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【マンガ天才少年への手塚治虫の導き】




 1945年(昭和20年)の太平洋戦争の終結以降、日本社会は大きな転換期を迎えていく。敗戦後間もない1947年1月に手塚治虫は日本マンガ文化の記念碑的作品「新宝島」を出版し、ベストセラーとなった。
 1938(昭和13)年生まれの石ノ森章太郎がこの生家の自分の部屋で空想の羽を膨らませていたのは、1955(昭和30)年前後の時期。やがて仲人も務めてくれることになる手塚治虫の作品に出会った少年は、その豊かな才能を見出した手塚治虫から直接コンタクトを受ける存在になっていた。この生家の展示にはそういう時期の資料類も展示されていた。いちばん上は、手塚治虫が後輩たちを育成する目的で1952-1954年に掛けて「漫画少年」誌で掲載した「漫画教室」のひとこま。
 いかにも手塚的な挿絵と自筆で漫画制作の「手ほどき」が語られていて、まことに戦後のマンガ文化草創期の雰囲気をまざまざと見せている。全国のマンガ大好き少年たちに文化的アジテーションを贈り続けた手塚という存在が、多くの後継人材を育成したことがわかる。そういう意味で戦後マンガ文化の「主流」位置付けが定着したのだろう。
 わたし自身は中学生頃にマンガに強く興味を持って自分でも作品を描いたりしたことがある。これはまったく初めての取り組みだったけれど、なんとか16Pの完成作品とした。マンガ愛好の友人たちから「よく最後まで描けたな」と感心された記憶がある。この作品は完成後すぐに父親からボイラー焼却処分された。そのときは悲しみに落ち込んで家出のまねごとをしたりもしたけれど、父の「愛」も感じられた部分もあって、そのマンガ家志向はほどなく自ら封印した。・・・1965(昭和40)年頃のことだから、こうしたマンガ文化初源期からは12-3年のズレがある。
 そういう体験を持っているので石ノ森や手塚には特殊な感情もあるのだけれど、自ら封印したという思いがあって未練を持つようなことはなかった。なので今回「作家と住空間」電子本の派生取材でこの石ノ森章太郎生家を探訪し、周辺事実を掘り起こすまで上に書いたような消息・事情には深入りしてこなかった。あらためてこういう歴史発掘をして見ると、非常に刺激的で、自分のもうひとつ違った人生風景をなぞっているような気がしてくる。ひょっとして。
 高齢期にまで至ってこういう人生の見返りの機会を得られるのは、内心でいろいろにさざめく波濤があって、まるで偶然久しぶりに初恋のひとと再会する心境に似ている(笑)。人生100年時代、このような人生追体験ということも興味深い文化テーマ領域かも知れない。

English version⬇

[Osamu Tezuka’s guidance to the manga boy genius].
The potential for the development of various new cultural areas in the age of ageing. The theme of ‘re-experiencing and reliving’ post-war manga culture is fascinating. …

 After the end of the Pacific War in 1945, Japanese society underwent a major turning point. In January 1947, soon after the defeat, Tezuka Osamu published his monumental work on Japanese manga culture, New Treasure Island, which became a bestseller.
 It was around 1955 that Shotaro Ishinomori, who was born in 1938 (Showa 13), was puffing out the wings of his imagination in his own room in this birthplace. The boy encountered the works of Osamu Tezuka, who would eventually also serve as his matchmaker, and he became a direct contact from Tezuka Osamu, who had discovered his abundant talent. The exhibition at his birthplace also displayed materials from this period. The top photo is a shot from the Manga Class, which Tezuka Osamu published in Manga Shonen magazine from 1952 to 1954, with the aim of training his younger students.
 The illustrations and handwritten instructions on how to create manga, in Tezuka’s very own handwriting, show the atmosphere of the early days of manga culture in the post-war period. It is clear that Tezuka, who continued to give cultural agitation to manga-loving boys all over the country, nurtured many successors. In this sense, Tezuka’s position as the ‘mainstream’ of post-war manga culture has become firmly established.
 I myself became very interested in manga when I was in junior high school, and even drew some of my own works. This was my very first attempt, but I managed to complete a 16-page work. I remember that my friends who were manga enthusiasts were impressed by how I managed to draw it all the way through. Soon after completing this work, my father had it boiler-burned. At the time, I was so depressed with sadness that I even imitated running away from home, but I felt my father’s ‘love’ in part, and soon after that my manga artist ambition was sealed off by myself. This was around 1965, so there is a 12-3 year gap from the early days of manga culture.
 Because of this experience, I have special feelings towards Ishinomori and Tezuka, but I never had any regrets because I felt that I had sealed them off myself. Therefore, I did not go deep into the above-mentioned facts and circumstances until I visited the birthplace of Shotaro Ishinomori as part of the research for the ‘Writers and Living Space’ e-book and unearthed some of the surrounding facts. When I look at this kind of historical excavation again, it is very stimulating and I feel as if I am tracing a different landscape of my own life. Perhaps.
 To have this kind of opportunity to look back on life in one’s old age is like being reunited with one’s first love after a long time by chance, with waves rippling inwardly (laughs). In the age of 100 years of life, this kind of reliving life may be an interesting cultural theme area.
 

【石ノ森少年の「ベニヤ板壁」改装洋間】



 昨日は石ノ森章太郎の「デスク環境」に絞って検証してみたけれど、本日はかれが高校卒業まで過ごしていた自室空間についてです。間取り図と窓の様子などから、この部屋はおおむね細長い6畳空間であることが推認できる。上の写真が部屋の奥から入口方向を見返した全景で、視界の手前左側に「ベット」と記載されたベッドが置かれていたことがわかる。畳を縦に1枚敷いて、それが横並び6枚並列されるような空間。そのままでは短辺方向に圧迫感が生じることが容易に予測されるので、新設の「出窓空間」が外側に張り出されたと受け取れる。
 この家屋自体は詳細な建築記録を参照できてはいないけれど現在で築100年を超える建築で、この石ノ森少年の自室の内装には昭和中期の「新建材」とおぼしき市町模様の床面フロア材や、当時の先端木製品工場から出荷された合理的建材としての「ベニヤ合板」がつかわれている。新規性の高い出窓空間とあわせて見るとこの内装空間はリフォームされた蓋然性がきわめて高いと思われる。やはりきのう触れたように、父母にとって世を継いでくれる大切な長男に対して無限の愛情を結晶させた空間なのだろうと思える。日本社会を保守し続けてきた家系意識と「家」制度・民俗としての未来への「投企」の感覚か。
 「作家と住空間」電子本で探った柳田國男の武蔵野での新築住宅「喜談書屋」では、施工として竹中工務店が浮かび上がっていたけれど、宮城県には一定の建築情報人脈もあるので建築会社とその人脈性などをたどろうと思えば、当時の建築会社と職方集団なども特定できるのではないかと思っている。今現在はそこまで踏み込まないけれど、そういう面からの探究も必要があれば探ってもみたい。よりリアリティのある住宅像、建築工事像を掘り起こすことも可能だろう。

