Saturday, February 29, 2020

2月29日(土曜日)2020
新型肺炎の感染拡大防止で公演や集まりが中止という知らせが次々に入ってきて緊張した事態になっています。そんな今日は2月29日。つまり、うるう年で四年に一度のおまけの日が付いているのです。ネットで調べると、太陽が春分点から春分点までを一周するのにかかる時間を「太陽年(回帰年)」といい、うるう年がなければ平均回帰年に対して暦が1年で約6時間短くなって、そのため季節がだんだんズレてしまうので、それを避けるため、太陽暦ではうるう年を設けてできる限り平均回帰年に一致させるようにしたとのこと。しかしながら、誤差は年月が経つと大きくなるのでこれを解消するためにエジプト暦から、ユリウス暦(BC45年)さらにグレゴリオ暦(1582年)と変更され現在に至ったようです。太陽年365.2422日を平年365日と四年に一度のうるう年366日とすることで必ずしも暦がすっきりするわけではないようですが、誤差が最小限になるように計算をして今の暦ができあがったとのこと。古代の人々の偉大なる智慧に崇高なものを感じます。因みにオリンピックは四年に一度でうるう年でしたが、コロナウイルスでそうとばかりは言えなくなってきたようです。Many notices of cancellations for performance and public gatherings to protect from coronavirus keep coming and they create a nervous atmosphere. Amid this situation, today is the last day of February and it is a leap-year day. According to internet info, we use Solar calendar which is the time it takes the Earth to revolve once around the Sun and if we don't have a leap year, we would lose almost six hours off our calendar every single year. First the Egyptian calendar was made, next was the Julian calendar and the Gregorian was reformed to eliminate errors. In the Gregorian calendar, there are 365 days in a year with an additional leap day on February 29 every four years. It is a magnificent feeling to think of the great wisdom of the ancients. By the way, the Olympic games have been held every four years and they have been on a leap year every time, but it might no longer the case because of the influence of the coronavirus.



Thursday, February 27, 2020

2月27日(木曜日)2020
滋賀県内で新型肺炎の感染者が出ていないとはいえJRで外出することに躊躇はありましたが、読み聞かせのボランティアをしているので何かヒントがあるかもしれないと『コトバが育つココロが育つ「おうちで読書」』の研修会に大津の県庁まで出かけました。実は内田大樹さん(鳥取市立若草学園保育士、絵本専門士)の「おはなし会のコツ、そっとお伝えします」がプログラムにあったのでそれを拝聴したかったのです。未就学児に絵本を読むことに焦点が絞られていましたが、参加型で絵本を読む、絵本の世界から外へ広げていく、など内田さんの生き生きした実践の中でのお話は大変勉強になり、またご紹介くださった数冊の絵本は選書に苦労する者としては大変助かりました。今日思い切って出かけたもう一つの収穫。それは南彦根駅の駐輪場を1日だけ使うやり方が分かったことです。今朝は係の方に教えていただきましたが、これからは無人でも一人で自転車を預けておくことができます。1日160円。ヤッホ〜!Even though there have not been reports of people being infected by coronavirus in Shiga yet, I hesitated to go out by train, but in the end Idecided to go out to the prefectural office in Otsu. It was for a workshop for picture book storytelling in public. Shiga Prefectural Board of Education organized the workshop and they advocate "Reading Picture Books for Small Kids Enriches Kid's Heart". Actually, I was very much interested in Mr. Taiki Uchida's talk, titled "I will give some tips about storytelling of picture books". Mr. T. Uchida is a nursery teacher and a master storyteller of picture books. I learned many things from him as one of the volunteer members of storytelling at a local elementary school. He introduced some interesting picture books which were also very helpful to me. Apart from the workshop, It was a nice day for me to learn how to park my bicycle at the bicycle parking in Minami Hikone Station. I had been wondering how I should leave my bicycle, but today a person in charge kindly taught me what to do, so now I can manage it by myself. It charges only 160 yen for parking throughout the day. Yay!









