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┃
Multi Lingual Internet Mail Magazine
┃
★ jp-Swiss-journal
━ Vol. 101
– October 20, 2008 (Swiss Time)
┃
☆
http://www.swissjapanwatcher.ch/
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【 目次 /
INDEX / INHALTSVERZEICHNIS 】
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【J】
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四国の秘境
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明子 ヒューリマン
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【E】
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Deep Japan in Shikoku
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Akiko Hürlimann
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□━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━【日本語 】━━━━━━━━━━━━━━□
四国の秘境
明子 ヒューリマン
2008年9月四国を訪れた。日本三大秘境の一つと言われていると宿の支配人に教えてもらった徳島県の三好市*1)にある東祖谷に6日間滞在した。もう二箇所の秘境は宮崎県の椎葉村と岐阜県の白川郷だそうだ。白川郷は昨年、椎葉村近辺は一昨年それとは知らずに訪れていた。緑濃い地域を目指した結果だったが、この東祖谷の秘境ぶりは群を抜く。「スイスから何故わざわざ?」とよく聞かれるので、その都度「深い森がある日本の自然は別格なので。」と答えている。スイスの山は標高が高いせいで岩山が多い。我ら夫婦は緑陰が無い所は苦手なのだ。四国の深い山中は高速道路が縦横に通っている。だが、高知自動車道の大豊インターチェンジから外れて目指す秘境の宿に辿り着くのに、更に1時間半ハラハラするような隘路と二車線の国道が入り混じる道路を走らねばならなかった。隘路の両脇にある集落は断崖絶壁にすがりつくように建ち並んでいるところもあり、見ているだけでも肝を冷やした。
祖谷川でラフティングが出来るやや賑やかな西祖谷を通って、更に奥深く剣山方向へ40分ほど走ると東祖谷にようやく辿り着く。ここに「いやしの温泉郷」*2)という実に立派な木造建築の温泉宿泊施設がある。「平成１５年度
徳島県まちづくり環境大賞 優秀賞」を受賞したという第三セクターの施設だ。ここからの眺めは正に深山の趣。宿の裏手には奥祖谷観光周遊モノレールがあった。二人乗りの車両で全長4.6kmを1時間10分かけて標高1,380mまでゆっくり回る。標高差は590mにもなり、最大傾斜度40度と、いずれも世界一だそうだ。まるでゆっくり走るジェットコースターのような迫力だが、樹林帯の変化にも目を奪われたお陰で心臓は破裂せずに済んだ。特に杉林のゾーンは急勾配にも拘らず、見渡す限り下草は刈られ枝打ちもされていて、手入れの行き届いた見事な国有林だ。これがかねてから聞き及んでいた四国の国有林かと感じ入った。
滞在中、山野草のハイキングにガイドを頼んだ。Uターン組で自然・伝統文化の体験塾「奥祖谷めんめ塾」*3)を運営、高齢者のケアもし、移住者支援もして地域の活性化に取組んでおられる市岡日出夫さんという方が案内して下さった。ガイド料はその日のお昼代になればよいのだと言う、悠揚迫らぬお人柄だ。剣山まで山頂での休憩を除いて往復4時間半、山野草や豊かな苔を見ながらゆっくり散策した。氏のような志ある地元の人に案内をお願いすると、様々な興味深い地域事情を知ることになる。西祖谷にはアメリカ人のアレックス・カーン氏が主催する「篪庵トラスト」*4)が設立されており、日本の山村文化を守る活動が行われている。市岡氏も活動に賛同するお1人とか。そのせいか、西洋人をあちこちで見かけた。言葉も分からないまま、こんな山奥までマウンティンバイクで来る人、幼い子供連れで冬3ヶ月もコテージで過ごした家族、長期滞在する学生等の話を聞いた。普通の日本観光に飽き足らない人々が少なくない証左だと思うが、それにしてもよくもここまで辿り着いたものだと感心する。これにはやはり外国
人活動家の貢献が欠かせないようだ。
滞在先は毎週水曜日が休みなので、この日は剣山の山小屋のご主人お勧めの、奥祖谷二重かずら橋の更に先に在る「ラ・フォーレつるぎ山」*5)に移動した。ここも第三セクターの経営だが、移住組みのご夫婦が応募して営業が継続されたと聞いた。山小屋風の風情ある中規模宿泊施設だが、周辺には小さな湖が二つあり実に閑静だ。標高1,712ｍの丸笹山が前庭から登れるというので直ぐに登ってみることにした。行き帰り1周2時間半。幸い晴れた日だったので、こじんまりとした山頂では剣山始め周辺の山々が見渡せる絶景を眺める事が出来た。途中の自然道では屋久島の白谷雲水峡に迫る濃い苔の森に目を奪われた！丸笹山は何故かどの観光パンフレットにも載っていないのだが、剣山に勝るとも劣らない魅力がある。ここに長期滞在するなら毎日でも登りたい山だ。登山口に「熊に注意」の看板があったが、宿の主人は当局が気休めにかけてあるだけで見た人は居ないのだと言う。聞いていなければ登山は諦めただろう。同様に「落石注意」の看板もこの地域の道路の随所で見かけたが、これも殆ど起きていないと市岡氏は言っていた。実際のところ「注意」と言われても、注意の仕様が無いが。
車が無ければとても住めなそうなこの地域にも多くの高齢者が住んでいるそうで、移動の途中でよく見かけた。日々の生活を一体どうしのいでいるのか疑問に思って市岡氏に尋ねると、実はそれ程不便ではないのだそうだ。生鮮食料品や日用品を運んでくれる業者が週に2回ほど巡回しているし、電話で頼んでおけばついでに持ってきてもくれるそうだ。確かに郵便局もあるし、ヤマト運輸の宅急便を扱う看板も見た。しかし商店はところどころにあるにはあったが、歩いて気軽に行ける距離ではない。冬はタイヤにチェーンを巻かなければ車の運転は出来なくなるそうで、夜や冬場は気軽に動き回れそうもない。ここで暮らすには不便を楽しむ気概が必要だと市岡氏。又「自然の中に居ると孤独を感じない」とも語ったが、さもありなんと同感だ。出会った人々は人懐こく、それでいて腹が据わっているという印象を受けた。かずら細工の講習を受けた時ご一緒した移住組みの登山家という人物は、「中央から遠くに居ると世の中の事がよく分かる。」と語っておられた。英国のカントリー・ジェントルマンに通じる認識と大いに共感した。
