昨日ようやくわが家に帰還しました。で、迎えに来てくれたカミさんの乗った愛車を見たら例の黄砂でちょっとかわいそうな表情になっていた。そんなに美顔というほどではないけれど、深く愛しているクルマが泥まみれになっているように感じて、午後から時間を見てわが家で洗車。
わが家の近くには洗車専門スタンドがあるのですが、買い物のついでに通りかかったらあり得ないほどの長蛇の列。どう見ても１−２時間待ちは確実。クルマを見た感じではわが家でのシロウト洗車でも、そこそこ対応可能のように思えたので、DO IT YOURSELF。洗車用の洗剤もあったけれど、まずは水洗い＋洗車ブラシ＋拭き取り対応で様子を見ることにしたのです。
冬の間、外していた室外放水シャワーを引き出して設置。こちらの方は半年ぶりくらいの活躍でしたが、元気いっぱいの放水ぶりで、気持ちよく黄砂を落としてくれていく。その後、洗車ブラシで丹念に泥落とし。その後、もう一回放水して２度目の泥落とし。それから布ぞうきんでガラス面、車体を丹念に拭き取っていく。わたしの場合は洗剤などは使わずに水洗いだけに今回は留めましたが、様子を見て今後は本格的にやらなければならないかも知れません。ただ、本日は雨と言うことなので、ひと安心か。

ついでに建物表側の窓ガラスに放水シャワーを掛けていきました。黄砂というよりも冬の間の汚れが目立っていたので、愛着を込めての洗浄作業。
人生時間が長くなってきているわたしですが、しかし黄砂でクルマが汚れて洗車するという事態はあんまり記憶になかった。上の写真は2019年4/16-17の期間の気象庁発表「黄砂」状況動画からの抜き出し画像。赤い色が激しい黄砂の様子とのことで、北海道は薄いオレンジ程度ではある。しかしこういう衛星画像でも確認できるほどの地球環境的気候要因。
人間活動が地球環境自体に影響を及ぼしつつあることから「人新世」という言葉がよく知られるようになって来たけれど、黄砂の規模が拡大しているように感じるのには、そういう影響もあるのだろうかと考えてしまう。これからの未来に向かって、少しでもよき環境を後世代に受け渡していきたいけれど、個人としてはこまめな洗車習慣などで身の回りを整えることが精一杯だとも思える。来週にはまた飛来してくるという情報もあるので、しばらくは要注意ですね。

English version⬇

Car and window washing to remove “yellow sand”.
I don’t remember that much about the natural phenomenon of yellow sand since I was born. I don’t even remember having to deal with it, much less wash my car. Is it one of the pathologies of the Anthropocene Earth? …

Yesterday, I finally returned to my home. And when I looked at my wife’s car, which she came to pick me up, I saw that it looked a little pitiful because of the yellow sand. It was not so much a beautiful face, but I felt that my deeply loved car was covered with mud, so I took the time to wash it in the afternoon at our house.
There is a car wash near our house, but when I walked by it while shopping, I found an unbelievably long line. I was sure there would be a 1-2 hour wait. I thought it would be possible to wash the car at home even by a novice, so I decided to do it myself.
We pulled out the outdoor water shower that had been removed for the winter and installed it. It had not been used for about half a year, but it was full of water, and it removed the yellow sand pleasantly. After that, we painstakingly removed the mud with a car wash brush. After that, we sprayed water once more to remove the mud for the second time. Then, I carefully wiped off the glass surface and the body of the car with a cloth wiping cloth. In my case, I did not use any detergent and only washed the car with water this time, but I may have to do it more seriously in the future, depending on how it goes. However, since it is supposed to rain today, I guess I can rest easy.

