一昨日の高校同期会の会場はお世話になっていた「三川屋会館」という宴会専門のお店。中学校・高校と同級生だった友人の実家のビジネス。かれも当然参加していたのですが、わたしがあらためて見入ってしまっていたのが、宴会場の背景画として掛けられていたこの絵。
こういう店舗の仕掛けマネジメントは、友人のお母さんだったことが記憶の底から蘇ってきて思い出され、その絵の選定の感覚について酒を飲みながら、やや耽溺していた。
この絵自体は松下紀久雄氏（1918年生まれで2010年死去）という画家の作品で、現代人でありながら、克明にその地の歴史を解明しながらそのいとなみぶりを活写する作風を確立したように思われる。この作品についてオーナーに聞いたけれど、かれはあまり知識を持っていなかった。札幌西高は東京芸大への進学率も高い高校なので、たまたま同席していたもと美術部に確認を求めたけれど、自分で描く方が専門だからそういう「知識」は持っていなかった。
「好み」が伝わってきて、かれのお母さんと久しぶりに対話しているようだった。酒の肴にはたしかにちょうど良かったのかも知れない。お母さんはすごい（笑）。
全景はこんな感じなのだけれど、江戸期までの全国のどこかの商業市街地を描いたモノだろうか。日本社会のむかしのある局限点を再生させながら、私の好きな「洛中洛外図」という日本独特の絵画文化領域をあざやかに再現してくれている。住宅建築についての情報を自分のライフワークテーマとして選択してきた人間として、こういう「市井」への目線は数寄なのだ。
住宅・店舗の建物のつらなりと、そのそれぞれの「なりわい」の間に流れる「生き方・暮らし方」の実相があざやかに再生されてくる。その間をうごく人間たちは、その体動の描写で暮らし方・生き方が表現されている。
街区というものがどのような成り立ちで生まれ出てきたのか、そういった部分が匂い立ってくるかのように思われる。
ふと、自分のライフワークと、こうした表現の間に共通する内容があるように思えた。わたしは住宅建築を取材し、その写真を「表現手段」の最たるものとして活用して、その家で人間はどのような思いをいだき、暮らそうとするのか、そこに強いこだわりを持ってきている。ただ、個人情報については一般的には触れないように配慮する。
この絵画表現では「無名性」に徹して、それぞれの人間の暮らしを正面から表現していく。そのあたりの根源的な部分で「対話」しているような時間だった。
English version⬇
Unintentionally "Appreciation of Paintings" - Mukashi E, Kikuo Matsushita's works
I am strongly attracted to "Rakuchu Rakugai-zu", a picture I drew in the first grade of elementary school in the U.S.A., which shows the Japanese people from the viewpoint of the people living in the city. ...
The venue for the high school class reunion the day before yesterday was a restaurant specializing in banquets called "Mikawa-ya Kaikan", which we were indebted to. It is a business owned by the family of a friend of mine who was a classmate of mine in junior high and high school. He was naturally in attendance, but what I found myself looking at again was this picture hanging as a background painting in the banquet room.
I was reminded of the fact that my friend's mother was the manager of this kind of store, and I was somewhat indulged in the sensation of the selection of the painting while drinking sake.
The painting itself is the work of Kikuo Matsushita (born in 1918 and died in 2010), a contemporary artist who seems to have established a style of vividly capturing the history of the place while conclusively elucidating the history of the place and its lifestyle. I asked the owner about this work, but he did not have much knowledge about it. Sapporo Nishi High School has a high percentage of students who go on to Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, so I asked the former art club member who happened to be in attendance to confirm his knowledge, but he did not have any such "knowledge" because he specializes in painting by himself.
I could feel his "taste" and it was like talking to his mother for the first time in a long time. It was like talking to his mother for the first time in a long time. His mother is amazing (laugh).
The overall view looks like this, but it probably depicts a commercial district somewhere in Japan up to the Edo period. While reproducing a certain localized point in the past of Japanese society, this work vividly recreates my favorite "Rakuchu Rakugai-zu," a uniquely Japanese pictorial cultural area. As someone who has chosen information on residential architecture as my life's work theme, I appreciate this kind of "city" perspective.
The reality of the "way of life" that flows between the rows of houses and stores and their respective "livelihoods" is vividly reproduced. The people who move between the buildings express their way of life through their body movements.
It is as if one can smell the origins of the city block and how it came to be.
It occurred to me that there are similarities between my life's work and this kind of expression. I have been reporting on residential architecture and using photographs as my "means of expression," I have been strongly interested in what people think about and try to live in their houses. However, I will take care not to mention personal information in general.
In this pictorial expression, I am committed to "anonymity" and express each human being's life head-on. It was a time as if we were having a "dialogue" on the fundamental aspects of this area.
