A Study of the Archetype of Conflict between Brothers Projected in "the Legend of Wisteria"

Abstract

Studies on <the Legend of Wisteria> have not been active. It is thought to be because the small number of volumes that were studied, the short length of the narration, which were hard to attract attention from researchers. In cases when the legend was handled through previous studies, it was treated as a type of a tale with the origin of plants and even in cases it was studied in depth, it was mistaken for ‘a legend of a lovesick tree’ and wrong approaches were made. It is clear that <the Legend of Wisteria> has the ‘origin of wisteria’ but a study that discusses the overall nature through tales of the origin of various plants, it is hard to clarify the intrinsic meaning of <the Legend of Wisteria>. It is clear that one of the major motifs of <the Legend of Wisteria> is ‘hopeless love’ but considering the form of wisteria that was presented as a proof of <the Legend of Wisteria>, it is more appropriate to see the legend as a story of ‘conflict between brothers’ than ‘lovesickness’.