Saturday, February 22, 2020

2月22日(土曜日)2020
1月末に岩手県釜石市から滋賀を訪れ、その後西日本各地を回って講演や様々な方と交流をしてこられた山田周生さんが仕事と作業を終えて岩手にお帰りになりました。山田さんといえば必ず結びつくのがバイオディーゼル車のランクルことランドクルーザー。自身で考案した廃油を軽油に変える小型機械を車体後部に搭載したこの特殊な車の車検を受けるために毎年1月下旬に来滋となり、私の所でもお話会をしていただいたことは既に報告済みですが、砂漠にもランクルにもバイオディーゼル燃料にもまったく縁がない私に分かったことは僅かで未だ分からないことの方が遥かに多いですが、そのランクルが岩手に向かう直前に知った興味深いことがいくつかあります。山田さんのランクルの「VASCO-5(ヴァスコ・ファイブ)という名前の由来について。VASCOはポルトガル人の航海者で探検家でもありヨーロッパからアフリカ南岸を経てインドへ、つまり「インド航路」を開拓したVasco da Gama(ヴァスコダガマ 1460-1524)からきているそうで、アフリカで砂漠を駆け抜け世界一周を果たした山田さんのランクルにはふさわしい名前です。続く「5(ファイブ)」は事前に数台のランクルでバイオディーゼル走行をテストしたそうでその5台目が今の車とのことです。VASCO-5のシンボルマークはヴァスコダガマの航海船の旗印と5を組み合わせたナイスなデザイン。そしてこのVASCO-5の重量は何と3トンを超えるそうです。車体もエンジンも酷使に耐えるように並外れて頑丈に作られているとのこと。今回全てのタイヤ交換をされましたが、車が重すぎて4、5人のプロの男性がかかっても作業が大変だったようです。Mr. Shusei Yamada, who came to Shiga from Kamaishi city in Iwate for the inspection of his car at the end of January, and who gave several talks as well as met his friends in the western part of Japan, went back to his home a few days ago. If you know Mr. Yamada, you must think of his biodiesel car "Lan-Cru" which is a Toyota Land Cruiser. It is a special car that makes use of vegetable oil as biodiesel fuel, which was his own idea. He gave us a speech about his experiences at my cafe and I already reported about that in my blog, but actually there are still a lot of things that I don't know because my life is very different and far from desert, land cruiser and biodiesel fuel. However, here are a couple of things about his car which I learned and became very interested in. He named his Land Cruiser "VASCO-5" and according to him, "VASCO" came from the name of Vasco da Gama (1460-1524) who was a Portuguese explorer and the first European to reach India by sea. Mr. Yamada drove through the Sahara desert and went around the world by his Land Cruiser instead of going across the sea. As for "5", he said that he tested several Land Cruisers and it was the fifth one he tried. The symbol of VASCO-5 is the combination of the flag of the boat which Vasco da Gama took for his voyage and number five which looks so cool! Mr. Yamada told me that the weight of VASCO-5 is over three tons. The body and engine are very heavy compared to other cars which allows it to endure extremely harsh conditions. Tires of VASCO-5 were replaced with new ones but according to Mr. Yamada, it was hard work even with four or five professional men because of the heaviness of the car.








Monday, February 17, 2020

2月17日(月曜日)2020
新型コロナウイルスの日本国内感染拡大で不穏な毎日ながら、3月の桃の節句が近づいてきたので今年もまた古い雛人形を出して床の間に飾りました。何段もある立派なお雛様に比べると我が家のは色も褪せて不揃いであり、道具もなくなって、じみ〜なお雛様ですが、それでもこのところ毎年箱から出して飾れるのは楽しみでもあり嬉しいと思っています。赤い毛氈の ひな壇にお雛様を並べると床の間が一挙に華やかになります。スーパーで買った桃の花と、近所のおば様が生前お作りになったのをお嬢さんからいただいた美しい手毬も雛人形によく似合います。The last few weeks have been unsettling due to news of the spreading of coronavirus, but since Doll Festival in March is approaching, I took old Hina dolls out from boxes and displayed in the alcove. Compared to gorgeous Hina dolls which are displayed seven-tiered, Hina dolls in my house are very old, faded in color, and lacking various small ornaments, so they are very humble. It is however, an exciting time for me to take those out and display them in the alcove. When I put dolls and other ornaments on the red flannel, the alcove which usually is very simple became bright and cheerful. I put branches of peach which are from the supermarket in a vase and beautiful traditional Japanese handballs which were made by a lady who was my neighbor and her daughter kindly gave some of them to me after she passed away. They all matched well with my Hina dolls.