In addition, we sprayed the windows on the front side of the building with a water spray shower. The windows were dirty from the winter rather than from yellow sand, so I washed them with love and care.
My life time is getting longer and longer, but I did not remember a situation where I had to wash my car because it was dirty from DSS. The photo above is an extracted image from the “DSS” situation video released by the Japan Meteorological Agency for the period of 4/16-17/2019. The red color indicates intense DSS, while Hokkaido is only light orange. However, the global environmental climate factors are so strong that they can be seen even in these satellite images.
The term “Anthropocene” is becoming well known as human activities are affecting the global environment itself, and I wonder if this is one of the reasons why the scale of the DSS seems to be expanding. I would like to pass on a better environment to future generations, but as an individual, I think I can do my best to keep my surroundings in good shape by washing my car frequently. There are reports that it will fly in again next week, so we need to be careful for a while.

Posted on 4月 16th, 2023 by 三木 奎吾
Filed under: 日本社会・文化研究 | No Comments »

きのう書いた伊根の暮らしよう、その続篇です。丹波地域は古代史を深掘りしていると非常に重要な地域と言うことが知れてくる。ヤマト王権が大和国に覇権を確立した当時、国譲り神話の出雲、桃太郎伝説の吉備・岡山地域とともに丹波地域が重要な先進地域とされる。環日本海としての位置関係からは、出雲ともつながりが考えられるのだけれど、ヤマト王権とは重層的な婚姻関係を結んだりしている。ほぼ同盟的関係。
この伊根の伝統的住居群には、そういった古代から続く人びとの営み感が強く訴求してくる。日本列島に人びとが定住をはじめた初期のありようが見えてくる気がしてならない。上の写真のように、町家的に集住して海に対しての各戸別での舟でのアクセスを確保させている。現代のマイカーと比肩できるマイボートだろうか。
「漁業」という産業痕跡では、というのはどうも違う。漁業というのは大きな消費市場を想定してそこへの供給という「交易」を前提とした産業形式だけれど、この伊根の舟屋群からは、むしろ小舟での移動交通と日々の食膳に魚を確保するための各戸の「キッチン」の延長のように思える。
やはり基本的な「海民」としてのライフスタイルをそこに感じさせられる。こういう基本的な食料確保手段を前提にして、周辺の植物採集に徐々に生活域を拡大していった。そのときに最高の食糧生産手段は稲作だった、というこの列島での歴史のはじまりを垣間見せてくれるのだと思う。

この伊根には「浦嶋神社」がある。写真はそこで行われている狂言舞台の様子。助けたカメに連れられた、あの日本昔話の主人公を祀っている。以下伊根町のHPより。
〜＜浦嶋神社（宇良神社）＞昔話でお馴染みの浦島太郎。この話の起源は「日本書記」「丹後国風土記（逸文）」「万葉集」に浦嶋の名が見られることから、七世紀後半。日本各地にその伝承がみられますが、伊根町の浦嶋神社に伝わる浦嶋伝説が最も起源が古いとされています。 浦嶋神社創祀年代は淳和天皇の天長2年（825年）とされ、浦嶋太郎の主人公である浦嶋子（浦島太郎）を筒川大明神として祀るのが初めであると伝えられています。神社には浦嶋明神縁起絵巻（国指定重要文化財）、亀甲櫛笥の玉手箱、乙姫の打ち掛けなどの宝物が受け継がれています。〜
先に触れたように、桃太郎伝承の吉備と浦島太郎伝承のこの伊根を含む丹波は、初源期の日本列島社会のありようのヒントを、今に繋がる生活痕跡として伝えてくれていると思っています。故郷としての日本文化をいったん離れた北海道人だからこそ、こういう初源のカタチに打たれている。

English version⬇

The legend of Urashima remains in the original landscape of “the sea and the Japanese.
The first source of settlement in the archipelago was probably to secure foodstuffs. From this point, agricultural development was developed in the surrounding areas. In the midst of this development, a man called “Urashima Taro” left the floating world…

