４月２７日（木曜日）２０２３

    今月から月３回木曜日の午後、中央公民館でのヨガサークルに参加しています。左股関節に問題ありの私は自宅での覚束ない筋肉トレーニングだけでは改善に自信がなく、友人が長く続けているヨガの話を聞いて私もしてみようと思い立った次第です。

    お天気も良く吹く風も心地よい本日。建物の裏の芝生のところで桜の木の下の先生から円を描くように皆さんピクニックシートの上にヨガマットを広げて開始を待っていらっしゃいました。陽が当たっていましたが空いていたスペースに私も場所を取りました。帽子にサングラス、屋外でヨガをするのは初めての経験です。約１時間、ヨガのゆっくりとした様々なポーズを先生の指導のもとに終えた後、ゴロンと仰向けに寝っ転がって見た空は快晴。木の枝の先に月が見えていました。心身ともに爽やかなひとときでした。 

    I have been joining Yoga circle Thursday afternoon at the town public hall three times a month since April. I have a little problem in my left hip joint, so I do some exercise at home but I feel it is not enough, so I decided to be a member of the yoga circle which my friend has been doing for years.

    It was a fine day with a gentle breeze. When I went to the backyard of the building, members were already there placing yoga mat on the picnic sheet forming a big circle from the instructor who was under a cherry tree. There was an empty spot which got sunlight though, so I took my space there. Wearing sunglasses and putting on a hat, I did yoga for the first time outside. After several poses following the instruction for an hour, I lay on my back and saw the blue sky. The moon was there ahead of the branch of the tree. It was a really refreshing time for my mind and body.

４月２３日（日曜日）２０２３

    多賀大社、春の古例大祭が２２日に執り行われました。今年の祭りの主役である馬頭人は彦根に本社がある昭和バルブ製作所の会長、中川哲氏で今年１月の正式発表以来、数々の神事を夫人と共にこなしてこられ、そのハイライトが古例大祭の御わたりといわれる騎馬による行列でした。

    昔から多賀祭りの前日は敏満寺の胡の宮神社のお祭りと決まっており、敏満寺の方の話では、祭りの神輿を担いだ若衆が敏満寺の町をねり歩いた後でかなりの段差の参道の階段を担いで上がり、神様が神社に御戻りになったところで祭りが終わるそうです。その後、胡の宮神社の宮司様が榊に乗った神様を多賀大社へお連れし、多賀大社の古例祭へと御繋ぎする。何百年も前から繰り返されてきたこうした神事の一連を私は地元で育ちながら知ることなくこの歳に至りました。２１日の夕方の多賀大社での神事は地元でもほとんどの人が知りません。拝殿正面から胡の宮神社の神様が御通りになるところを見せて頂くのは生まれて初めてでした。白い装束は多賀大社の神主様で「オー、オー」といった声を発して胡の宮神社の宮司様の先を歩かれます。多賀大社の名誉宮司のNさまに伺うと、神様が御通りになる時に発する声であることを教えて下さいました。訳が分からず物珍しそうにカメラを向けて見ていましたが、もっと丁重に頭を下げるべきだったと反省しています。

    Taga Taisha Spring Festival was held on the 22nd. This year, the main person of the festival was Mr. S.Nakagawa who is a resident of Hikone and an executive chairman of SHOWA VALVE CO., LTD. He had done many Shinto rituals with his wife and the highlight was the procession with about 40 horses with people.