 こちらはマンガ家への飛翔を夢見続けていた少年期の石ノ森章太郎が、学校から帰ってきて自室で見ていただろう視界。6畳間から奥行きが約1m弱ほど突き出た「出窓空間」が少年の心理にどのように影響を与えたのかと想像力を巡らせていた。きのう触れたように、リフォーム工事に伴ってと思われるオリジナルなデスク環境も少年の「注文」が活かされていただろうことが視認できた。隣室の父母、階下の店舗空間から平屋の和室3室にほかの家族が住んでいて自分の「背中」側にいてくれている。自分は大きな開口部に向き合いながら、マンガ家としての大きな未来を眺望していた。そのような心理洞察が自然に湧いてきていた。

English version⬇

[Ishinomori Boy’s ‘veneer board wall’ refurbished Western-style room
Veneer walls, a floor surface with a Ichimachi pattern design and a projecting bay window space leading to a dazzling future. The artist’s ‘dreaming’ space, which must have been realised through renovation. …

 Yesterday, we focused on Shotaro Ishinomori’s ‘desk environment’, and today we will look at the space in his room where he lived until he graduated from high school. From the floor plan and the windows, it can be inferred that this room is generally a long, narrow 6-mat space. The photo above is a panoramic view looking back towards the entrance from the back of the room, showing that a bed, marked ‘bed’, was placed on the left side in the foreground of the view. The space is such that one tatami mat is laid vertically and six of them are placed side by side. As it is easily predicted that the house would be oppressive in the short side direction as it is, it can be accepted that the newly built ‘bay window space’ was overhung outwards.
 The house itself is now over 100 years old, although detailed construction records are not available, and the interior of the Ishinomori boy’s room uses flooring with a Ichimachi pattern, which appears to be a ‘new construction material’ from the mid-Showa period, and plywood, a rational construction material shipped from an advanced wood products factory at the time. Together with the highly innovative bay window space, it is highly probable that this interior space was remodelled. As I mentioned yesterday, this space seems to be a crystallisation of the parents’ infinite love for their eldest son, who will succeed them in the world. Is this a sense of ‘projection’ towards the future as a result of the family lineage consciousness and the ‘family’ system and folk customs that have continued to maintain Japanese society?
 In Kunio Yanagida’s new house ‘Kidansho-ya’ in Musashino, which I explored in the ‘Writers and Living Space’ e-book, Takenaka Corporation emerged as the construction company. I think it may be possible to identify the building companies and craftsmen’s groups at that time. We are not going that far at the moment, but if necessary, we would like to explore this aspect as well. It may be possible to uncover a more realistic image of housing and construction work.

 This is the view that Shotaro Ishinomori would have seen in his room after returning home from school, when he was a boy dreaming of becoming a manga artist, and we wondered how the ‘bay window space’ protruding from the six-mat room by less than one metre in depth would have affected his mind. As I mentioned yesterday, I could see that the boy’s ‘order’ would have been utilised in the original desk environment, which seems to have accompanied the renovation work. His parents live in the next room, and other family members live in three one-storey Japanese-style rooms from the shop space downstairs and have their ‘backs’ to him. Facing the large opening, I was looking into the great future as a manga artist. Such psychological insights came naturally to me.
 
 
 

【大工造作か? 夢想を育んだ少年時デスク環境】




 さてマンガ作家としての石ノ森章太郎のロケット的なデビューへの助走期、高校卒業までの「こころの痕跡」を探る機縁。と思ったのがロケットランチャー・発射機ともいえる部屋の様子とデスク環境。「作家と住空間」というテーマにとっては、いかにもコアな領域と言える。
 もちろん作品などの創造過程自体はかれ石ノ森の脳味噌の中から発酵し表出してくる部分なので、きわめて「個人的」な部分であり余人からうかがい知れることは限られてくる。しかしその部分にもっとも「肉薄」できるのは、その作家の遭遇していた周辺環境、住のありようであることは紛れもない。それがわたしたちに体感可能な状態で残され、公開されていることは稀有なことだろう。同じ日本人としてほぼ同時代を体験し事跡を知っている人間としては、深く刺激的。
 で、この石ノ森少年が囲まれていたデスク環境を丹念に記憶に刻印し分析的に直視していた。ルポルタージュというコトバの実感そのままに視認チェックしていた。
 まず興味深かったのが、このデスクはどうも「既製品」を購入したものではないという感覚。デスク面の特異な寸法感覚、足回り側面の木による面構成などからどうも造作特注品、大工仕事なのではという感想を持った。デスク表面にも無垢材が張られているようだ。塗装の剥げ具合には、作家の「手ざわり」痕跡のような雰囲気まで感じられてならなかった。また、このデスクには一般的に付属する引き出しなどの収納装置が付設されていなかった。シンプルに「作業平面」だけを骨太に造作構成した様子がうかがい知れたのです。
 さらに興味深かったのが、築100年を越すという和風住宅なのに、この部屋にだけ「出窓」が造作されていること。そしてさらにその出窓には写真のように水道蛇口とボウルまでもが装置されていた。・・・デジタル化以前の創生期のマンガ制作では作画表現に墨を使うけれど、それを洗い流すために、この個室に特別に造作された環境のように受け取れた。そう考えると、デスク表面にうっすらと墨の残滓が木表面に展着した部分もその痕跡と認められる。
 オイオイ、であります(笑)。家長である父親はこの「跡継ぎ」長男に対して、かなりその才能開花のための環境を増築造作して「与えていた」ことが浮かび上がってきてしまう。あらら、謹厳な公務員としてマンガ家を志望した息子に反対した話はどこに行ったのか、とオモシロく感じてしまった。なんも、かわいい息子の純粋な志望に対して建築的な特別環境を構築して大いにその志望を深く支えていたのではないか、というように思われてしまった。
 最終的には息子の志望を認めて送り出した父の、そしてそれを夫婦で意思決定していった母の心情が、なんとも言えずしみじみと「伝わって」くるように思えた。親の盲目の深い愛。