This is a continuation of the article I wrote yesterday about life in Ine. When you dig deeper into the ancient history of the Tamba region, you will learn that it is a very important region. At the time when the Yamato kingdom established its supremacy over Yamato, the Tamba region was regarded as an important advanced region, along with Izumo in the myth of the handover of the kingdom, and Kibi and Okayama in the Momotaro legend. Although Izumo is considered to be connected to the Yamato kingdom because of its location on the Japan Sea Rim, the Tamba area is said to have had a multilayered intermarriage relationship with the Yamato kingdom. The relationship is almost an alliance.
The traditional dwellings in Ine strongly appeal to the sense of people’s activities that have continued from ancient times. It is hard not to see the early days of human settlement in the Japanese archipelago. As shown in the photo above, the houses are clustered together like townhouses, and each house has its own access to the sea by boat. I wonder if these boats are comparable to today’s private cars.
It is not the same as the industrial traces of “fishery”. Fishing is an industrial form based on the assumption of a large consumer market and the “trade” of supplying that market, but the boathouses in Ine seem more like an extension of the “kitchen” of each house, where small boats were used for transportation and to secure fish for the daily meals.
It is as if we can feel the basic lifestyle of “sea people” in these boathouses. Based on this basic means of securing food, they gradually expanded their living area to gathering plants in the surrounding area. I believe that this is a glimpse into the beginning of the history of this archipelago, in which rice cultivation was the best means of food production at that time.

There is a “Urashima Shrine” in this Ine. The photo shows a kyogen stage being held there. The shrine enshrines the hero of a Japanese folk tale who was taken by a rescued turtle. The following is from the Ine Town website.
〜＜Urashima Shrine (Ura Shrine) > Urashima Taro is a well-known character in Japanese folk tales. The origin of this story can be traced back to the late 7th century, as the name of Urashima is found in the “Nihon shoki” (the oldest chronicle in Japan), “Tango kuni fudoki (anecdotes)” and “Manyoshu” (the oldest anthology of Japanese poetry). The legend of Urashima can be found in many places in Japan, but the legend of Urashima at the Urashima Shrine in Ine-cho is said to be the oldest. The shrine is said to have been founded in 825 by Emperor Junna (825), and is said to have first enshrined Urashima Taro’s hero, Urashima Ko (Urashima Taro), as Tsutsukawa Daimyojin (Great God of Tsutsukawa). The shrine has inherited such treasures as the Urashima Myojin Engi Emaki (designated as a National Important Cultural Property), the Turtle Shell Comb Chest of Tamatebako, and Otohime’s Uchikake. ~.
As mentioned earlier, Tamba, including Kibi with its legend of Momotaro and Ine with its legend of Urashima Taro, has passed on hints of the society of the Japanese archipelago in the Early Genesis period as traces of the way of life that are still relevant today. It is precisely because I am a Hokkaido native who has once left Japanese culture as my hometown that I am struck by this form of Hatsugen.

Posted on 4月 14th, 2023 by 三木 奎吾
Filed under: 日本社会・文化研究, 歴史探訪 | No Comments »

