餠の文化 P.2

　あらたまの春である。一九九三年が明けた。「元日や鷹がつらぬく丘の空」水原秋櫻子。

　時の流れは絶え間なく、目に見える区切りがない。それでも不思議なもので、この朝、きのうまでと打って変わり、あたりに淑気がただよっている。万物、よそおいをあらため、人々の気分も一新。この雰囲気は、元旦に独特のものだ。

　各地に様々な風習があることだろう。餠を食べる習慣は全国に共通なのではなかろうか。餠の文化は東南アジアから稲作の文化とともに伝わったものだという。祝い事には欠かせない。

　四角く切るか、丸餅を食べるか。地域によって異なる。雑煮の具も家庭によって多種多様なはずだ。家ごとに独自の作法を守り続けている。何代も何十代も同じように餠を食べ継いできたかと考えると、面白い。

　祝い事でない場面にも、餠が登場することがあるそうだ。同年の人が死んだと聞くと、餠をついて、その餠で耳をふさぐ。耳ふさぎ餠と呼ばれる習慣だ。餠に霊的、神秘的な力があると考えられていたのだろう。

　昔は正月に各人が自分の霊になぞられた餠を出して並べ、霊力を新たにしようとしたと、ものの本にある。目上の者が目下の者に与える餠などを年玉といった。それが、しだいに、金銭の形に統一されたそうだ。

　峠の茶屋んどで餠を売っている。ずいぶん古くからのことらしい。力持ちという。餠を食べると力がつく、と考えるのは、餠の持っているある種の力への信仰のようなものだろう。生後一年の子どもに餠を背負わせる風習も同様の考え方か。

　餠を一つ食べても、様々なことに思いが及ぶ。先人が、正月や節句にこの食べ物を口に運びながら考えていたこと、祈っていたことは何だろうと想像してみる。現代の私たちにも、各人、年頭のねぎごとがある。

　今年も充実した一年を、「鷲下りて雪原の年あらたなり」山口草堂。

※皇太子妃決まる――初恋が実って晴れやかにご婚約――上の写真

2021.10.18記す。

　1. NEW YEARS AND RICE CAKES

It is a new year; 1993 has dawned. New Year's Day/A hawk cuts across/The sky above the hill.(Shuoushi. Mizuhara)

Time flows without interruption, and there is no visible cut-off place. Still the strange thing is that there is a tranquil feeling all around, completely different from that which prevailed until yesterday. Everything has changed in appearance, and the feeling of the people have been completely refreshed. This atmosphere is peculiar to the New Year's Day.

There must be all kinds of customs in various parts of the country. The custom of eating rice cakes must be common through-out the nation. It is said that the rice cake culture was transmitted to Japan from Southeast Asia along with the rice paddy culture. Rice cakes are indispensable on auspicious occasions.

Is it cut into squares? Or is it made round? It differs according to the district. "Zoni," a soup that contains rice cakes, varies depending on the family, with each adding different ingredients such as vegetables. Each family sticks to its customs. It is interesting when you surmise that rice cakes have been eaten in the same way for several or dozens of generations.

Rice cakes also appear on occasions which are not auspicious, When you hear that someone of the same age has died, you pound rice cakes and stop up your ears with the rice cakes. This is the custom called "mimi fusagi mochi," or rice cakes to plug the ears. People must have thought that rice cakes have spiritual, mysterious powers.

According to one book, people in ancient times lined up rice cakes made in the image of their souls and tried to refresh their spiritual power. Rice cakes given by superiors to those under them were called "toshidama", or New Year's gift. This gradually became unified into the cash form of "otoshidama" given to children at New Year's.

Tea shops on high peaks sell rice cakes. They apparently have been doing so since ancient times. The rice cakes are called "chikaramochi," or energy rice cake. The thinking that you will gain strength if you eat rice cakes is probably a sort of belief in the power that rice cakes possess. Is it the same thinking that is behind the custom of making a 1-year-old child carry rice cakes on his or her back?

If you eat rice cake, you think about various things. You wonder what your predecessors thought and what kind of prayers they offered as they ate rice cakes at New Year's and Boys' Festival. We today each have our own prayers at the beginning of the year.