    The day before Taga Taisha Festival, it was a festival day of Konomiya Shrine and the day was set from several hundred years ago. Konomiya Shrine is in Binmanji which is near Taga Taisha and it is also a very old shrine. According to the people in Binmanji, young adult local people carry Mikoshi which is a portable shrine in which the spirit of a deity temporarily reposes during a festival and is carried on the shoulders of them. I don't know the exact weight but it is easily over one ton. They carried Mikoshi and walked through the main street in Binmanji and finally carried it up to the shrine which is on the hill. The way to the shrine is stairs and it is unbelievably hard to carry such a heavy Mikoshi to the shrine even with 40 men's power. When the spirit of the deity gets back to the Konomiya shrine, the festival is over. Then, the head of the shrine led the spirit with Sakaki (sacred Shinto tree) to Taga Taisha to report in Shinto way that Konomiya Shrine's festival was over. Taga Taisha takes over that report and starts their festival. It is held in the late afternoon and I saw this Shinto ritual for the first time at Taga Taisha. Since even most of the local people don't know about this ritual, only a few people observed the scene. The priest of Taga Taisha who wore a white costume walked ahead of the head of the chief priest of Konomiya Shrine saying something which I had never heard. I was curious about what he was saying. Luckily I could ask about this to Mr.N who is the Honorary chief priest at Taga Taisha when he stopped by my cafe the next day. He said that a Shrine priest makes that sound while he is leading god. I was just curiously watching them pass by me and taking photos, but I regret now that I should have made a more respectful bow to god.

４月９日（日曜日）２０２３　

    只今開かれている「染織・きもの＆絵画・日本画ふたり展」にお見えになった彦根のお客様から珍しいお花を五種お土産に頂戴しました。名前を教えていただいて早速メモしました。

    黒い実の蕾は黒蝋梅（くろろうばい）で茶花だそうです。茎が赤いのは珊瑚ミズキ、清楚な白い花は利休梅、たくさんの小さな白い蕾は卯の花で空木（うつぎ）の花、赤いのは花桃。

　若い頃に染めや織物を富山で修行なさったらしく造形には詳しく、今回の染織の久保円さんとは初対面ながらお二人の話しは熱が入りいかにも楽しそうでした。８０を過ぎていらっしゃるようですが、静かな控えめな雰囲気の中にも揺るがない確信をお持ちの素敵な女性。いつも同行でお見えになる写真家の仲良しのご友人のお話しがまた愉快で、女性３人の芸術家に私も加えていただき座敷で過ごした時間は楽しいものとなりました。

    I received five kinds of flowers which I saw for the first time from a customer who came from Hikone to visit the exhibition " Dyeing/weaving & Japanese paintings by two artists" which is held pleasantly at my cafe. The customer kindly told me the names of the plants, so I took a note of them.

    The flower of black buds is Kurorohbai (Strawberry shrub) which is one of the seasonal flowers arranged for a tea ceremony. Sangomizuki (Coral dogwood) is the one whose stem is red and the pure white flowers are Rikyu-bai (Exochorda racemosa). Many small white buds are Uno-hana (deulzia), and the pink flowers are peaches.

    The lady who gave the flowers to me is knowledgeable about dyeing and weaving. She said that she was trained in dyeing and weaving at Toyama prefecture when she was young. The conversation between these two people in the same field seemed very enthusiastic and pleasant even though they met each other for the first time. The lady is over 80. She is humble and quiet but seems to have a calm and firm will which is very nice. Her friend who is a photographer came with her and is also very charming and good at talking. This gathering of three artists plus me made for a pleasant time at the guest room in my cafe.

４月５日（水曜日）２０２３

    ４日から久保円（まどか）と久保文音（あやね）両氏の「染織/きもの＆絵画/日本画ふたり展」を、多賀あさひやで開催しています。

    染織/きものは母上の円さんの展示です。糸を染めて帯や反物を織り、さらに着物へと仕立て上げていく、その過程の長い時間と織のデザインと色合いの工夫と緻密な作業、全てに圧倒されます。糸の多くは自然の植物などから色を出した草木染めといわれるもので日本古来の染色技法だそうです。見ていて何とも優しく心穏やかになる色合いです。

    絵画/日本画は娘の文音さんの作品です。これまで数々の展覧会で入選、奨励賞を獲得し、２０１７年の改組日展では特賞に選ばれた経歴の持ち主です。実はそうした絵は大きすぎて運搬の問題があるとのことで今回の展示は比較的小さなものばかりですが、絵を通して文音さんが日頃抱きつづける問いかけや主張を見るのも楽しいでしょう。

    お二人の異なる分野での表現の世界です。展示会は月木を除いて４月２３日まで。

    Two-person exhibition of dyeing and weaving/kimono & Japanese paintings by Madoka Kubo and Ayane Kubo has been held at Taga Asahiya since April 4th.

