jp-Swiss-journal Vol. 127

■━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━■
┃ Multi Lingual Internet Mail Magazine
┃
★ jp-Swiss-journal Vol. 127 – June 24, 2011 (Swiss Time)
┃
☆ http://www.swissjapanwatcher.ch/
■━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━■

【目次 / INDEX / INHALTSVERZEICHNIS 】

【J】	町家滞在記	明子　ヒューリマン










【E】	Stay in Japanese Town houses	Akiko Huerlimann

□━━━━━━━━━━━━【日本語】━━━━━━━━━━━━━━□

町家滞在記

　　　　　明子　ヒューリマン

長浜と京都の町家に其々１週間滞在した。スーツケースを抱えて各地を巡るジプシー旅行は身に堪えるのでしばらく前から日本旅行は滞在型に切り替えていたのだが、宿泊先が問題だった。日本建築を堪能出来る旅館は、盛り沢山の食事とお義理で注文するアルコールで食傷し体調不良になる。食事時間を決められるので行動も制約される。わざわざ日本に行くのに西欧型のホテル住まいは便利だが興醒めだ。日中部屋の大半を陣取っているベットは、視覚的にも物理的にも邪魔だ。日本家屋の魅力を端的に言うと、ダイナミックな空間を創り出す太い梁と大黒柱で眺めて飽きない。欄間や天井の意匠も見どころだ。優しい畳の感触は清潔感が感じられる。掛け軸と生け花を置いた床の間を部屋の正面に据えて庭が見渡せる日本間は、最高の落ち着きを演出してくれる。日本の伝統家屋は究極の洗練を建築に具現している。

京都の「庵」*1) が経営する町家のホームページに、長浜の町屋「季の雲ゲストハウス」*2) も紹介されていた。いずれの町屋も町の中心部にあるが、落ち着いた街並みの中に在って、夜間は都会の喧騒とは無縁だ。毎夜火の用心の夜回りが聞こえた。築100年を超す古民家を改築した一軒家を、日決めで賃貸するシステムだ。水回り部分は機能的に改装されている。檜の湯船がある木の浴室は、ホテルでは望めない究極の贅沢だ。日本建築の伝統素材である木、漆喰、和紙、畳で構成されている居住空間は心地良く安眠出来たせいで、時差ボケからの回復も早かったように思う。完璧なエコロジー住宅だ。すっきりと設えた手入れの行き届いた坪庭が居間と浴室から眺められる。自宅の浴室をこのように設えるのが夢だったが、諸般の事情で断念したこともあり殊の他満足だった。

台所には電子レンジ、湯沸かし器、冷蔵庫と６人分程の食器が備えられている。我々の軽食を用意するには正に過不足ない量だった。寝具類とタオルは上質のものが揃えてあって、毎日取り替えてくれる。必要最小限度の什器で快適に過ごせる爽快感を実感、自宅でもこうした簡素な住空間を作ろうと心を新たにした。今回滞在した町家は、金の草鞋をはいて虫眼鏡で探して漸く見つけたと言える程、我々にとって理想的な滞在先だった。挑戦者達の新しい試みのお陰だ。京都の町家の利用者は、当初は外国人向けだったようだが、今では日本人の利用者が7割程度になっているそうだ。こんな古民家には備え付けのiPodから流れるビル・エヴァンスのモダンジャズが似合った。

食事は出ないので、食料の調達が出来て飲食店が近くに無ければならないが、この点長浜は未知の世界だった。来てみて良い意味で予想を裏切られた。長浜は今滋賀県で一番元気な町だと聞いた。懐かしげな日本の伝統食やおやつ類を商う老舗が町の中心部の随所に店を張って繁盛していた。京都では質の良い食材が揃う錦市場と大丸デパートの食料品売り場が重宝した。兎に角日本の旬の春野菜は最高のご馳走だった。キャベツ、玉ねぎ、トマト、キュウリ、茄子は日頃お世話になっているものとは別物の感がある。生でも温めても柔らかく風味豊かで、味付けをしなくても充分に美味しい。そして安価。野菜は毎食山盛り食べたい我々にとって、好きなものを好きなだけ食する事が出来るだけでも日本に来る甲斐があるというものだ。それに長旅の体調維持に食事は重要な要素だ。日本でもアルコールフリーのビールが出回るようになって大いに助かった。翌日に疲れが持ち越さずに済む。日本の食の豊かさは健在だった。如何に水や天候に恵まれていると言えども、これ程質の高い食材を生産する日本の農家の意欲と技術力は素晴らしい。そんな農家の足を引っ張る原発は正に許し難い存在だ。

