What is "と...との"doing in this sentence?

Question

I was reading the book "刺青殺人事件" and came across this section:

しかし、そういう標本のどれにもまして、この一室を訪れて来る人々の注意を完全に奪ってしまうものは、壁を埋めてかかげられた刺青人皮のほかにはない。それは奇妙なアラベスク、刺青師と、この芸術の愛好者との魂を、死後にとどめた曼陀羅図。

I initially interpreted this as "...the mandala that keeps the soul of the tattooist and the fanatics of this artform posthumously", but I then wondered that if that was the case, why wasn't it written like "刺青師とこの芸術の愛好者の魂を..." instead. After researching for a bit I still don't get what it means, and I guess staring at this sentence for more than 15 minutes is messing with my head, because now I am starting to wonder why the first part "arabesque" don't feel connected to the "mandala" at the end.

Does this answer your question: https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/54461/9831 — chocolate, Sep 14 '23 at 12:06
FYI 並立する語ごとに「と」を用いるのが本来の用法であるが、現代語ではいちばんあとにくる「と」を省略するのが普通となっている — sundowner, Sep 14 '23 at 12:19
Sorry I'm still not quite getting it :( I'm confused if the omitted part is "...愛好者とアラベスクとの魂", which doesn't fit with 死後 after, or "...愛好者と刺青師との魂", but that seems a bit redundant. — smeraldofw, Sep 14 '23 at 16:14

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 14 '23 at 23:04

As I put in the comment, と for listing things is used originally as 'AとBと' although nowadays it appears usually as 'AとB'.

The last sentence has the structure それは奇妙なアラベスク、（刺青師と、この芸術の愛好者との魂を、死後にとどめた）曼陀羅図, where （刺青師...とどめた) is a relative clause modifying 曼陀羅図. The 、 after アラベスク expresses the listing here. Verbosely, it could be written as それは奇妙なアラベスクであり、刺青師と、この芸術の愛好者との魂を、死後にとどめた曼陀羅図である.

What is "と...との"doing in this sentence?

1 Answers1