Kamo Mioya Shrine
『鴨御祖神社御記』
Kobe, [1934].
ポンソンビー＝フェーン（PONSONBY-FANE, Richard Arthur）
リチャード・ポンソンビー＝フェーン（Richard Arthur Brabazon Ponsonby-Fane）は1873年英国生まれで、彼が23歳の1896年からイギリス植民地総督秘書として、各地に赴任し、日本には1901年に保養のため初来日しました。1903年に香港総督秘書に赴任すると、日本郵船香港支店で日本語を熱心に習い始め、以後度々日本を訪れ、日本への造詣を深めるようになりました。1915年には日本に関する最初の著書『日本皇室譜（The Imperial Family of Japan）』を刊行し、香港総督秘書を退任した1919年秋からは東京の本郷に居を構え、英語教師として教鞭を振るかたわら、日本研究に専念するようになりました。研究を進めるなかで日本の皇室と神道に強い関心を持った彼は、関東大震災後の1925年に京都に移住し、神道と深い関わりのある京都の歴史について、独自の視点で考察研究をすすめ、1934年に出版したこの『鴨御祖神社御記（Kamo Mioya Shrine）』をはじめ多くの書物を著しました。 本書は加茂御祖神社（下鴨神社）に関する歴史や境内の建築物などを英語で説明したものです。その内容は境内図を含め、詳細に記されており、下鴨神社の祭礼である葵祭の研究もされています。本書は、特にイギリス人の神道研究家として彼の名声を高めた書物といえるでしょう。
Richard Arthur Brabazon Ponsonby-Fane was born in England in 1873. From 1896, when he was 23, he was transferred to various places, serving as secretary to the Governor of the British Colony. He came to Japan for the first time in 1901 for relaxation. In 1903, when he was assigned as secretary to the Governor of Hong Kong, he started learning Japanese eagerly at the Hong Kong branch of the Japan Post. Since then, he repeatedly visited Japan and deepened his knowledge of it. In 1915, he published his first book on Japan, “The Imperial Family of Japan”. In the fall of 1919, when he retired from his post of secretary to the Governor of Hong Kong, he settled in Hongo, Tokyo, and began to concentrate on his studies on Japan while working as an English teacher. As he pursued his research, he became strongly interested in the Japanese imperial family and Shinto, then he moved to Kyoto in 1925, after the Great Kanto Earthquake. He proceeded with his own perspective on the history of Kyoto, which is closely related to Shinto, and authored many books including “Kamo Mioya Shrine” published in 1934. This book explains the history of Kamo Mioya Shrine (Shimogamo Shrine) and the edifices in its precincts in English. The contents, including the precincts’ map, are described in detail, and research has been conducted also on Aoi Matsuri, which is a festival of Shimogamo Shrine. We can say that this book in particular raised his reputation as a British researcher of Shinto.
