南島へ
To the Southern Islands
2018年2月24日－3月25日
ギャラリーケイブ（浜松）
Gallery CAVE, Hamamatsu
■ The move - I To the Southern Islands
We lived at the foot of a mountain. We were able to survive by cultivating small areas of farmland, as well as performing handwork using things such as straw and hemp-palm. I don't know when we started living here. We have been living like this for a long period of time. Our village faced to the north and did not receive a lot of sunlight, making it unsuitable for agriculture. We couldn't go anywhere else on our own, and we did not have a relationship with the neighboring villages. I was told many times by my parents that we've lived this way for a long time, so we would continue to do so. However, one day all the villagers were ordered to relocate. We were not informed about where we were going, but the old people said that the same kind of thing had also happend in the past.
I had a wife and two children who were just old enough to do farm work. The only recreation in the village was plays and puppet shows performed in a small playhouse. Neither the performers nor the spectators came from outside our village. All of the parts were played
by villagers, and everyone in the village always looked forward to them. The performances played by my children and I using our rustic wooden figures called Deku were particularly well received. Our reputation became known to other villages, so we were sometimes asked to perform at villages slightly further away. So, I knew a little more about the outside world than the other villagers.
The mountain behind the village was quite high. Although I used to climb halfway up the mountain to look for firewood, I never went beyond that. However, after traveling to several villages with our wooden figures, I learned about some of the villages. I also learned the way
to cross the mountain. By going straight over the mountain, I would reach a slightly larger
village. On the outskirts of it, there is an arterial road leading to the western capital city. The road also leads to the sea. At the sea, there is a harbor, and there are many large ships there. I heard that if we took a ship, we could reach the southern island, where it is much warmer than here.
We carried a small amount of luggage, which was just some wooden figures, a wooden box to perform on, and a little clothing. All of my family climbed the mountain at midnight when the moon rose. The moon was shining the entire time, but because the mountain was so steep, almost nothing caught the moonlight. Illuminating the mountain and shining the foothills of our small village, the extra light bounced back into the sky, and vividly brightened its corners. The mountain had two peaks, and the line between the two peaks looked like a horse's back. We went over the horse-back line, waited for the dawn at the entrance of the village on the south slope of the mountain, and then we went out to the arterial road. We walked all the way and arrived at the harbor by the time it was getting dark.
Fortunately, we were able to board a ship with big sails and depart from the harbor. First,
the ship went west. While avoiding the area of the sea where pirates were active, it gradually changed direction and went southwest. Around that time, the ship begun to rock back and
forth, and I finally realized that we were in the ocean. When the sea was rough, everyone sat
frozen in place at the bottom of the ship. When the sea got even rougher, we escaped into a
cove on a small island. When there was no island to escape to, we tried to sleep by supporting
each other's bodies so that we would not roll around. However, anyone who had never
boarded a ship before immediately got seasick. At that time, in the darkness of the bottom of
the ship, I slowly chanted the longest sutra that I had memorized. I chanted it slowly, very
slowly, and I just hoped that the time would pass as quickly as possible.
I heard various stories from other people on the ship. On a large island in the south, there are not enough workers, so anyone who moves there can receive a large plot of land. There, they use golden containers to measure out amounts of rice. We can also get a gorgeous house. I also heard that those who can perform plays are especially valued and are allowed to enter a castle.
The waves during the day were especially large. Many times, the high waves violently slung the ship from the top to the bottom of huge waves. We went through a storm for a whole day, and finally I saw a quiet sunrise. I was able to see the boundary between the sea and the sky. It looked as if it had been there quietly for time eternal, undisturbed by anything. The glaring sunlight rested on my shoulders. At the height of the brightness, I felt like I saw the darkness that I had been seeing until that time.
遊行の、果て
Performance
移動－Ⅰ 南島へ
山の麓に暮らしていた。わずかな農地を耕し、藁や棕櫚を使った手仕事で息をつないできた。いつ頃からここにいるのかは知らない。ずっと昔からそんな暮らしを続けてきた。北向きの集落は日当たりが悪く、農業には適していなかったが、自分の意志ではどこにも行くことができず、隣の村と関わることもなかった。親からは、ずっとそのようにして生きてきたのだから、これからもそのようにしていく、と何度も聞かされてきた。ある日、この村人全員の移転が命じられた。どこに行くのかは聞かされなかったが、昔も同じようなことがあったと年寄りたちはいう。
妻と、やっと農作業のできるようになった子どもが二人いた。村での唯一の楽しみは、小さな芝居小屋で演じられる芝居や人形芸だった。演じる者も観る者も、外からやって来ることはなかった。すべて村人が演じ、それを村の誰もが楽しみにしていた。私たち親子の木偶（でく）を使った芸は、とりわけ評判が良かった。その評判は、他の村にも伝わり、時々少し離れた村にまで呼ばれて行くこともあった。だから他の村人と比べれば、世間のことは多少知っていた。
村の後ろにある山はかなりの高さがあり、焚き木取りで途中まで登ることはあっても、そこを超えて他所に行くことはなかった。しかし、いくつかの村を木偶をもって廻ってきたから、だいたいのことはわかっている。山を越える道も知っている。山を越えてまっすぐに進むと少し大きな集落があり、そのはずれには西の都に向かう街道が通っていて、街道は海に続いている。海に出ると、そこには港があって、大きな船が幾艘もとまっている。それに乗ると、ここよりもずっと暖かい南の島に行けると聞いていた。
荷物、といっても木偶とそれを演じるための木箱一つと、少しの衣類だけを担いだ。月の出た深夜に家族全員で山に登った。月はずっと照っていたが、山が高いので、光にあたるものが少なかった。山を照らし、自分たちの小さな集落のある裾野を輝かして、余った光はまた空に跳ね返って、残る隅々までも鮮やかに映し出していた。山には二つの頂があって、その間が馬の背のようになっている。その背を越えて進み、山の南斜面にある集落の入り口で朝を待ち、街道に出た。ひたすら歩いて、暗くなる頃には港にたどり着いた。
運よく乗り込んだ船は、大きな帆を掲げて出港した。まず西に進み、海賊が出る海域を避けながら、少しずつ方向をかえ南西に進んだ。そのころから、船は大きく揺れるようになり大海に出たのがわかった。海が荒れると船底で誰もがじっとしていた。さらに荒れると小さな島の入り江に逃げ込んだが、寄りつく島がないときには、転がらないようにお互いの身体を支えにして眠ろうとした。しかし船に乗ったことのない人間の内臓はすぐに踊り狂った。そんなとき、船底の闇の中で、覚えてきた念仏のうちの一番長いものをゆっくり唱えた。ゆっくりゆっくり、それで時間が少しでも早く通り過ぎてくれることを願った。
船の中ではいろいろな話を聞いた。南にある大きな島では人手が足りないから御知行（ごちぎょう）がもらえる、しかも一万石だ。米は黄金の枡で量るという。りっぱな家も手に入る。芸のできる者は特に大切にされ、お城への出入りも赦されるとも聞いた。
その日の波は、とびきり大きかった。何度も伸びあがった波高からいっきに波底にたたき落とされた。まる一日嵐の中を進み、やがて静かな日の出を見た。海と空の境界は誰にも乱されることなく、永遠の時間の中に静止しているように見えた。陽光は肩に喰い込んだ。頂点に達した明るさの中心に、さっきまでの闇を見るような気がした。