【参考】
*1) 三好市: http://www.city-miyoshi.jp/
*2) いやしの温泉郷: www.sobanoyado.jp
*3) 奥祖谷めんめ塾: http://www.iya.jp/takumi/
*4) 篪庵トラスト: http://www.chiiori.org/
*5) ラ・フォーレつるぎ山: http://www.laforet-t.com/ 、
http://ww81.tiki.ne.jp/~foret-turugi/
【編集後記】
晴れた日に又人っ子１人居ないあの丸笹山の頂上で1日過ごしたいものだ。人が作ったものは山頂の印だけで、見渡す限りの森と山。天空の至福の空間がここにある。本当は教えたくはなかった。読者諸兄も未だならご自身の至福の空間を見つけてください。
□━━━━━━━━━━━━━【English 】━━━━━━━━━━━━━━□
Deep Japan in Shikoku
Akiko Huerlimann
In September 2008, we visited Shikoku. We stayed
at Higashi-Iya in Miyoshi-city *1) (Tokushima
prefecture) for 6 days. The manager of our hotel told us that Higashi-Iya is said to be one of the three rarely visited regions
in Japan. The two other places are Shiiba
village in Miyazaki prefecture, and Shirakawa-go in Gifu
prefecture. Without knowing this, we visited Shirakawa-go
last year and were around Shiiba village two
years ago. This coincidence resulted by our aim to go to deep green
regions, and we found Higashi-Iya is the deepest
among them. We were often asked "Why specially from Switzerland?" We always replied, "Japanese nature with deep forests
is something special." Swiss mountains are rocky because of their high
altitude. We cannot stand places without having leafy shade. Expressways
run crisscross deep mountain areas in Shikoku. However, we had to drive from <Ohtoyo>
inter change of <Kohchi Expressway> to our accommodation
in a rarely-visited area by using thrilling narrow roads and two-track
national roads for a further one and a half hour. Some of the settlements
along narrow roads are built against cliffs; that is frightening even just
to glance at.
Through slightly lively
<Nishi-Iya> where rafting on Iya river seems to be popular, we drove further about
40 minutes towards deep Mt. Tsurugi and finally arrived at <Higashi-Iya>.
Here, there is new marvelous wooden building with spa facilities called
<Iyashi no Onsenkyo>
*2). The facility was honored by the <Tokushima
community renovation and environment grand prix in 2003>; it is managed
by a joint public-private venture. The view from there creates an
atmosphere of deep mountain. Behind the accommodation there is <Oku-Iya round-trip monorail>. The two seated monorail vehicle drives slowly a total of 4.6km
up to an altitude of 1,380m for 70 minutes. The difference in elevation
reaches 590m and the maximum incline is up to 40 degrees. It is said all
these figures makes it the worldwide number one. It has stringency like a
slow jet coaster, but thanks to the unique marvelous forest view my heart
didn't puncture. Especially the cedar zone everywhere the bottom weed was
neatly cut and trunk was pruned. That was really an impressive national
forest area; I had already heard about it since some times ago.
