to the topic for future generations of Japanese military sexual slavery. In addition, in terms of imperial power and women's affairs, the Japanese emperor privatized women and regarded them as object of gift, or a case in which a woman has been the wife of the emperor for two generations, it was difficult to find even the least women′s right. It is hard to deny that there is a deep-rooted sense of discrimination against women based on this persecution of women, and Confucian and Buddhist ideas as ‘gosyosanju’ ‘nyoninkinse’ are helped. Historically, women have suffered power damage for a long time, and there has been a male-centered way of thinking behind it, and it would be hard to deny that today's gender issues also have a counteracting nature to women's persecution done in the past. In other words, the past does not end up as a problem of the past, but leads to the present. In order to face current facts, reinterpreting the classics is meaningful and necessary.