Friday, February 14, 2020

2月13日(木曜日)2020
図書館への用事を兼ねて寿福滋(じゅふく・しげる)氏の写真展に行くことができました。フリーカメラマンとして滋賀県の重要文化財、仏像、風景などを36年間に渡って撮りづつけて昨年(2019年2月)亡くなった寿福滋氏について、実は私は何も知りませんでした。多賀町からの案内やFBで最近になってお名前を知り、また寿福氏がライフワークとして「杉原千畝とユダヤ人の逃亡した足跡」について取材なさったこともボストンで杉原千畝(ちうね)氏の記念式典に参加した私は何か縁を感じ、引きつけられるような思いで写真展を訪れました。琵琶湖や山間部の自然の表情、人々の暮らしが捉えられた多くの写真に心を奪われました。静かで美しいそれらの写真は真実を見据えようとする穏やかなカメラマン寿福氏ご自身だったと思います。その寿福さんが、ナチスによる迫害の下で危機的状況にあったユダヤ人のためにリトアニアでビザを書き続けた杉原氏畝氏に感銘を受け、杉原氏とユダヤ人の人たちの足跡をたどって自身もリトアニアからシベリヤへと取材をし、アウシュビッツにも足を延ばして写真を撮り、丁寧な解説も書き記して下さったことで、私はそれらにゆっくりと目を通すことができ感動しました。また、コソボ紛争で破壊されたサラエボやボズニアの写真もたくさん展示してあり、以前いたアメリカの大学でヘルツゴビナから来て日本語を勉強していた女子学生が川の向こうとこちら側ではまったく主義主張が違ったと話していたことを思い出して展示会場にあった地図でその位置を確認しました。帰りに文化財センターの音田さんが同行の女性お二人が杉原氏のお身内の方ですと教えてくださり、お声を掛けさせていただいたのは思いがけないことでした。I went to Mr. Shigeru Jyufuku's photo exhibition at Akebono Park Taga where I also needed to borrow some books from a library which is in the same building. Mr. Shigeru Jyufuku was a freelance photographer who passed away February of 2019 and he had been taking photos of important cultural properties, Buddha statues, and nature in Shiga for 36 years. Actually I found out about Mr. Jyufuku from the brochure from Taga town and Facebook recently. He was also inspired by Mr. Chiune Sugihara who was a consul in the Japanese consulate in Kaunas, Lithuania and who, in 1940, issued 2,139 transit visas for Jewish refugees ignoring the orders from the Japanese foreign ministry. Mr. Jyufuku visited Lithuania where Mr. Sugihara took action and followed the path taken by Jewish refugees who escaped from Russia to the East by Siberian Railway. He also visited Auschwitz. I was able to see all of his photos with detailed explanations and was deeply moved by them. There were many photos of Bosnia and Sarajevo which were destroyed in Kosovo conflict. I remembered a Wellesley student who was from Bosnia-Herzegovina, and in my Japanese class she talked about their conflict situation between the river in Herzegovina. On my way back from the exhibition, I saw two women who were with Mr. Otoda in the Culture Center. Since he let me know that they were family members of Mr. Chiune Sugihara, I greeted them. It was a very nice opportunity.



Monday, February 10, 2020

2月11日(火曜日)2020
今回の小学校での読み聞かせは「はつてんじん」で相手は二年い組みの子供達でした。「はつてんじん」は落語を川端誠さんが子供用に絵本にしたものです。とうちゃんと息子の金坊がお正月に天満宮に行った時のお話で親子の掛け合いが絶妙でおかしいのですが、テンポの良さと緩急の難しさが私にはなかなかのハードルです。おまけに教室に見学の方がいらしたので余計な自意識が邪魔をして…、というのは言い訳がましいですが。まあ、こういう状況も乗り越えて、リラックスしてもっと上手に子供達に読んで聞かせられるよう精進したいと思います。Yesterday's storytelling at elementary school was "HATSU TENJIN" for the secondary kids. HATSU TENJIN is originally from RAKUGO (classical storytelling by one person) and Mr. Makoto Kawabata drew pictures and rewrote the story for kids. It is a story about a dad and his son who go to Tenmangu-shrine on New Year and the conversation between these two are exquisite and very funny. It should be read in a good tempo while varying the pace effectively which is very difficult and challenging to me. Besides, yesterday there were two guests observing my reading which made me nervous. Well, it is my excuse and I shouldn't say that. Anyhow, I would like to overcome any situation, and in order to be a good storyteller, I will put all my efforts into my storytelling.



Thursday, February 6, 2020

2月7日(金曜日)2020
立春を過ぎた今ごろになって寒波がやってきました。昨日は珍しく雪景色。そんな寒さの中、今年も味噌作りをしました。大豆(一升)糀(2升)塩(800g)が材料です。まずは糀に塩をいれてよく混ぜ込みます。次に柔らかく煮ておいた大豆をもう一度熱くして、ザルにあけ、二重にした丈夫なビニール袋に入れて潰します。私たちは機械がないので毎年手や足で潰しています。滑らかな味噌を作るにはここでよく潰すことがコツ。熱を持たなくなったら、塩が入った糀を入れてよく混ぜます。それを団子にしてツボの中へ強く投げ入れます。空気が入らないようにするためです。表面をならして、板粕で蓋をして空気に触れないようにし、さらにビニール袋で包み、冷暗所に放置します。10月ごろには美味しい味噌が出来上がるはず。自家製味噌を作り始めて3年目。皆さんと一緒に楽しく作業ができました。Big chill has come although it is the start of spring according to the calendar. I saw light snow yesterday. On such a cold morning, we made our own MISO this year, too. We need soy (1.5kg), malted rice (3kg), salt (800g) for making Miso. First, we put salt into malted rice and mix them well. Next, we heat up soy which is previously boiled until it becomes softened, drain them and put them into doubled plastic bags to smash the soy. Since we don't have any device to smash, we smash by both feet and hands. If you want smooth Miso, you should smash the soy well. After cooling down the soy, mix mashed soy and malted rice well. Make into balls by hand and throw them into the pot strongly in order to avoid any air entering. After smoothing the surface, cover it with sake lees in order to not let them touch the air. Wrap the container with a big plastic bag and put it in a cool and dark place. We are supposed to get our home-made Miso in October. This is the third year that I make Miso. I appreciate this opportunity to make Miso with the people who love the work.



大豆茹であがり

ビニール袋に移す

豆つぶし

団子を壺ヘ

壺に入れたあと

板粕

板粕で蓋