あいにくの雨の中、「石と石垣の魅力」の講座にお集まりくださった皆様、ありがとうございました。
講師は安土の石工であり野面積みのデザインや施工も行う石垣作家の西澤伊織氏でした。西澤さんは家業が石工であったわけではなく、小学生の一時期ドイツでシュタイナー教育を受けて、芸術や自然、体験を通して自分の存在を考え、さらにアメリカで四年間の大学生活を送るなど、かなりユニークな道の行き着く先が、石垣造りであり、そこに芸術性を見出したのが今日の西澤伊織さんだとお見受けしました。
お城の石垣にしても積み方には変遷があること、山肌に石垣を造る時の日本と西欧の根本的な違い、石垣の構造と石垣造りの工程、多賀石の特徴と使われ方、穴太衆（あのうしゅう）の石垣と西澤さんの石垣の違い、石垣造りに使う道具、海外の石垣、などなど、これまで石垣を気にも止めずにいた私でさえ、西澤さんの話す石垣に引き寄せられ、石垣の魅力にハマってしまいました。
石垣が好きな人やお城に詳しい人も参加してくださり、興味深い質問をたくさんしてくださいました。「イシアタマ」という言葉もありますが、皆さんの頭の中には石への想いがたくさん詰まって、今後、石垣のそばを通る時、今日のことを思い出して楽しく鑑賞できるに違いありません。
I am greatly appreciative of the participation to the talk about "Stone and Stonewall" by Iori Nishizawa at Taga Asahiya despite the rainy weather. Mr. Nishizawa is a stonemason from Azuchi in Shiga and he does both construction and design of stonewalls. He was not raised in a stonemason family and his path leading up to today was very unique. He had a Waldorf education (Steiner education) for about a year in Germany which probably developed his identity and creativity through the intellectual, artistic and practical skills in the method of the school. Later he went to the US to spend four years of college life there and he finally found his destination to become a stonemason in which he expresses himself most.
We learned a lot of things in his talk. For example, the stone walls in Japanese castles had changed in the structure and method, and the masonry work method at the mountain surface have an essential difference between Japan and Western cultures. He described the stone walls structure and method, tools stonemasons use, what Taga stones are and how to use them, the difference between stonewalls by Anoh-shu Guild ( a group of craftspeople who installed stone walls) and the one by Mr. Nishizawa, oversea's stonewalls, etc. I haven't been paying much attention about stonewalls before, but it was so interesting and I was fascinated by his talk.
There were some participants who liked stonewalls or Japanese castles very much and they asked many interesting questions to Mr. Nishizawa. We have the Japanese word "Ishi-atama" (stubborn) whose literal translation is "stone head". I guess we are full of knowledge of stonewalls after today's Nishizawa's talk and I am sure we are able to appreciate stonewalls more than ever when we pass by them.