本日から３泊４日で外泊の予定。ということでその前に事務多忙。出掛けてしまえば逆に時間も確保できると思うのでたくさんの過去写真を整理してブログのテーマを絞りたい。
鎌倉をテーマとして写真を整理していたときに加工した写真が上のもの。流鏑馬神事は鎌倉鶴岡八幡宮が有名ですが、仙台でもわたしは参観したことがあります。歴史的には鶴岡八幡宮の創始に際して頼朝政権が奉納したのが、はじまりというように言われる。その下の写真は明治初期に日本を訪れた欧米の写真家が全国を行脚して撮影したもののひとつで、鶴岡八幡宮から若宮大路の様子が表現されている。
こういう絵画や写真群は、文献資料を超えてさまざまな「情報」を伝えてくれます。絵画に描かれた流鏑馬の画角はやや上空からの角度を取って表現している。現実にはこのようなやや上空視点からの視認映像はありえなかっただろうと思われる。日本の歴史事実を伝える絵画、屏風絵などではほぼ一様にこうした視覚からの表現がとられている。日本の歴史報道画の一種の定型パターンなのだと思われます。王朝絵画などで十二単を着飾った宮廷美人たちもほぼこういった視覚角度で描かれるし、動乱のニュース画面でも一様にこのパターン。たぶん日本史や東アジア世界での共通的な視点なのだろうか。
現代に至る写真表現では、基本的に撮影者の自然な「立ち位置」からの視点が普遍的に取られる。明治初年の海外人の視点としてごく平明に、当時の状況の「記録写真」であって比較対照しやすい。当たり前だけれど、この両者を対比させると、画像に対しての歴史的認識の違いに気付かされる。
たぶん歴史事実を伝える視覚角度は周辺説明アングルとして多くの情報をそこに盛り込むことができるということが眼目のように思われる。洛中洛外図という表現形式はかなり長く日本史で描かれ続けたけれど、あれなどは京の街の多種多様な賑わいぶりを遠方の人びとにもわかりやすく、また絢爛豪華に伝えられたのでしょう。織田信長が越後の上杉謙信の歓心を買うのに、洛中洛外図を送った故事の意味がわかる。報道伝達性の「関係性一挙表現」と考えるとその知恵の深さを知らされる思い。
逆に言うと，現代的表現では「切り取り方」でたぶん受け取る印象は相当に変位する。
さてどっちの手法がより「客観的」であるかは、受け取り方によって違うでしょうね。案外、昔人の巨視的関係性一挙把握のほうが、リアリズムに近しいかも知れない。

English version⬇

Historical paintings and contemporary photographs: Differences in viewing angles
Historical news visuals convey peripheral facts and human relations from a slightly elevated perspective in an easy-to-understand manner. Contemporary photography risks being “clipped” due to its directness. Which is more objective? Which is superior in terms of objectivity?

We are planning to stay out of town for 3 nights and 4 days starting today. So I have a lot of office work to do before that. I think I will have more time once I go out, so I want to organize a lot of past photos and narrow down the theme of my blog.
The photos above are the ones I processed when I was organizing photos on the theme of Kamakura. The famous yabusame (horseback archery) ritual is held at Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gu Shrine in Kamakura, but I have also attended one in Sendai. Historically, it is said that it started when the Yoritomo administration dedicated the shrine at the time of the founding of Tsurugaoka Hachiman-gu Shrine. The photograph below is one of many taken by Western photographers who visited Japan in the early Meiji period (1868-1912), and depicts the scene from Tsurugaoka Hachiman Shrine to Wakamiya-oji Avenue.
Paintings and photo groups like these convey a variety of “information” beyond the literary sources. The angle of the yabusame archery depicted in the paintings is expressed from a slightly elevated angle. In reality, such a visual image from a slightly elevated viewpoint would not have been possible. Paintings and screens depicting historical facts in Japan almost uniformly use this type of visual representation. It is thought that this is a kind of standard pattern of Japanese historical reporting paintings. Court beauties dressed in juni-hitoe (twelve-layered kimono) are almost always depicted from this visual angle, and this pattern is also uniform on news screens during upheavals. Perhaps this is a common viewpoint in Japanese history and East Asia.
In photographic expression up to the present day, the viewpoint from the photographer’s natural “standing position” is universally taken. The photographs are very plain as the viewpoint of a foreigner in the early Meiji era, and they are “record photos” of the situation at that time, which can be easily compared and contrasted. It is natural, but when we contrast the two, we realize the difference in historical perceptions of the images.
Perhaps the visual angle that conveys the historical facts is the one that can contain a lot of information as a peripheral explanatory angle. The “Rakuchu-Rakugaizu” style has been used for quite a long time in Japanese history, and it is likely that it conveyed to people far from Kyoto the variety and splendor of the bustling city in an easy-to-understand manner. We can understand the significance of the legend that Oda Nobunaga sent the Rakuchu-Rakugaizu to Uesugi Kenshin in the Echigo region to win his favor. When I think of it as a “one-stop expression of the relationship” of news transmission, I am informed of the depth of the wisdom of this expression.
Conversely, in modern expression, the impression received may vary considerably depending on the “way of cutting.
Now, which method is more “objective” will depend on how you receive it. Surprisingly, the old people’s macroscopic grasp of relationships may be closer to realism.