English version⬇

[Carpentry construction? The boyhood desk environment that nurtured his dreaming]
The revelation of the talents of my beloved ‘heir’ son. And endless worry about my child’s future destiny. The architectural environment of a peculiar manga boy. …

 This is an opportunity to explore the ‘traces of the heart’ of Shotaro Ishinomori as a manga artist in the run-up to his rocket-like debut and up to his graduation from high school. The room and desk environment of his room can be seen as a rocket launcher. This is a core area for the theme of ‘artists and living space’.
 Of course, the creative process itself, including the works themselves, is a very ‘personal’ part of Ishinomori’s brain, and what can be learned from him is limited. However, it is undeniably the surrounding environment that the artist encountered and the way he or she lived that can be most closely related to this part of his or her work. It is a rare thing that these are preserved and shown to the public in a way that allows us to experience them. As a Japanese person who experienced the same period and knows the traces of it, it is deeply stimulating.
 In the book, the Ishinomori boy’s desk environment is painstakingly etched in his memory and viewed directly from an analytical point of view. I was checking the visualisation of the term ‘reportage’ as it really is.
 The first thing that was interesting was the sense that this desk had not been purchased ‘off-the-shelf’. The unusual dimensions of the desk surface and the wooden surface structure of the side of the undercarriage gave me the impression that it was a custom-built, carpentry work. The surface of the desk also seems to be covered with solid wood. The peeling paintwork even gave the impression of traces of the artist’s ‘handiwork’. The desk was not fitted with storage devices such as drawers, which are generally attached to desks. It was evident that only a simple ‘work plane’ had been constructed in a robust manner.
 What was even more interesting was the fact that this room was the only one with a bay window, even though it is a Japanese-style house that is over 100 years old. And on the bay window, there was even a water tap and a bowl, as shown in the photo. … In the early days of manga production, before digitalisation, ink was used for drawing expression, and it seemed to me that this private room had been specially built as an environment for washing it away. Considering this, the part of the desk surface where ink residues were spread on the wood surface can also be recognised as a trace of this.
 Oui, it is (laughing). It emerges that the father, who is pretty much the patriarch of the family, had ‘given’ this ‘heir’ eldest son an environment for his talent to flourish by building an extension. Oops, I wondered wryly where was the story of his opposition to his son who, as a respectful civil servant, aspired to be a cartoonist. It seemed to me that he had been deeply supporting his cute son’s aspirations by building a special architectural environment for his son’s genuine aspirations.
 The feelings of the father who finally acknowledged his son’s aspirations and sent him off, and of the mother who made this decision as a couple, seemed to be indescribably and deeply ‘felt’. The blind and deep love of a parent.

【マンガ家志望・思春期の石ノ森章太郎の部屋】




人間は自分ひとりで生きていける存在ではない。親があってはじめてこの世に生を受け、家族というぬくもりに支えられて成長していくもの。そしてその後「世に出た」後も、その出自の環境からさまざまに支えられながら、人生という波濤のなかに漕ぎ出していくものだろう。わたし自身も自ら顧みて、そうした大きな「繭」のようなものに深く抱かれていたことが実感させられる。この石ノ森章太郎生家を探訪していて、おばあちゃんや実姉の残影が色濃く感じられて、作家の内面を「覗き見た」思いが強い。さまざまな断面からのぞき得たけれど、さらに父親や母親の思いなども掘り起こすことが出来たらと思っている。そしてそのことが身を締め付けるように愛おしいと感じられる。
 こういう部分を注目していると柳田國男の掘り起こした民俗、いわば日本人的な「前世」観という思想へのはるかな探究につながるのかも知れない。「作家と住空間」電子本で探究した柳田國男だけれど、わたしはその後も柳田さんの思想痕跡にずっと「抱かれている」と感じている。ただ、柳田さんが生きていた頃から時代は先に進んで、柳田さん以降の日本人の生命の積層があって、独特な「民俗」も多様に展開しているのだと思う。
 そういう典型的存在として、わたしの思春期とも大きく重なる石ノ森章太郎の部屋にたどりついてしまった(笑)。そうなんです、ある種「来てしまった」感が盛り上がり、燃えさかっていた。
 わたし自身はかれ石ノ森章太郎についてそこまで深い「心的交流」をしていたか、と考えれば、たとえば司馬遼太郎の作品群との対話時間のような近接感には至っていない。・・・と思っていた。しかし、この写真のような光景に出会ってしまったら、一気に自分の中学生頃の感受性世界と深く応答させられてしまったのです。
 ちょうど石ノ森章太郎が父親からマンガ家志望に反対されたのと同様に、わたし自身は父親から描いていたマンガ作品を焼却処分されていた。そういう思春期の体験感覚が一気に蘇ってしまった。別に空間としての感じがわたしの過ごしていた部屋と似ているワケではないのに、そういう心理の復元起動力、パワーがこの部屋から感じられた。
 作家の住空間として残されている住宅のなかで同時代感が大きくスウィングしてくるのは、わたし自身の年齢から考えてギリギリ石ノ森の世代でしょう。おおよそ14-5年程度の時間差はあるけれど、戦後しばらく経った昭和中期が鮮烈に襲ってきたと感じていたのです。やはり人間と住空間はオモシロい。

English version⬇

[Aspiring manga artist and adolescent Shotaro Ishinomori’s room
The restorative activation and power of the psyche that the living space has. The feeling of life swinging. The feeling of having ‘arrived’ in such a place. …

