先日中学校以来の友人と話していて中学校「校歌」をなかなか思い出せなかった。別れた後もどうも気になって一晩寝てから起きたら、メロディが頭のなかに浮かび上がってきた。校歌ってふつうは小学・中学・高校の３つが浮かんでくる。
　わたしはけっこうマジメな生徒だったので（笑〜冗談）この３つの校歌メロディは時折想起される。でも、どれがどれやらは日常まったく精緻に特定しない、できない。「あれ、この歌は小学校かなぁ、中学校かなぁ、それとも・・・」程度の一般認識レベル。
　で、浮かんできた校歌歌詞を忘れないようメモ書きした。それを友人にLINEで送って確認作業をしてみていた。そのやりとりの中、相方から「そういえば2005年の同窓会のときの会誌に載っていたんじゃないか」みたいな意見が出てきた。「え、そんなのあったっけ？」と返答。
　・・・まだ思い出していない（笑）。
　その後さらなるやり取りの結果思い出し、それがわが家に大量にあることにようやく記憶がたどりついた。
なんと、その冊子は出版関係で起業したわたしが2005年の同窓会の時に「編集長」として携わっていたという事実がようやく記憶復元してきたのだ（笑）。・・・まったく。
　この中学校とは札幌市中心部にかつて存在した「陵雲中学校」で、人口が郊外地域に移動して中心地域が空洞化した結果、廃校になった。そんな経緯なので出身者にはある「思い入れ」もあり、その同窓会のときにタイムトラベル可能なような「仕掛け」として、昭和32年段階の「戸建て住宅・個人宅名」が明瞭に記載された地図を探し回って発掘。再刊許諾を受けて全４枚にわたる「大判地図」として同窓会のパンフレットとして渡していたのだ。思い出してみて、我ながらTPOをわきまえたいい企画だったと思う（ドヤ）。
　校歌はそこにしっかりと印刷していた。１番の歌詞と３番の歌詞が混同していたけれど、断片的には正確なものだった。しかし、わがことをここまで忘却するのだと言うことにちょっと衝撃。
　ちょうど「来し方」についてのさまざまな「復元定着」を狙った企図を進行させている最中。
　思わず、燈台元暗しという警句が湧き上がってきていた・・・。

●お知らせ
拙書「作家と住空間」幻冬舎から電子書籍で発刊
お求めはAmazonで。
https://amzn.asia/d/eUiv9yO

English version⬇

[I’ve completely forgotten what I did 21 years ago (lol)… Hmm.]
Life’s journey is full of all sorts of misunderstandings and miscommunications, but I’d buried even my own experiences deep underground. …Wake up!

　The other day, I was talking with a friend I hadn’t seen since junior high, and I couldn’t quite remember our junior high “school song.” It kept bothering me even after we parted ways, but when I woke up the next morning, the melody popped into my head. Usually, when you think of school songs, the ones from elementary, junior high, and high school come to mind.
Since I was a pretty serious student (lol—just kidding), the melodies of those three school songs occasionally come back to me. But I don’t precisely distinguish which is which in my daily life—I just can’t. It’s at a general recognition level, like, “Hmm, is this song from elementary school, middle school, or maybe…”
So, I jotted down the lyrics that came to mind so I wouldn’t forget them. I sent them to my friend via LINE to see if they matched. During that exchange, my partner chimed in with, “Come to think of it, wasn’t that in the alumni magazine from the 2005 reunion?” “Huh, was there such a thing?” I replied.
…I still hadn’t remembered (lol).
After further back-and-forth, I finally recalled it, and my memory finally reached the fact that I have a huge pile of those at home.
Lo and behold, the fact that I—having started a business in publishing—had been involved as “editor-in-chief” for that booklet at the 2005 reunion finally came back to me (lol). …Seriously.
　This junior high school was “Ryoun Junior High School,” which once stood in central Sapporo. It was closed down as a result of the population shifting to the suburbs, leaving the city center hollowed out. Given those circumstances, alumni naturally have a certain “attachment” to the school. For that reunion, as a sort of “gimmick” that felt like time travel, I scoured the city to unearth a map clearly showing the names of detached houses and private residences as they were in 1957. After obtaining permission to reprint it, I distributed it as a four-page “large-format map” included in the reunion pamphlet. Looking back, I have to admit it was a well-thought-out project that took the occasion into account (smug).
The school song was printed right there. The lyrics for the first and third verses were mixed up, but the fragments were accurate. However, I was a bit shocked to realize that I had forgotten so much about my own past.
I am currently in the midst of carrying out various projects aimed at “restoring and preserving” the “past.”
　The proverb “the lamp is darkest at the base” involuntarily sprang to mind…

● Announcement
My book, “Writers and Living Spaces,” has been published as an e-book by Gentosha.
Available on Amazon.

Posted on 4月 9th, 2026 by 三木 奎吾
Filed under: 未分類