Posted on 4月 12th, 2023 by 三木 奎吾
Filed under: 歴史探訪 | No Comments »

オホーツク海は流氷が去って「海明け」すると毛ガニ漁のシーズン。流氷に豊富に含まれるアムール川流域地域由来のプランクトンを流氷の海の底でたっぷりと食べ続けた毛ガニたちが、水揚げされる。
ずっしりとしたその体躯一杯にうま味が凝縮されている。とくにカニ味噌はその自然な風合いと味覚によって人間の五感すべてを支配してしまう。陶然として食べ続け、やがて満腹中枢から「もう一杯だ」と応えてきてくれるのが、ちょうど500g前後のヤツ。という地元人的解説を友人から受け売りしている（笑）が、自分でもまったく同意する。
家族が集まる週末にあわせて送ってもらって食させていただいた。ちょうど週末は、送ってくれた「雄武町」では毛ガニ祭りだそうで、浜ゆで直送のものは数量制限までされていた。友人によると「浜ゆで」したてで冷凍していないヤツという付加解説もある。こういう地元からの情報は有益で面白い。
で、この毛ガニをメインに積丹で獲れた「赤カレイ」「イカ」「ホタテ」「ホッキ貝」なども買い付けてきて、これはにぎり寿司にして付け合わせた次第。


すっかりカレイの包丁さばきには魅せられておりますが、今回はとびきり大型のヤツを入手して捌きました。骨を断ち、アタマ部分を落としてから内臓部分を除去して、３枚におろしていく。最後、皮から身をえぐり剥がすときの包丁仕事の手許で感じる満足感、開放感はなんとも言えない。イキモノであるカレイへの敬意を感じながら捌く。そうなんです、殺生だけれどそれが同時に愛情の根源でもあると思えるのです。
そして積丹産の大型のイカ。こちらもきれいに捌き、皮を剥がして鮮烈な白身を解放していく。久しぶりの大きさのヤツだったので、一杯のイカから寿司ネタとして12コ分に捌くことができた。丁寧に裏包丁も入れた。
ホッキも自然な色合いの肉身本体に還元して、たのしく仕上げた。彩りも兼ねて筋子も握ってみました。
ということでしたが、まず毛ガニに立ち向かいはじめると人とのコミュニケーションよりも食事作業にほぼ没入する、毛ガニ食とはただただ肉身と味噌の解体・ほおばるの繰り返しで豊穣な時間が経過していくばかり。わたしの場合はカニ味噌をひとつの容器に掻き出して、それを肉身につけて食べるのがいちばん好き。足も食べるけれどそれよりもみっしりと肉身の詰まった中央部が堪えられません。甲殻から剥がしながらの無言の行が至福の時間。
最初に書いたようなアムール川流域からオホーツクの海底での輪廻転生のドラマが、カラダに染みわたっていくような時間なのですね。

English version⬇

Taste of spring from Okhotsk and Shakotan
Hairy crabs that have been stacked in a circle under the drift ice. They are landed at the dawn of the new year and sent directly from the sea. On the other hand, fish in season from the sea of Shakotan. Enjoy the bountiful harvest of the season. Shakotan