Human beings are not beings who can live on their own. He is born into the world only after his parents, and grows up supported by the warmth of his family. After they ‘come into the world’, they are supported in various ways by the environment in which they came from, as they paddle out into the surging waves of life. Looking back on my own life, I realise that I was deeply embraced by such a large ‘cocoon’. When I visited the birthplace of Shotaro Ishinomori, I could feel the strong traces of my grandmother and sister, and I strongly felt that I had ‘peeked’ into the artist’s inner life. I was able to peek into various aspects of the artist’s life, but I hope to be able to further uncover his father’s and mother’s thoughts and feelings. And that makes me feel squeezed and lovely.
 Paying attention to these aspects may lead to a far-reaching exploration of the folk customs that Kunio Yanagida unearthed, the Japanese view of ‘prehistoric life’, so to speak. I have been ‘held’ by the traces of Yanagida’s thought ever since my exploration of Kunio Yanagida in the e-book ‘The Writer and the Living Space’. However, since the time when Mr Yanagida lived, times have moved on and there is a layering of Japanese life after Mr Yanagida, and I think that the unique ‘folklore’ has developed in various ways.
 As a typical example of such an existence, I ended up in the room of Shotaro Ishinomori, whose adolescence also overlapped greatly with my own (laughs). Yes, a certain sense of ‘I’ve arrived’ was rising and burning.
 When I think about whether I myself had such a deep ‘emotional exchange’ with Shotaro Ishinomori, I have not reached the same level of proximity as in the time I spent talking with Ryotaro Shiba’s works, for example. … I thought. However, once I came across a scene like the one in this picture, I was at once made to respond deeply to the world of sensitivity of my junior high school days.
 Just as Shotaro Ishinomori was opposed by his father to his aspiration to become a manga artist, I myself had had the manga works I was drawing burnt by my father. The sensation of that kind of adolescent experience came back to me all at once. The room does not resemble the room in which I used to spend my time, but I could feel the power of psychological restoration and activation in this room.
 Among the residences that have been preserved as artists’ living spaces, it is probably Ishinomori’s generation, just barely considering my own age, that has the greatest swing in the sense of contemporariness. There is a time gap of about 14-5 years, but I felt that the mid-Showa period, some time after the war, had struck me vividly. After all, people and living spaces are interesting.

 

【石ノ森章太郎生家の間取り】




 さて石ノ森章太郎生家の探訪取材。この家は建築後100年前後と伝えられているとの説明。大正の末期から昭和の初め頃の建築と言うことになる。1926年前後。
 世界情勢としては日露戦争のあとロシア革命が勃発しソ連が成立したての時期。日本は日露戦争に勝利したあと、複雑な国際政治外交の権謀術数の世界にアジアの有力国、対露戦勝国として参入する。そういった時代に生きていた日本人のひとつの間取り、家という社会の基本構成要素のありようが表現されている。
 登米市の中田町が現在名だけれど、当時は「石森町」という地域名。石森と書いて「いしのもり」と呼称するのが地域の習慣だったので、石ノ森章太郎はごく自然に最初は「石森」とペンネームを表記していた(本姓は小野寺)けれど、全国的にはふつうに「いしもり」としか発音されないことに違和感を持っていたのだそう。画業30年を経過した段階でそのことを変えたいと祈念し、正式に「石ノ森〜いしのもり」と「ノ」を入れてネーム更新したのだという。地域伝統社会へのリスペクト。
 作家としてのかれは、地名を誇らしくペンネームとするほどに郷土へのこだわりが強かったということ。少年期の様子などを探索すると手塚作品に衝撃を受けてマンガ家一本道のように思えるのだけれど、別な側面から見ると地域文化や長男として「家長」的な立場認識に、色濃く影響されていたように思われる。
 上の図は説明懸垂幕にあったので一部に「ゆがみ」が反映している「間取り図」。間取りとしては1階に店舗が通りに面して広く取られ、それぞれ床の間付きの大きな和室3室が展開している。いちばん奥に店守りの祖母と叔母の居室兼用の最上位和室があり、真ん中には姉と章太郎の弟・妹、子どもたちが寝起きする和室。そしていちばん手前側が「茶の間」家族のだんらん・食事空間が座卓としてある。席順も記されているように「格」重視の日本人的な家族認識習慣が垣間見える。「世継ぎ」である石ノ森章太郎だけには2階に出窓付きの洋室個室が与えられて、横に家長である両親の隣室があてがわれている。
 石ノ森章太郎が高校卒業時にマンガ家を志望すると言ったとき、謹直な公務員であった父は許さないと言った。そのとき、姉である由恵さんが援護して親を説得し、マンガ家志望の弟の素志を遂げさせた。姉弟の共同戦線に折れざるを得なかった父親の心事に思いをいたすと面白い。父親としてはたぶん章太郎だけの主張であれば、強硬に否認する可能性も高かったのではないだろうか。ところが父親は娘には弱い(笑)。病弱でもある最愛の娘が弟に味方して叛旗を翻す事態に、オロオロさせられただろうことは想像できる。日本の「家」の実像。

English version⬇

[Floor plan of Shotaro Ishinomori’s birthplace
After the victory in the Russo-Japanese War, the period was a whirlwind of change in the complicated international politics. The space layout expresses a sense of ‘home’ that was typical of the period. A sense of patriarchal responsibility for the continuation of the family. …

 Now, an exploratory interview at Shotaro Ishinomori’s birthplace. The house is reported to be around 100 years old. It was built between the end of the Taisho era (1912-1926) and the beginning of the Showa era (1926-1989).
 The world situation was that the Russian Revolution broke out after the Russo-Japanese War and the Soviet Union had just been established. After winning the Russo-Japanese War, Japan entered the complex world of international political and diplomatic intrigue as a powerful Asian country and victor against Russia. The work expresses one of the layouts of the Japanese people who lived in those times, and the way in which the basic components of society, the house, were constructed.
 Nakada-cho in Tome City is the current name of the area, but at the time the name of the area was Ishimomori-cho. It was local custom to write Ishimori and call it Ishinomori, so Shotaro Ishinomori naturally used the pen name Ishimori at first (his real name was Onodera), but he was uncomfortable with the fact that it was usually pronounced only as Ishimori throughout the country. After 30 years of painting, he prayed to change that and officially updated his name to ‘Ishinomori – Ishinomori’ with a ‘no’. Respect for local traditional society.
 As a writer, Kare was so strongly attached to his hometown that he proudly used the name of the place as his pen name. When we explore his boyhood, it seems as if he was impacted by Tezuka’s works and became a manga artist in one way or another, but from a different perspective, it seems that he was strongly influenced by the local culture and his perception of his position as the ‘patriarch’ as the eldest son.
 The diagram above is a ‘floor plan’ reflecting some ‘distortion’ as it was on the explanatory banner. The layout consists of a shop on the ground floor facing the street, with three large Japanese-style rooms, each with an alcove. At the far end is a top-level Japanese-style room that doubles as a living room for the shop keeper’s grandmother and aunt, and in the middle is a Japanese-style room where the elder sister, Shotaro’s younger brother and sister and their children sleep and wake up. At the very front is the ‘chanoma’ (tea room), where the family gathers and eats together at a table. The order of seating is also marked, which gives a glimpse of the Japanese custom of recognising family members with an emphasis on ‘rank’. Shotaro Ishinomori, the ‘heir’ of the family, is given a private Western-style room with a bay window on the second floor, with the room next to his parents, who are the patriarchs, allocated to him.
 When Shotaro Ishinomori said he wanted to become a manga artist upon graduating from high school, his father, an honest civil servant, said he would not allow it. At that time, his older sister, Yue, backed him up and persuaded his parents to let him fulfil his ambition to become a manga artist. It is interesting to reflect on the father’s feelings about having to break down in the face of the sister and brother’s joint front. The father probably would have been more likely to strongly deny the claim if only Shotaro had insisted on it. However, fathers are weak against their daughters (laughs). It is imaginable that he would have been horrified by the situation in which his beloved daughter, who was also sickly and weak, sided with her brother and rebelled against him. The reality of the Japanese ‘family’.