We hired a guide for hiking and
watching mountain plants. The guide was Mr. Hideo Ichioka
who came back to his hometown in order to rebuild the community. Now his
activities have widened; organizing <Okuiya Menme-jyuku> that people can experience nature and
traditional culture, care for elderly people, and supporting relocation
too. His personality is magnanimous as he said that his guide fee should be
enough for his lunch. We took the longest course up to Tsurugi
peak. We walked slowly, looking around, watching mountain plants and rich
moss for four and a half hours excluding lunch break at the peak. When we
ask a local guide with a vision, we learn interesting things about the
local situation. In that area, Mr. Alex Kerr from America organizes activities in order to retain Japanese mountain culture,
and he founded the NPO called <Chiiori
Trust>. Mr. Ichioka also cooperates with him.
Maybe because of that, we met Westerners here and there. We heard about
people without knowing Japanese language, a person came by mountain bike up
to such deep mountain area, a family with small children stayed at a
cottage in Winter for three months, students stayed for longer periods, and
so on. I think that proves that there are many people who are not satisfied
with just ordinary Japan tours; even so, I wonder how they could reach there. Anyway,
contribution of foreign activists seems to be indispensable for foreign
visitor.
As the place, where we stayed
closes on Wednesday, we moved to <La Foret Tsurugi-san>*5) further up of <Iya-Nijyu Kazurabashi>.
That hotel is also managed by a joint public-private venture. We learned that
a relocated couple applied for and carried the business on. The facility
offers a middle-sized mountain cottage taste, having a very quiet
atmosphere surrounded with two small lakes. There was the starting point to
Mt. Maruzasa with an altitude of 1,712m; it is
located in front of the hotel, and then we immediately dicided
to go up there. It took us two and a half hours for a round trip.
Fortunately, on that day it was sunny, and from the cubbyhole peak we had a
great mountain view to Mt. Tsurugi and others. On the way of the natural trail, we saw
eye-grabbing thick moss, which is nearly as thick as <Shiratani-Unsuikyo> in Yakushima
(Kagoshima Prefecture)! Somehow, I couldn't find the Mt. Maruzasa in any brochure; however, the mountain was as charming as Mt. Tsurugi. If we stay there longer, I don't mind to go up every day. We
saw a caution against bears at the starting point. But the hotel manager
said that the authorities displayed it just for conscience sake, but nobody
ever saw a bear. If we didn't hear this, we would surely give up to go to
the mountains. We also saw many cautions about <falling rock> along
roads there; however, Mr. Ichioka said that it
never happened. Actually, we cannot do anything about it.
In that region it is difficult
to live without having a car; though many elderly people live there, and on
the way to move, I often saw them. I wondered how they create their lives,
then, I asked Mr. Ichioka. He said, that actually
the life isn't so difficult as I imagined. Venders come around for selling
fresh foods and daily goods are delivered twice a week or so; telephone
orders are also available. I saw Post offices and flags of delivery
services by Yamato transport. I also saw shops from time to time, however,
the distance is not for going on foot. I heard that driving car without
having chains on tires is impossible in Winter. I don't think, we can
easily go out at night or in Winter. Living there, one must have a will of
enjoying some inconvenience, Mr. Ichioka said.
And he also said, "In the nature, I don't feel loneliness", I
fully agreed with him. I got an impression that people we met were
friendly, but have guts. A mountain climber who relocated there took a Kazura-Zaiku (vine craft) course together with us said,
"I can see well about our society in far from central part". That's
the same stance of English country gentlemen and fully empathic.
【Reference】
*1) Miyoshi
City : http://www.city-miyoshi.jp/
*2) Iyashi
no Onsenkyo: www.sobanoyado.jp
*3) Okuiya
Menme-jyuku: http://www.iya.jp/takumi/
*4) Chiiori
Trust: http://www.chiiori.org/
*5) La Foret
Tsurugi-san: http://www.laforet-t.com/,
http://ww81.tiki.ne.jp/~foret-turugi/
【Editor's
comment】
I would like to spend time on
the peak of Mt. Maruzasa with no people on a sunny
day. Man-made was only the plate indicating the name and altitude of the
peak, otherwise as far as the eye could see just forests and mountains. Bliss
space in the airy region was there. To be honest, I didn't want to disclose
about there. Why don't you find your own bliss space, if you haven't it
yet?
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