When the Sea of Okhotsk “dawns” after the drift ice has gone, it is the season for catching hairy crabs. The hairy crabs are landed after they have fed on plankton from the Amur River basin, which is abundantly contained in the drift ice, at the bottom of the drift ice sea.
The umami taste is concentrated in their massive body. Especially, the crab miso (crab innards) dominates the human senses with its natural taste. After eating the crab, one’s satiety center will eventually respond, “I want another one,” and the crab weighing around 500 grams is just the right size. I have heard this explanation from a friend of mine (laugh), and I totally agree with it.
I had them sent to me on the weekend when my family gathered for a family gathering, and I enjoyed eating them. The weekend was a hairy crab festival in Yubu-cho, the town that sent me the crab, and there was even a limit on the quantity of those directly sent from the beach. According to my friend, the additional explanation was that the crabs were freshly “beach-boiled” and not frozen. This kind of local information is interesting.
We also bought red flounder, squid, scallops, and hokki-gai shellfish caught in Shakotan, which we made into nigiri-zushi and served with it.
I am completely fascinated with the knife skills of flounder, and this time I obtained a very large one and handled it. After breaking off the bones and removing the head, the entrails are removed and the fish is cut into three pieces. The satisfaction and sense of freedom I felt while working with the knife at the end, when I gouged the meat out of the skin, is indescribable. I handle the flounder with a sense of respect for it as a living creature. Yes, it is a killing, but at the same time it seems to be the root of love.
And then there is the large squid, a local delicacy. I clean the squid, peel off the skin, and release the bright white flesh. It had been a long time since I had seen a squid of this size, so I was able to cut it into 12 pieces from a single squid. I also carefully back-cut the squid.
The hokki was also reduced to the natural color of the meat body, and finished off in a delightful way. I also nigiri musuko for color.
But when you start to face the hairy crab, you are more absorbed in the eating process than in the communication with other people. In my case, I like to scrape out the crab meat and miso into a container and eat it with the meat. I eat the legs as well, but I can’t get enough of the center of the crab, which is filled to the brim with crab meat. The silent line while peeling it out of the shell is blissful time.
It is a time when the drama of reincarnation from the Amur River basin to the bottom of the Sea of Okhotsk, as I wrote in the beginning, seems to seep into your body.

Posted on 4月 10th, 2023 by 三木 奎吾
Filed under: おとこの料理＆食 | No Comments »

さて昨日まで３回にわたって鎌倉歴史文化交流館の建築について解剖しました。非常に興味深い建築ですが、その建築の現在の使用目的は「歴史博物館」機能。交流館の各展示はほぼすべて写真撮影・公開許諾されている。いやむしろ積極的に情報発信を推奨されている。本日からはその展示内容をもとに歴史世界に耽溺したいと思います。上の写真は展示中心場所に置かれた「源平合戦図屏風」で制作年代は江戸後期。
日本史の中で畿内地域が長く中心地域であったのに対して、列島最大の平野部を有する関東地域は弥生文化、稲作農業主体の社会開発はやや遅れて始まった。
開拓初期は毛野（群馬栃木）地域が中心。ヤマトタケル遠征での歌詠みで「あずま」という地名が読まれたりした。中央政権側からすれば遠隔地であり「東夷〜あずまえびす」という地域蔑称が語られたりした。
そういった差別的な中央への表立った反乱の嚆矢は平将門の乱。904年に起こって関東の政治主権主張が開始した。それに引き続いて1051年以降の前九年合戦など奥州動乱が連動した。武士の勃興とは、こういう東国東北地域での武力対立の先鋭化が背景にあったのだろう。
雅やかな支配構造である王朝政権に対して土地争奪のリアリズム世界・東国としては、武力優先による支配志向が高まったのだと思える。そういう武力権力の確立に際して「旗頭」貴種として源頼義以降の源氏一族が、この鎌倉を本拠地として選択し地域武士層の盟主となっていった。
さまざまな経緯の末に、頼朝の代になってこうした関東武士との関係が強化発展して出来上がっていったのが鎌倉幕府。神武東征やヤマトタケルの全国支配示威などにも比肩するような日本史上での「権力の発生」がこの鎌倉で起こった。独自権力の樹立では未遂に終わった平将門の乱を教訓化して、慎重に権力を樹立していったのが頼朝と御家人たちの体制だった。
その経緯に踏まえれば源平合戦は東国・鎌倉の新時代を切り開く戦役だった。その主役のひとりだった義経はしかし兄・頼朝ほどの政治洞察力を持たなかったことで悲劇のヒーロー化した。そこには畿内・西国地域の「常識世論」と鎌倉武権とのあつれきが凝縮されてもいるのだろうか。