昨年10月に町家の予約を済ませていたのだが、3月11日の大震災が起きてしまった。ギリギリまで様子を見ていたが、もう復興の妨げにはならないようなので予定通り決行した。行ってみると、長浜は観光客と修学旅行生で日中は大変賑わっていた。大河ドラマの舞台になっているからだと聞いたが、土地の人も驚いていた。それが夕方５時を過ぎると中心街の商店は軒並み店仕舞いをして通りは人通りが消える。日本とは思えない潔さだ。創業年を競う老舗の商店が今も店を張って床しい街並みを維持している様には目を見張ったものだが、そこで進取の気性に富んだ人々が生き生きと活躍していた。町家の女主人は、長浜が新しい街づくりを計画した際に、ガラス工芸の黒壁スクエアを成功させて街を復活させた功労者の一人だとそこここで聞いた。大通寺 *3) 門前の長浜御坊表参道商店街の理事長は、一時はシャッター街だった当時の町の様子を昔の写真を見せて説明して下さった。

町家のスタッフには家の造作に関する興味深い説明をいろいろ伺えた。又必要に応じて実にキメ細かなお世話をして頂いた。メガネ店の「行徳」*4）には事前にメールで問い合わせておいて、頭痛がしない日本製のメガネとサングラスを作ってもらった。若い店主夫妻が納得出来る適切なアドヴァイスをして下さった。創業1890年の寝具専門店「SAWADA」*5）ではパシーマ *6) という脱脂綿製のパジャマを求めた。夏涼しく冬温かい素材だと言う通り大変着心地が良い。ヨーロッパの寝具も扱っているので、店主はスイスにも年に一度は仕入れに行かれるとか。町家の寝具類はこの店が納入したそうだ。「布工房Den」 *7) では布地を選んで立襟シャツを仕立てて頂いた。至急仕立てて京都の宿に送って下さった仕上がりは、さすが日本製と言える出来栄え。一見芸術家風の店主は、野生動物が出没する山間部に住まわれているとか。手打ち蕎麦「みたに」*8) と「カフェ叶匠壽庵」 *9) は何度でも足を運びたい店だ。

京都の町屋は「三坊西洞院町」にお世話になったが、「丸久小山園西洞院店」 *10) の裏側にあって坪庭を共有する体裁になっていた。時折お茶に寄せて頂いたが、上質の宇治茶を堪能、店の方々とも楽しく会話させて頂いた。「sou sou」*11) 京都店ではかねてから狙いを付けていた地下足袋風の靴と、岡山の備前織「武鑓織布」*12)で作った作務衣のズボンを手に入れた。高い品質の日本の伝統技術が現代に生かされているのを随所で確認した。日本では日本製の商品を可能な限り積極的に購入するよう心掛けているが、この度も期待以上のサーヴィスと品々を得られた。こうした環境は、町家滞在を楽しむには不可欠の要素と思う。

日本には都市の街並みを、欧州並みに、だが日本の特徴を備えたすっきり快適な風景に変える大仕事が残っている。日本の優れた建築家が世界で大活躍しているのに、極限られた地域や首都圏の都心部を除いて故郷の景観はほとんど置き去りにされたままだ。これは一重に政治・経済が上手く機能していないからに他ならない。例えば、若しスイスの国土が今の様に美しく維持されていなければ、スイスの国力はこれ程までに高められていただろうかと思う。スイス国民は税の使われ方、取られ方に多大な関心を寄せて監視している。日本は気候風土に恵まれているので、清掃と整頓をするだけでも国土の景観は格段に美しくなる筈だが、更に言うと、日本人には収めた税の使われ方をじっくり監視するだけの時間のゆとりが足りない様に思える。ゆとりある生活を求める気運が国を再生させる鍵のように思う。この点、長浜の人々の気概と取り組みは大いに参考になると感じた。それもその筈、中世に楽市・楽座 *13) で栄えた土地柄であった！京都も古い伝統を守りながら革新的気風の土地柄だ。日本の風土には日本家屋こそが似合うし、美しい。

