無法松の一生 Good Old Days' Scenery

懐かしき風景

　

　先日テレビで映画「無法松の一生」を見た。昭和１８年制作だから、わたしが生まれた年で、もう８０年ほど前の映画である。主演は坂東妻三郎。脇役に月形龍之介が出演していた。二人とも私が少年時代のチャンバラ映画の花形である。

　主人公・松五郎は人力車の車夫。お世話になった旦那が亡くなり、「お坊ちゃん」と呼ばれる旦那の子を我が子のように可愛がり、強く育てていく話である。松五郎の人情あふれる男らしい生き方は心を打つものがあった。

　しかし、それ以上に感嘆したことは映画のロケの風景である。マンションがない、全て瓦葺の屋根、登場人物は全て着物姿、土の道には車どころか自転車さえ走っていない。松並木が時代劇のような風情を醸し出し、田んぼが広がり、日本の原風景にしばし浸った。  

　今日の日本の風景は、まるで異国のようで狂っているのではないか。あの空気の澄んだ、落ち着いた昔の風景は懐かしく、心を慰めてくれた。

Good Old Days' Scenery

　A few days ago, I saw a movie, “Muhomatsu no Issho” (Muhomatu’s life) on TV. It was made in 1943, the year I was born. So, it is about 80 years old. The main character was Tsumasaburo Banto, and the secondary character was Ryunosuke Tsukigata. Both of them were popular movie stars who often appeared in chanbara (samurai) movies.

   Matsugoro, the main character, is a rickshaw driver. When his master dies, he takes care of his master’s son, who is called Obochan or a good family’s son. Matsugoro loves the son and nurtures him to be a strong man. His way of life moved me.

   However, what moved me more was the scenery of the location. There were no condominiums; all the roofs were covered with kawara or tiles; all the characters were clad in kimono; no automobiles nor even bicycles were running in the uncovered roads. The scenery of pine-trees along the roads gave an atmosphere of Edo era. Rice fields extended far and wide. I wallowed in the old Japanese landscapes during the movie.

  The scenery of Japan today is like that of a foreign country. It has changed drastically, or I should say, in a mad, mad way, hasn’t it? The clean air and calm scenery in the movie comforted me a lot. 

俺は悪人になってやる I Am Determined to be a Villain

 同情を禁じ得ない

　この投稿は、安部元首相を殺した容疑者を弁護するものではない。人殺し、しかも一国の元首相を殺すなどということはあってはならないことである。初め、なんというひどいことをする奴だと思っていたが、報道に接するうちに、次第に犯人に同情する気持ちが湧いてきた。

　彼は4歳のときに京大卒の父親が自殺した。また、兄が小児がんで、抗がん剤のため失明し、自殺している。さらに弟も小学五年生のとき交通事故で亡くなっている。このような逆境のなか、母親は旧統一教会に一億円以上も寄付しており、彼は優秀な進学校の生徒であったが、大学に進学する経済的余裕がなくなってしまった。彼は自殺を試みたが、保険金は兄と妹が受け取ることになっていた。なんという痛ましいことか。

これぐらい不幸な人を私は知らない。安倍元首相を撃ち殺したことは悪いことではあるが、安部氏は旧統一教会にビデオメッセジを送るくらい密接な関係にあった。統一教会を不倶戴天の敵として復讐をしようとしたのだが、教祖に近づくことができず、標的を安部氏に変えたのも考えられないことはない。

犯人は４１歳まで真っ暗な道を歩いてきた、安部氏は射殺されるまで日がさんさんと照る道を歩いてきた。

シェクスピアの「リチャード三世」を読むと、リチャードはせむし男で醜く、若い男女の幸せな姿を見るたびに世を怨む、そしてついには "I am determined to prove a villian."(俺は極悪人になってやるぞ）と言う。犯人の深層にこのような気持ちがあったのではないか。

I Can't Help Sympathizing with the Suspect

This essay does not defend Tetsuya Yamagami, the suspected killer of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. It is unforgivable to kill a man, even more so, to fatally shoot the former prime minister. I first thought he was a horrible, evil minded man, but as I got more and more news about him, I felt sympathy with him.

   When Yamagami was four years old, his father, a graduate of Kyto University, one of the top universities in Japan, committed suicide. His elder brother suffered from childhood cancer and because of the anticancer drug, he became blind and killed himself. Moreover, his younger brother was killed in a traffic accident when he was a fifth grader. Yamagami was a prestigious senior high school student, but had to give up going to university, because his mother, a fanatic believer of the former Unification Church (Toitsu Kyokai), donated more than a 100 million yen to the church. The suspect tried to commit suicide to leave the insurance money to his brother and sister, but failed. What a miserable life he has spent!

   I don’t know more miserable man than he. It was bad to fatally shoot Mr. Abe, but Mr. Abe was so closely connected with the church that he had gave a video message on the occasion of the meeting of the church-related organization, praising the president of the church. Yamagami attempted to kill the president of the church as his inveterate enemy, but he failed. Therefore, it could have been possible that he changed his target from the president to Mr. Abe.

   His 41-year life was as dark as midnight, while Mr. Abe’s 67-year life was as bright as the sun.

Richard III: Act I, Scene I depicts the dark side of Richard III, who is a hunchback and envies the young men and women enjoying youth. He bears a grudge toward the world and says, “I am determined to prove a villain."

   When Yamagami committed the crime, he might have had a similar feeling with Richard’s.

Youth by Samiel Ullman

Youth by Samiel Ullman 

Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind; it is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees; it is a matter of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions; it is the freshness of the deep springs of life.

Youth means a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity of the appetite, for adventure over the love of ease. This often exists in a ma of sixty more than a boy of twenty. Nobody grows old merely by a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals.

Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. Worry, fear, self-distrust bows the heart and turns the spirit back to dust.

Whether sixty or sixteen, there is in every human being’s heart the lure of wonder, the unfailing child-like appetite of what’s next and the joy of the game of living. In the center of your heart and my heart there is a wireless station; so long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, cheer, courage and power from men and from the Infinite, so long are you young.

When the aerials are down, and your spirit is covered with snows of cynicism and the ice of pessimism, then you are grown old, even a twenty, but as long as your aerials are up, to catch the waves of optimism, there is hope you may die young at eighty.