この写真は源平合戦図屏風の部分拡大。屏風絵なので絵は複数の部分に分割されているのですが、Photoshopで切り抜いたり補正したりして作成しました（笑）。源平合戦での２つの主要合戦譚「那須与一の扇の図と、壇ノ浦での義経の「八艘飛び」場面の情景描写部分。
屏風絵に対してこのように画像処理作業をしていると表現のディテールもなんとなくわかってくる部分があって、楽しみも深まる部分があります。一部にはどうしても館内照明が保護ガラス面に映り込んでいますが、そこは無視して（笑）ごらんください。

English version⬇

Indulging in the Genpei War Folding Screen: History of Kamakura-4
The lady who held up a fan to Nasu Yoichi must have been terrified, and the painting depicts Yoshitsune protected by a shield and jumping eight boats in a superhuman leap (laugh).

Well, yesterday I dissected the architecture of the Kamakura History and Culture Exchange Center over the course of three articles. It is a very interesting building, but the current use of the architecture is for its “history museum” function. Almost all of the exhibits in the exchange center are permitted to be photographed and opened to the public. Or rather, they are actively encouraged to disseminate information. From today, I would like to indulge in the world of history based on the contents of those exhibits. The photo above is “Genpei Gassen Zu Byobu” placed at the central location of the exhibition, dated in the late Edo period.
While the Kinai region has long been the central region in Japanese history, the Kanto region, which has the largest plains in the archipelago, was somewhat late in developing a society based on the Yayoi culture and rice agriculture.
In the early days of settlement, the main area was the Mono (Gunma-Tochigi) region. The name “Azuma” was sometimes read in poems composed during Yamatotakeru’s expedition. From the perspective of the central government, it was a remote area, and a derogatory term for the area, “Azuma-ebisu,” was sometimes used.
The pioneering example of such discriminatory rebellion against the central government was the Taira-no-Masakado Rebellion of 904, which marked the beginning of the assertion of political sovereignty in the Kanto region. This was followed by the Oshu uprisings of 1051 and later, such as the Mae-no-Kunen Gassen. The rise of the samurai was probably due to the sharpening of armed conflict in the northeastern region of the eastern provinces.
In contrast to the dynastic government, which had an elegant ruling structure, the realistic world of the East, with its land disputes, was increasingly oriented toward domination by military force. In establishing such military power, the Minamoto clan, from Minamoto no Yoriyoshi onward, chose Kamakura as their home base and became the leader of the local warrior class.
After a variety of circumstances, the Kamakura shogunate was established by Yoritomo’s generation as a result of the strengthening and development of relations with these Kanto warriors. In Kamakura, the “emergence of power” in Japanese history, which is comparable to the Jinmu expedition and the demonstration of Yamatotakeru’s control over the whole country, took place. Learning a lesson from the Taira-no-Masakado Rebellion, which ended in an unsuccessful attempt to establish their own power, Yoritomo and his retainers carefully established their power.
Based on this history, the Genpei War was a battle that ushered in a new era in the eastern provinces of Japan and Kamakura. Yoshitsune, who played a leading role in the battle, became a tragic hero because he did not have the same political acumen as his elder brother Yoritomo. This may be a condensation of the conflict between the “common sense public opinion” of the Kinai and Western provinces and the Kamakura military authority.

This photo is an enlargement of a portion of the Genpei Gassen Byobu. Since it is a folding screen painting, the picture is divided into several parts, but I created it by cropping and correcting in Photoshop (see below). The two main battle tales in the Genpei wars: “Nasu Yoichi’s Fan” and the scene of Yoshitsune’s “Hachisou jump” scene at Dannoura.
When we process images of folding screen paintings like this, we can understand some of the details of the expression, which deepens the enjoyment of the work. Some of the lighting in the museum is inevitably reflected on the protective glass surface, but please ignore that (laugh) and enjoy the view.

Posted on 4月 8th, 2023 by 三木 奎吾
Filed under: 歴史探訪 | No Comments »