【参照】

*1) 庵： http://www.kyoto-machiya.com/

*2) 季の雲ゲストハウス：

http://tokinokumo-guesthouse.com/content/stay/index.html

*3）大通寺： http://www.daitsuji.or.jp/

*4) 行徳： http://www.eonet.ne.jp/~gyoutoku/

*5） SAWADA： http://natural-sleep.com/sn-pf-top.html

*6) パシーマ： http://www.pasima.com/

*7) 布工房 Den： http://at-den.net/index.html

*8) みたに： http://www.soba-mitani.com/index.html

*9) カフェ　叶匠壽庵： http://www.kanou.com/cafe.php

*10) 丸久小山園西洞院店：

http://www.marukyu-koyamaen.co.jp/company/nishinotoin.html

*11) sou sou： http://www.sousou.co.jp/

*12) 武鑓織布: http://www.sousou.co.jp/other/takeyarishokufu/

*13) 楽市・楽座：http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/

%E6%A5%BD%E5%B8%82%E3%83%BB%E6%A5%BD%E5%BA%A7

【編集後記】

5月23日ミュンヘン発日本行きのANA便は震災の影響で半分ほどしか席が埋まっていなかった。3週間後の帰りの便はゆったり休めるだろうと踏んでいた目論見は裏切られ満席だった。外国人の姿もいつもよりは少なかったが皆無では無かった。機内ではさすがに日本人の団体客は見かけなかったが、国外でも人の往来が正常化しつつある証の様に思えた。だが、今も日本中がハラハラドキドキ、世界が不安気に見つめる原発を、今後も稼働させる発言が日本の政府関係者から発せられている。正気の沙汰とは思えない。福島第一原発事故によって震災復興が滞る中、こんな政治家を再び選んだら、日本人は世界から懲りない民族と蔑まれることになるだろう。この旅行中、誰もが震災の事を考えていた。自分に何が出来るか真剣に考えようとする人、人に何とかしてもらいたいと言う人が居た。選挙民が政治家を監視するのが民主主義の基本だ。その為にも、日本社会は今こそスイスの様に自由に意見が述べられる社会に変わって行く必要を感じている。

【 Petition against nuclear power plant / 原発反対署名活動】

★ To prevent mixed disaster of earthquake and nuclear power plant

http://www.geocities.jp/genpatusinsai/images/20040817Eng.PDF (E)

「原発震災」を防ぐ全国署名：

http://www.geocities.jp/genpatusinsai/ (J)

□━━━━━━━━━━━━━【 English 】━━━━━━━━━━━━━□

　　　　　Stay in Japanese Town houses

　　　　　Akiko Huerlimann

We stayed at town houses in Nagahama and Kyoto, at each place one week. Traveling around with suitcases like a gypsy is quite hard; therefore, we changed our travel style to <long stay> in a few destinations since some years. However, the problem was the place to stay. Ryokan (Japanese-inn) is good for enjoying original Japanese architecture, but because of too much volume of meals and dutifully ordered alcohol, we are palled and became a feeling of unwellness. The time of meals is also fixed and our daily plan is restricted. As we specially go to Japan, staying at a European style hotel might be convenient, but not interesting. Here, during daytime the bed occupies a major part of the room that is a nuisance not only visually, but also physically. If I simply describe the attractiveness of a Japanese house, I never get tired of watching to thick beam and pillar that create a dynamic space. The design of Ranma (a kind of fanlight) and the ceiling are also a must-see sight. The gentle Tatami touch produces cleanliness. The Japanese room with Tokonoma (alcove) decorated with Kakejiku (scroll) and Ikebana that is placed at the front of the room and garden view stages best poised atmosphere. Japanese traditional houses realize ultimate sophistication architecture.

At the webpage of a machiya (town house) managed by <Iori> *1) in Kyoto, a machiya in Nagahama (Shiga-ken) <Toki no Kumo guest house> *2) was also introduced. Both machiya are located in the City center, but situated in a sedate town, and they seem free of the bustle of the City. We could hear the sound of the traditional night watch every night. The renovated old folk houses that were built more than hundred years ago are for rent on a daily base. Kitchen, bath, and shower rooms are functionally renovated. A wooden bath room with Hinoki (cypress) bath tab is the ultimate luxury that is not possible at an ordinary hotel. The living space consists of traditional materials of Japanese architecture such as wood, plaster, Japanese paper, and tatami, and overall it is very comfortable. We could sleep well and I think we could recover faster from the jet lag. That is the perfect ecological house. A simply arranged and well maintained Tsubo-niwa (spot garden) can be seen from the living room and also the bathroom. Our dream was to arrange our own bathroom like that, but we gave it up due to various factors. We were absolutely satisfied there.

The kitchen facilities are a microwave, electric hot-water pot, refrigerator, and tableware for about six persons. That was just right the volume for preparing our light meals. Quality bedding and towels are prepared and changed every day. We had exhilarating experience with a minimum of furniture and fixtures. We once again confirmed ourselves to create a simple living space at home similar to that example. I can say the machiya where we stayed this time was an ideal for us as if we were looking around with metal waraji (straw sandal) and magnifier; finally we found it. Thanks to the innovative challengers. Initially, the supposed users of machiya in Kyoto were mainly foreign visitors, but we learned that now 70% of the visitors (guests) are Japanese. For that type of old town house, jazz by <Bill Evans> trio from the furnished iPod was just nice.