【トキワ荘のマドンナ・石ノ森章太郎実姉の残影】


 作家と住空間というわたしのNEXTライフテーマですが、どちらかといえば「住空間」の方に7:3くらいで力点があると認識しています。作家自身についてはたくさんの情報データもあるので、そちらには配慮しつつもあくまでもサブ的にと考えているところ。たまたま石ノ森章太郎のことを考えて見て、その作品については同時代的に耽溺していた自分自身の「体感」があって、作家とその作品世界理解という意味ではそう深くは触れる必要性を感じていなかったのです。正直。
 ・・・なんですが、この住宅で触れた実姉・由恵さんの「人形作品」を目にしてこころが完全に奪われてしまった次第。昨日の人形と並んで、上の人形作品もまた展示されていた。昨日アップした人形が「正」であるとすればこちらは「奇」の表現だと思う。同一人物にして、このように違いが生み出されるというのは、その「才能」の深みに驚かされる。参考までに昨日紹介の人形も以下に再掲。

 どうもこの「実姉・由恵さん」に強く興味が沸き起こってしまった。
 Wikiの「石ノ森章太郎」の項の記述などをみると彼女のことが、人間・石ノ森章太郎にとってはまさに「血肉」のような存在であったことが、断片的ながら、強く浮かび上がってくる。石ノ森は厳格な公務員であった父からマンガへの進路を反対されていたが、この実姉が父親を説得して石ノ森を上京させたとある。そしてさらに彼女は、生来病弱で外出もままならない病の療養のこともあって弟を追うように上京して当時のマンガ文化勃興期の「梁山泊」トキワ荘で、石ノ森と同居しながら暮らしていたと記されている。その生前の写真はこの「生家」で公開され、管理の方からは「大いに広報拡散してください(笑)」と許諾も受けているけれど、公開は避けたい。しかし、実に「トキワ荘のマドンナ」という表現は正鵠を穿っていると強く思えるほどの美人。
 石ノ森章太郎とは3歳上。高校卒業後すぐに上京した弟とトキワ荘で同居していた時期は、それこそ花も恥じらうほどだっただろうか。石ノ森章太郎は上京後、トキワ荘では最年少ながらすぐに「売れっ子」マンガ家になっていたことも合わせ考えると実姉・由恵さんも実弟・章太郎の作品制作に協力していた蓋然性はきわめて高い。さらにこうしたマドンナの存在が、トキワ荘に集ったマンガ作家たちの青春模様に色濃く影響したことも想像される。まさに新文化創造の「るつぼ」感がハンパない。
 そういった彼女の才能の片鱗が、デフォルメされた印象的な人形造形に表出しているように思える。

English version⬇

Remnants of Tokiwasou’s Madonna Shotaro Ishinomori’s own sister.
The power of expression expressed in her impressive doll modelling. Although she was too sickly to go out, she may have kindled the flame of her talent as the greatest collaborator of her own brother. …

 My NEXT life theme is ‘Writers and Living Spaces’, and I am aware that the emphasis is more or less 7:3 on ‘living spaces’. There is a lot of information and data on the artist himself, so while I take that into consideration, I consider it to be only a sub-themes. When I happened to think about Shotaro Ishinomori and look at his works, I had my own ‘experience’ of his works, which I was indulging in at the same time, and I didn’t feel the need to touch them so deeply in terms of understanding the artist and his world of works. Honestly.
 But when I saw my own sister Yue’s ‘doll works’ in this house, my heart was completely taken by them. Along with the dolls from yesterday, the dolls above were also on display. If the doll I uploaded yesterday is a ‘positive’ expression, this one is an expression of ‘strangeness’. The fact that such a difference can be produced by the same person is astonishing in the depth of his ‘talent’. For reference, the doll introduced yesterday is also reproduced below.

I became strongly interested in this ‘real sister, Yue’.
 The Wiki article on Shotaro Ishinomori shows that she was like ‘flesh and blood’ to the human Shotaro Ishinomori, although only in fragments. Ishinomori’s father, a strict civil servant, was opposed to Ishinomori’s career in manga, but his own sister persuaded him to move to Tokyo. It further states that she followed her brother to Tokyo and lived with Ishinomori at Tokiwa-so, the ‘Ryozanbaku’ of the then emerging manga culture, as he was recovering from an illness that made him sickly and unable to leave the house. Photographs of his early life are available in this ‘birth house’, and the management has given permission for me to ‘spread the word’ (laughs), but I don’t want to make them public. However, I strongly believe that the expression ‘Madonna of Tokiwaso’ hits the nail on the head.
 She is three years older than Shotaro Ishinomori. When she lived together with her younger brother at Tokiwa-so, who moved to Tokyo immediately after graduating from high school, even the flowers must have been ashamed of themselves. Considering that Shotaro Ishinomori was the youngest manga artist at Tokiwaso after moving to Tokyo, but soon became a ‘successful’ manga artist, it is highly probable that his own sister, Yue, also cooperated with his brother Shotaro in the production of his works. It can also be imagined that the presence of such a madonna had a strong influence on the youth of the manga artists who gathered at Tokiwa-so. The sense of a melting pot for the creation of new culture is truly overwhelming.
 It seems that a glimpse of her talent is expressed in the deformed and impressive doll modelling.