    Dyeing and weaving/kimono is by Madoka who is the mother of Ayane. She dyes threads, weaves obi (kimono sash) or cloth and sews kimono with it. I am overwhelmed by the long process, by the design of the patterns and color scheme, and by the detailed work.　Madoka often used a plant dye method which is said to be an ancient Japanese dye method. Indeed when you look at her kimono, you feel very tender and calm.

    Japanese paintings are the works of Ayane who is the daughter of Madoka. She got many awards and her work was selected as a Special Prize at the Japan Fine Arts Exhibition in 2017. Unfortunately, we can not see her award winning paintings this time because they are too big to carry in. However it will be fun to find what the painter is thinking and her expression through her works.

    I hope you will appreciate the two artists' different expressions. The exhibition will be until April 23rd.

４月１日（土曜日）２０２３

    １９９３年に多賀町で化石となった象の1個体の骨が次々に発見されました。それは４５０万年前に大陸からやってきたアケボノゾウの祖先がその後大陸から切り離されて島となった日本の環境に適応し約１８０万年前に生息していたであろうアケボノゾウと言われています。アケボノゾウの化石は国内の様々な箇所で発見されているそうですが、多賀で産出された骨の数は群を抜いて多く保存状態もよいことから、昨年国の天然記念物に指定されました。それを祝って「シガタガゾウのアート展」が多賀町立博物館で開催され、そのために平面・立体、画像などアケボノゾウに関連したさまざまの作品２００点余りが地元のみならず県外からも海外からも応募があったそうです。

    職場が多賀の会社で行き帰りに、よくカフェに顔を出してくれる２０代の小野隆久さんもアケボノゾウの復元立体を出展しました。出展にあたって、アケボノゾウに関係する様々な資料や学術論文を読んだり、博物館の学芸員の人に疑問点を聞いたりして骨だけの化石から当時のアケボノゾウの姿をミニチュア像として再現しようと日々試行錯誤しながら努力している姿を私は何ヶ月も前から見ていました。

    沢山の平面絵画や思いがけない発想の芸術的な作品が圧倒的に多い中で、小野さんの作品は一見地味に見えますが、足裏の形状や牙を支える筋肉のつき方、背骨の曲がり具合など細部まで調べ上げて、カフェに寄っては途中経過を熱心に話してくれていました。

    上位入賞は芸術面の方が獲得なさり素晴らしいと思いましたが、私は小野さんが再現したアケボノゾウに大賞を上げたいと心から思っています。

    Fossil bones of the ancient elephant were excavated one after another in Taga in 1993. Scholars said that they were the bones of Akebono-zoh (Stegodon aurorae) whose ancestor came from Asian Continent 450 million years ago and after separating Japan from Asian continent, Stegodon aurorae adapted to the environment of Japan Island and lived about 180 million years ago. Stegodon aurorae's fossil bones were excavated in several places in Japan, but the numbers of the bones in Taga were the most numerous and kept in good condition. Therefore, the Ministry of Education of Japan announced last year that they decided to designate them as a national natural monument. Celebrating the decision, Taga town museum held an exhibition related to the Stegodon aurorae named "Art exhibition of Stegodon aurorae" from March 18th to April 9th in 2023. More than 200 applicants submitted their work which were two-dimensional figures such as paintings, wood prints,etc., three-dimensional works or video works for the exhibition. I also heard that those applicants were not only local people but also from all over Japan, or even from overseas.

    Mr. Ono who is in his twenties working at the company in Taga and often stops by my cafe, submitted his work which was the miniature restoration of the Stegodon aurorae. Over the past several months, he read many related documents and academic papers and he often went to the curator of the museum to ask his questions in order to make it as real as possible.

    There were so many two dimensional works and artistic works which were amazing, and Oho's work looked rather humble but he researched the shape of the sole of the Stegodon aurorae, how to build muscle which supported his fangs, the shape of back bone, or other detailed parts and talked about the process to me enthusiastically in my cafe. 

    The works of the higher-ranking winner were all very artistic and wonderful but I would like to give a grand prize to Ono's miniature Stegodon aurorae.