As meals are not provided, shopping for foods and restaurant should be available in the nearby area, but Nagahama was an unknown place in that point. Actually our expectation was positively exceeded. We learned that Nagahama is the most active town in Shiga prefecture now. Long established shops in the center part of the town sell nostalgic Japanese traditional foods and snacks, and their business seem to be going well. In Kyoto, we could get quality foods at Nishiki-market and Daimaru department store. Anyway, Japanese spring seasonal vegetables were the best delicacy. Cabbage, onion, tomato, cucumber and aubergine (eggplants) were different as we used to eat in Europe. Those are soft and flavorful in both ways, fresh and heated as well as delicious even unseasoned. The products were even cheap. As we need to eat lots of vegetable at every meal, simply we can eat food whatever we want and as much as we want is worth to visit Japan. The meal is essential for feeling well during a long journey. Alcohol-free beer (0% alcohol) has become more or less common in Japan now. Our tiredness wasn't carried over to the following days thanks to that. The affluence of Japanese food was still in its best shape. Even Japan is blessed with water and climate, the motivation and the technical power of Japanese farmers who produce such high quality agricultural products are wonderful. Nuclear power plants work against farmers; that is absolutely unforgivable.

We made a reservation for both machiya already last October, and then the tragic East Japan earthquake disaster had happened on the 11th of March. We were watching how the situation was going to develop till the last moment, and when we found that our visit wouldn't disturb the reconstruction work anymore, and then we dared to go on as planned. Actually Nagahama was crowded with mass tourists and students on their school excursions during the day. We heard that's because of the historical TV drama of NHK, and even local people were surprised about it. But after five in the evening, shops in the City center were punctually closed and streets became empty. This decisiveness is far from Japanese. Long established shops competing their longevity, and still exist forming the charming town that's throw up my eyes, and open-minded people were vividly doing their business. We learned here and there that the landlady of the machiya in Nagahama is one of the persons who contributed to rebuild the town by introducing glass-working of successful Kurokabe-square when the town planned its new urban development. The chairman of Nagahama Gobo Omotesando mall of Daitsuji-temple *3) town explained us about the town’s history that many shops closed shutter at a certain period by showing us a photo of that time.

We could hear the interesting explanation about the house from the machiya staff and we were looked after well as necessary. We made an advance contact with the optician <Gyoutoku> *4) by E-mail, and ordered Japanese made glasses that don't make headache and comfortable sunglasses. The young optician couple of the shop gave us convincing and appropriate advices. We bought pyjamas produced of cotton wool called <Pasima> *5) at bedding supplier <Sawada> *6). The material is said to be cool in summer and warm in winter, that's very comfortable. The shop also sells European products, and the shop owner goes to Switzerland for purchasing stock once a year. We learned that the innovative shop owner gave an advice to our machiya for bedding. At the <Atelier-Den> *7), we ordered a stand-up collar shirt by choosing our favorite cloth. The shirt was urgently made and sent to our next accommodation place in Kyoto. Doneness (accuracy) was as we might have expected by products <Made in Japan>. The artist looking shop owner said he lives in a mountain area where he is infested by bears and other wild animals. The handmade Soba restaurant <Mitani> *8) and the café <Kanou Shojuan> *9) were the shops which we repeatedly liked to visit.

In Kyoto, we stayed at <Sanbo Nishinotoin-machi> which was just located behind a tea shop called <Marukyu-Koyamaen, Nishinotoin> *10) and designed to share the <Tsubo-niwa> which was a part of our machiya. We occasionally popped in there for enjoying the quality Uji-tea as well as for conversation with the staff. We wanted to have Jikatabi style shoes for some years; we could get them at <sou sou> of Kyoto shop *11). We found a pair of samue (Japanese work clothes) pants (trousers) made of Bizen-ori <Takeyarishokufu> *12) from Okayama. We confirmed that the ubiquitously high quality of Japanese traditional technologies is still kept alive today. In Japan, we tried to purchase Japanese products as much as possible, and we could get more than expected services and products there this time again. I think that such an environment is an indispensable factor to enjoy a machiya stay.