【石ノ森章太郎の実姉がつくった人形】


 石ノ森章太郎の「生家」取材シリーズです。わたしの場合、特定テーマについて気付くことを書いていくときに、この「毎日更新」のブログという機会設定はちょうどいいと感じています。取材現場では写真撮影と、そのときに「感受したこと」とが同期してその本然的興味のおもむくままにアングルとテーマを決定していく。住宅という空間を記録する、記憶するにはそういうプロセスが肉感的でふさわしい。もちろん住宅を記録するのには一定の作法があり、その部分については個人的に師事したと認識している写真家から言われたコトバをいつもアタマのなかで復元させながら、しかし自分なりにイメージ構成に取り組んでいる。
 そしてそこで得られた「体感」を大事にしながらデスクに復帰してから、写真を整理整頓する。この整理整頓作業では、その場で感じていたことが純粋化されたり、抽象化されたりする。この作業が実は文章化のスタートにもなっているように思っている。住宅取材ということで生きてきた人間としての体験的純化なのでしょう。
 ただ、そのたびになにかしら新規な体験をさせられることがある。「え、こんなことがあるんだ」
 そういう種類の発見が上の写真。この日本人形は石ノ森章太郎の実のお姉さん(由恵さん)が作られたものとわざわざ説明字句が添えられていた。作家の肉親がその人となりを自己開示していることに、不意を突かれた。
 そう言われて気がつくと、弟さんは説明書類などで貴重なコメントを多数寄せられていて、人間と住空間との相関関係を探索する者にとって興味深かった。しかし、このお姉さんの作品は素晴らしく直接こころをえぐってくる。
 人形は顔がいのち、というコマーシャルが日本人形のメーカーさんの金言としてアタマにこびりついているが、この人形の表情には深くとらわれた。お姉さんも一緒に写っている家族写真を参照すると、この人形の顔立ちにご自分の表情が反映されていると感じられた。人間がなにかを造形するという営為は、やはりそこに作リ手の人間性が深々と投影されるのだということが、直感させられる。
 そしてこのような人格が弟であるマンガ作家・石ノ森章太郎が持っているだろう、ある本然と通底しているに違いない、という中身を感じることも出来たのだ。
 すごく直接に響いてくるモノがあって強く「打ち解け」させられていた。

English version⬇

[Dolls made by Shotaro Ishinomori’s own sister].
The writer’s immediate family speaks of his true humanity. I was taken by surprise and hit directly, and was completely tricked. From there, the artist’s inner life is seen again. …

 This is a series of interviews with Shotaro Ishinomori’s ‘birthplace’. In my case, I feel that this ‘daily update’ blog is just the right setting for me to write about what I notice about a particular theme. At the interview site, the photography and what I ‘perceived’ at the time are synchronised, and I decide on the angle and theme according to my natural interest. Such a process is a sensual and appropriate way of recording and remembering the space of the house. Of course, there are certain rules for documenting houses, and I always try to reconstruct in my mind the words of a photographer whom I recognise as my personal mentor, but in my own way I work on the composition of the image.
 Then, after returning to my desk, I organise the photographs, valuing the ‘experience’ I have gained from this process. In this organising process, what I was feeling on the spot is purified and abstracted. I feel that this process is actually also the start of the writing process. It is probably an experiential purification as a person who has lived through the process of housing coverage.
 However, every time I do it, there is something new to experience. ‘Oh, I didn’t know this was possible.’
 That kind of discovery is shown in the photograph above. This Japanese doll was made by Shotaro Ishinomori’s own sister (Yue-san), with an explanation attached. I was caught off guard by the fact that the artist’s immediate family had disclosed their personalities.
 When I was told this, I realised that the younger brother had made many valuable comments in the explanatory documents, which was interesting for those exploring the correlation between people and their living spaces. However, this sister’s work is wonderfully and directly gripping.
 The commercial saying that the face is the life of the doll is stuck in my mind as the golden rule of the makers of Japanese dolls, but the expression on this doll’s face captured me deeply. When I referred to a family photo of the doll with her sister, I felt that her own expression was reflected in the doll’s facial features. It is intuitive that in the act of human modelling something, the creator’s humanity is deeply projected onto the work.
 I could also sense that this kind of personality must have a certain underlying nature that his younger brother, manga artist Shotaro Ishinomori, must have.
 There was something that resonated directly with me and made me ‘open up’ to him strongly.

【祖母の「母性」痕跡の空間】


 昨日の続きで、宮城県登米市の石ノ森章太郎生家で感じたことシリーズです。
 少年・石ノ森章太郎は、この生家で祖母が往来の繁華な道路に面した店舗を営業しながら、その成長を支え続けたのだという。こうした店舗守りという暮らし方が大きな人格形成に与った事例として、大阪堺の繁華街商店で店番をしていたという与謝野晶子の店舗という空間事例も体験している。彼女の場合は「夢見る少女」がその夢想を大きく涵養させた空間、というように感じたけれど、この店番空間では、もうちょっと違う印象を受けた。
 この台所空間は広い店舗にきわめて機能的な位置していて、隣接する、まるで店守りのための「休憩場所」のような居間・食堂の座空間のバックグラウンドになっていた。
 最近、祖母のやさしさということについて、いろいろ思いが至ることが多くなっている。子どもたちにとって、母親の母性とはまた少し違った印象で、祖母の母性と言うものは大きな人格形成要素なのだろうと思えるのです。石ノ森の祖母本人は、家の家業として使命感を持って家計を支える経済活動を行っている主体認識でしょう。一方、そういう祖母がしっかりと保全してくれている店舗とその機能的な併用空間を「帰巣」空間として育つ幼少年のこころに寄り添ってみたら、こうした祖母の「おかえり」と声掛けしてくるその音楽的な韻律は、独特な母性だっただろう、と。
 子ども心には、無限のやさしさが繰り返しリフレインしてくるような習慣的いとなみ。わたしがいちばん好きな石ノ森章太郎マンガ作品は、少年が幻想的な湿地森林を巡り歩いて出会った女性との心理的交流、恋心を描いた「龍神沼」なのだけれど、その女性は実は龍神であり、やがてその化身の瞬間がクライマックスとして導びかれていくドラマ。
 わたしは石ノ森章太郎についてこの作品の生み出されたテーマコンセプトを無意識のうちに求めていると、自分のことが認識されていた。そうするとこのような祖母の広大無辺の愛情ということにふと気付かされた。
 ドラマのクライマックスでは少女から龍神への化身・変貌の場面は見開きページで展開していた。ストーリーマンガの展開に於いて見開き2ページいっぱいにワンシーンが、まさに幻視のように表現されることに、少年期のわたしは圧倒的な感動を覚えていた。
 そのコンセプトの小さな断片としての、店番の祖母、その母性。小さいけれど無性にうれしい瞬間。

English version⬇

[Space of grandmother’s ‘maternal’ traces].
A theme of fantastic manga works that fascinated me as a boy. The generosity of female love, even symbolised by the dragon god. A cross-section of this is ‘transmitted’ through the traces of the shop keeper’s activities. …

 This is a continuation of yesterday’s series on what I felt at Shotaro Ishinomori’s birthplace in Tome, Miyagi Prefecture.
 The boy Shotaro Ishinomori continued to support his development in this birthplace while his grandmother ran a shop facing a busy traffic road. As an example of how this way of life as a shop keeper gave rise to a major personality development, we also experience the spatial case of Akiko Yosano’s shop, where she was a shop keeper in a busy shopping street in Sakai, Osaka. In her case, I felt that it was a space where a ‘dreaming girl’ greatly cultivated her dream, but in this shopkeeping space, I had a slightly different impression.
 This kitchen space was located in an extremely functional position in the spacious shop and served as a background for the adjacent sitting room/diner, which was like a ‘resting place’ for the shop keeper.
 Recently, I have been thinking a lot about the kindness of grandmothers. For children, it seems to me that their grandmother’s maternal kindness is a major character-building element, as it is a little different from their mother’s maternal kindness. Ishinomori’s grandmother herself is probably aware of her subject’s economic activities that support the family economy with a sense of mission as the family’s family business. On the other hand, if you look into the mind of a child who grew up with the shop and its functional space as a ‘home away from home’, which her grandmother had preserved so well, you will find that her musical rhythm of saying ‘welcome home’ must have been uniquely motherly.
 To a child’s mind, it is a customary refrain of infinite tenderness. My favourite Shotaro Ishinomori manga work is ‘Ryujin-numa’, which depicts a boy’s psychological interaction and love affair with a woman he meets on his journey through a fantastical marshland forest, but the woman is in fact the Dragon God, and the moment of her incarnation is the climax of the drama.
 I recognised myself in Shotaro Ishinomori when I subconsciously sought the thematic concept that produced this work. In doing so, I suddenly became aware of this kind of vast and boundless love of the grandmother.
 At the climax of the drama, the incarnation and transformation from a girl to a dragon goddess was developed on facing pages. As a young boy, I was overwhelmingly moved by the fact that a scene was presented on a full double-page spread in the development of a story manga, just like a vision.
 The grandmother of the shop keeper, her motherhood, as a small fragment of this concept. A small but irresistibly happy moment.

【作家の住空間探訪の「奥行き」感】



 もう少しで電子書籍「作家と住空間」が上梓されるのですが、そこで探訪した作家群の取材以降も、折に触れて全国各所で探訪を続けています。基本的にはその作家の「住んでいた」住宅そのもの、あるいはその残滓が感覚できる空間~作家記念館などを探訪するワケですが、そうするとごく最近の人、まだ生きていてその評価がいまだ定まっていない作家などは、そういう住宅保存とかの段階には至っていない。
 勢い、死後であってその評価が定まっている作家人物に対して取材するということになる。
 そういった意味では、わたしのちょっと上の年代というのがもっとも若い年代ということになる。わたしの幼少期~青春期はマンガ一色の文化模様。いわゆる文学としては三島由紀夫や大江健三郎、司馬遼太郎とかがあったけれど、文化としてはマンガがもっとも熱い領域だった。手塚治虫が超絶的な作品を生産してきた頃、それにはるかに憧れた全国の少年たちが、まるで梁山泊に集う英傑のようにトキワ荘と呼ばれるアパートに集結し、相互に刺激し合いながら、物語を紡ぎ出していた。そういう年代、わたしなどからは10数年上の世代として石ノ森章太郎がいる。
 たぶん作家の住空間保存の動きとしては「もっとも新しい」世代に属するのだろう。わたしにとっては「ちょっと兄貴」年代だろうか。先日の東北行脚で仙台にほど近い宮城県登米市郊外のそのふるさとの地を訪れることが出来た。
 ・・・やはり圧倒的な「同時代感」が住空間各所から立ち上ってきて、いたたまれないほどだった。わたし自身も過ごしていた幼少年期・昭和30-40年代頃の共有していた時代性が住空間の至る所から感じられて、ちょっと立ち去りがたいほどの感銘を受け続けていた。大量生産型の無機質感を印象させるという、それ以降の常識感覚とは違って、簡易な住宅壁面建材として当時一般的だった「ベニヤ板張り」からすら、ある強い「時代感」を感じていたのだ。「おお、ベニヤ壁かよ」とその年季の入った様子に心をえぐられ続けていた。ヤバい。ベニヤ板をこころの底で愛していたのか、オレ。
 中学時代、石ノ森などの後続年代として友人たちとマンガ青年を夢見ていたことが自分自身の「原点風景」として復元してきて、「明るい慟哭」とでも言える心理で過ごしておりました。
 

English version⬇

[A sense of ‘depth’ in the artist’s exploration of his living space
The original landscape of my boyhood, when my friends and I yearned to follow in the footsteps of Shotaro Ishinomori and others as manga artists. It is like being reunited with that mental image, or looking directly at the cancer cells from the neck up. …