Japan has still a big work of rebuilding Japanese cities to make them nice looking like in Europe, but with a Japanese character. Many Japanese great architects have created marvelous work in the world, though with view of the home country is still almost left behind except in certain limited area and central part of capital region. This must be based in the reason that the political and economical system is not working well. I wonder, if the land of Switzerland hadn't been beautifully maintained as it is now, whether the Swiss national power had been improved like present or not? Swiss people are watching with great interest how the taxes are collected and spent. Japan has the privilege with the climate, therefore, if they clean and tidy up only, the landscape must be much better. Furthermore, I think Japanese have not enough free time for observing the distribution of tax well. I think the momentum of seeking free from pressure is a key to rebuild for the land. In that point of view, I found that the way of approach and motivation of the Nagahama people is a very good example. No wonder, the character of the locality is based on Rakuichi-Rakuza (so called free trade system) *13) that flourished in the middle age! Kyoto has also a character to keep tradition as well as to be innovative minded. Anyway, Japanese-style houses are the most suitable and beautiful for Japan.

【 Reference 】

*1) Iori: http://www.kyoto-machiya.com/eng/ (E)

*2) Tokinokumo-guesthouse:

http://tokinokumo-guesthouse.com/content/stay/index.html（J）

*3） Daitsuji Temple: http://www.daitsuji.or.jp/ (J)

*4) Gyoutoku: http://www.eonet.ne.jp/~gyoutoku/ (J)

*5） SAWADA: http://natural-sleep.com/sn-pf-top.html (J)

*6) Pasima: http://www.pasima.com/ (J)

*7) Atelier Den: http://at-den.net/index.html (J)

*8) Mitani: http://www.soba-mitani.com/index.html (J)

*9) Café Kanou-Shojuan: http://www.kanou.com/cafe.php (J)

*10）　Marukyu-Koyamaen, Shop Nishi no Toin:

http://www.marukyu-koyamaen.co.jp/english/index.html (E)

*11) sou sou： http://www.sousou.co.jp/ (J)

*12) Takeyarishokufu:

http://www.sousou.co.jp/other/takeyarishokufu/ (J)

*13) Rakuichi-Rakuza: http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%A5%BD%

E5%B8%82%E3%83%BB%E6%A5%BD%E5%BA%A7 (J)

【 Editor's comment 】

The seats of the ANA flight from Munich to Japan on the 23th of May were occupied about a half probably due to the earthquake disaster. Our expectation failed that we might be relaxing on the three weeks later return flight; all the seats however were almost fully occupied. Non-Japanese passengers were less than normal, but not zero. We didn't see Japanese groups as maybe expected, but it looked as if human traffic was gradually normalized outside of Japan too. At the present situation, the whole of Japan observes with full of nervous excitement and the world is anxiously watching the development of the nuclear accident. However, even now some Japanese administration officials express the intention to restart certain nuclear power stations; they must be crazy. Because of the <Fukushima Daiichi> nuclear power accident, the reconstruction work is disturbed. If we choose such politicians again, Japanese would be looked down from the world that we are the race who does never learn from the past. During that travel, everybody thought about the disaster. We met people who try eagerly to think what they can and others who just expect something from others. The principle of democracy is that the constituency should observe the politicians. For that purpose, I feel the Japanese society should be changed to a society that everybody can express its own opinion freely like Switzerland.

【 Petition against nuclear power plant 】

★ To prevent mixed disaster of earthquake and nuclear power plant

http://www.geocities.jp/genpatusinsai/images/20040817Eng.PDF (E)

Nationwide petition to prevent nuclear disaster：

http://www.geocities.jp/genpatusinsai/ (J)

□━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━□

We are intending to offer you current topics, based on Switzerland and Japan with global view as a multi lingual magazine. Irregular release: Weekly Swiss News Headlines will inform Issuing schedule.

Please subscribe both mail magazines. Some amendment can be made later.

スイスと日本を基点にグローバルな視点で、ニュース性に重点を置きながら、適宜日英独仏語の多言語でお届けします。不定期発行: 発行案内はWeekly Swiss News Headlines からも随時お知らせしますので、両誌共にご愛読お願い致します。後日修正が加えられる場合があります。

┏━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┓

┃【 jp-Swiss-journal 】 Number of readers: 518

★ Mailux:

┃ http://www.mailux.com/mm_dsp.php?mm_id=MM49D642ECE442D

★ Mag2: http://www.mag2.com/m/0000044048.htm

★ Melonpan:

┃ http://www.melonpan.net/melonpa/mag-detail.php?mag_id=002537

★ Melma: http://www.melma.com/backnumber_41022/ & etc.

┗━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━┛

☆ If you wish to refer our text, please send your mail to the issuer for permission.