 The e-book ‘Writers and Living Spaces’ will be published soon, and I have continued to visit various places in Japan from time to time since the interviews with the writers I visited in the e-book. Basically, we visit the houses where the artists ‘lived’, or spaces where we can feel the residues of their works, such as writers’ memorials, etc. However, we have not yet reached the stage of preserving such houses for very recent writers who are still alive and whose reputation has not yet been established.
 I would be interviewing artists who are posthumous and whose reputation has been established.
 In this sense, the people who are a little older than me are the youngest generation. My childhood and youth were dominated by manga. In terms of so-called literature, there was Yukio Mishima, Kenzaburo Oe and Ryotaro Shiba, but in terms of culture, manga was the hottest area. When Osamu Tezuka was producing his superb works, boys from all over the country, who admired his works, gathered in a flat called Tokiwaso, as if they were gathering at a Ryozanbaku, and while mutually stimulating each other, they spun out stories. Shotaro Ishinomori was a member of that generation, more than ten years older than myself.
 He probably belongs to the ‘newest’ generation in the movement to preserve the living space of artists. For me, he is a bit older than me. On a recent trip to the Tohoku region, I was able to visit his hometown in the suburbs of Tome City, Miyagi Prefecture, which is close to Sendai.
 I was also able to visit my hometown in the suburbs of Tome City in Miyagi Prefecture, close to Sendai, on a recent trip to the Tohoku region. I could feel the sense of the times that I myself shared in my childhood, around the 1950s and 1960s, everywhere in the living space, and I was continually impressed to the point where I found it hard to leave. Unlike the common sense of mass-produced, inorganic materials that have been used since then, I felt a strong ‘sense of the times’ even from the ‘veneer wall coverings’ that were common at the time as a simple building material for house walls. The plywood walls were a common building material in those days, and I kept feeling a strong sense of ‘age’ from them. It’s not good. Did I love plywood in the depths of my heart?
 In junior high school, when I was in the generation that followed Ishinomori and others, I dreamt of being a manga youth with my friends, and it came back to me as my own ‘origin landscape’, and I spent my time with a psychology that could be described as a ‘bright wail’.
 

【雪との対話もいよいよ晩冬期、除排雪風景】



 雪国人にとってほぼ半年にわたる「雪との対話」は、生きている証のようなもの。雪は個人の状況とは無縁にそれこそ自然の営みそのものとして関与してくる。一方年々加齢は進行してくるけれど、毎年、雪と体を通して相対しているとそれ自体が生命活動に深く関与していると感じられてくる。自分自身の健康感覚は毎年試され続けていると言えるだろう。
 マンション暮らしではたしかに雪と「縁遠く」はなるけれど、しかし無縁とは言えない。雪道歩行やクルマの問題だとかで否応なく自然環境と対話しながら生き続けていかなければならない。クルマでは常に「雪道にハマる」スタックの恐怖と隣り合わせ。いわんや戸建て住宅ではまさに直接的に日々の降雪具合に万全の注意を払って、イヤも応もなく対応を迫られることになる。例年11月くらいから、いつなんどき到来するかわからないという緊張がこころに準備され、12月には完全にそのモード全開になる。そして最盛期としての1−2月があって、3月にいたりようやく冬将軍さまから和平の申し入れをいただけるようになる。「もうちょっといるけどな(笑)」。
 そのような雪国的な強烈な「季語」として、公共による「集中除排雪」作業がある。共助という社会の仕組みだけれど、そのことに深く感謝の気持ちが湧いてくる。こういう地域としての生活実感は季語というような詠嘆的なとらえ方を超えるものだけれど、たぶん日本語文化圏がここ百年くらいの間に獲得してきたもののように思う。
 寒冷に対しては高断熱高気密住宅という知恵と進化を高めてきたけれど、積雪に対してはこのような公共の助力を得ながら、半年間、対話し続けているのだろう。年間積雪が5mを超える巨大都市というのは全人類的にも稀有だという。
 最近になってこういう雪国人の雪との対話と、温暖地域の「庭園趣味」との対比ということが気に掛かってきている。庭園趣味からすれば無粋そのものの堆雪の断面模様(下の写真参照)などに、じっと観察眼を働かせたりしている。
 樹木や緑、池などのうつろい以上に、その断面に花鳥風月を感じたりする。自分の除雪の作業痕跡とか、公共による除雪の痕跡などに、それなりの「韻律」を感じていたりもするのだ。こういうわたしはオカシイだろうかなぁ?(笑)。

English version

The dialogue with snow is finally coming to an end in late winter, snow clearing scenery].
The dialogue that snow country people have with the snow around their homes has a spirituality that goes beyond the feeling of flowers, birds, wind and moon. The cross-sectional patterns of the snow in the snowbanks are a source of poetry and rhyme. …
 For snow country people, the almost six-month-long ‘dialogue with the snow’ is like a proof of life. The snow is not related to personal circumstances, but is involved in the workings of nature itself. On the other hand, although we age year by year, every year when we are in contact with the snow through our bodies, we feel that the snow itself is deeply involved in our life activities. It can be said that one’s sense of health is continually tested every year.
 Living in a condominium, it is true that you can get ‘away’ from the snow, but you can’t say that you are unaffected by it. We have to live our lives interacting with the natural environment, whether it be walking on snow-covered roads or driving a car. With cars, we are always next to the fear of getting stuck on snow-covered roads. In detached houses, on the other hand, we are forced to pay close attention to the daily snowfall and deal with the situation whether we like it or not. Every year, from around November, the tension of not knowing when the snowfall will come starts to build up in the mind, and by December, the mode is in full swing. Then there is January and February, the peak season, and finally in March, General Winter finally makes a peace offer. I’ll be here a little longer, though (laughs).’
 One such strong snowy ‘season’ is the public ‘intensive snow clearing’ operation. It is a social mechanism of mutual aid, for which we are deeply grateful. This sense of community life is more than a seasonal term in the sense of a poem, but it is something that the Japanese cultural sphere has probably acquired over the last hundred years or so.
 In response to the cold weather, we have developed highly insulated and airtight housing, and with the help of the public, we have been talking to each other about snowfall for half a year. A huge city with an annual snowfall of more than 5 metres is a rarity in the whole of humanity.
 Recently, I have become interested in the contrast between the dialogue between the snowy people of snow country and the ‘taste for gardens’ of warmer regions. I have been observing the cross-sectional pattern of composted snow (see photo below), which is quite tactless from the perspective of the garden hobbyist.
 More than the changing colours of the trees, greenery and ponds, I feel the flowers, birds, wind and moon in the cross-sections. I also feel a certain ‘rhyme’ in the traces of my own snow removal work and the traces of public snow removal. Am I crazy like this? (Laughs).