Let's pray that this year will be a rich year, too. An eagle comes down/This year of snowfields/Is new.(Sodo Yamaguchi)

Copy on 2.021.10.18

14　Ｍ・Ｌ・キング牧師の夢　P.36

　一月の第三月曜日、つまり今日は「マーチン・ルーサー・キング牧師の日」である。

　誕生日にちなんで定められた。米国では七年前から、連邦祝日になっている。彼が眠るジョージア州アトランタをはじめ、全米の各地で追悼の集会が開かれる。

　牧師の残した言葉で、今も最も多くの人の心に刻まれているのは、一九六三年八月、ワシントンでの演説だろう。「私には夢がある/いつの日かジョージアの赤い丘の上で、かつての奴隷の息子と奴隷主の息子が、同じテーブルに座れる日を/私には夢がある……」。

　いつの日にか、という願いをこめて六つの夢が力強く語られる。二十数万人の聴衆が熱狂して聞くさまが、当時の録音テープから伝わってくる。

　牧師は、アラバマ州モントゴメリーの乗り合いバスをめぐる闘いでなを知られた。「黒人は先に座っていても白人が乗ってきたら席を譲れ」という理不尽な規則に対し、五万人の黒人市民を一年にわたる乗車拒否運動でまとめ、着席の権利をかち取った。このとき二十七歳。

　ワシントンで演説したのは三十四歳。ノーベル平和賞を受賞したとき三十五歳。そして三十九歳で暗殺された。「私とて長生きをしたい。だが、もういいのです。私は約束の地を見た」。前夜、二千人にそう告げたのが最後の演説になった。

　ナイフで胸を刺され、自宅や宿泊先に爆弾を投げられ、投石され、不当に逮捕されても、ひるまず非暴力で自由を求めた生涯だった。だが牧師の夢はなお実現していない。六〇年代に盛り上がった黒人解放運動は、その後分裂し、混迷した。

　黒人の大学進学率は再び低下し、失業率は白人の二ばい以上にのぼると指摘する統計もある。背景には、年収が白人家庭の六割前後という貧困がある。十二年ぶりに復帰する民主党政権ンお大きな課題だ。

　ことしは、牧師が亡くなって二十五周年にあたる。

2021.10.25記す。

　14.DR.KING'S PROMISED LAND'STILL FAR AWAY

The third in January is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day. It was chosen as his birthday falls on or near this day. The occasion has been an American national holiday for seven years and is marked by memorial services in his final resting place, Atlanta, Georgia, and at many other locations across the United States.

The words of the famous minister which probably resound in the most people's hearts are from his speech in Washington, D.C. in August 1963.

"I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream……"

King passionately described six dreams he held in his heart for "one day." The reactions of his equally impassioned audience of over 200,000 are preserved beyond the sound of his voice on the tape of the speech.

Dr. King first rose to fame during the fight over the rights of black and white bus passengers in Montgomery, Alabama. He led a group in a strike to protest the ignominious custom which dictated that a black passenger had to give up a bus seat to a white passenger. More and more of the black population of Montgomery joined the strikers until they reached a total 50,000. The strike went on for a year, and the bus company finally capitulated and declared the equal right of black riders to bus seats. Martine Luther King was 27 years.

He was 34 at the time of his famous speech in Washington, D.C., and 35 when he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Then, at the age of 39, he was assassinated.

Dr. King told an audience of 2,000 the night before he was killed that he would like to live along life, but it does not matter any longer, for he saw the Promised Land from the mountaintop he has been to. It was to be his last speech. He had been stabbed in the chest, his home and places he was scheduled o stay had been bombed, he had been stoned and arrested without cause, but through it all, he had not faltered in his nonviolent quest for liberty.

But the dream of Martin Luther King has yet to come true. The movement for the liberation of Americans of color that came of age in 1960s sputtered and fragmented. Statistics show that the number of black Americans entering universities has dropped, and black unemployment is double the rate for white Americans. A contributing factor is poverty; the average black household has only 60 percent of the income of the white household. This problem will be one of the main themes of the incoming Democratic administration, the first in 12 years.

This year is the 25th anniversary of the death of Martin Luther King.

Copy on 2021.10.26

16　大　寒 P.40　

「大寒の富士へ向って舟押し出す」西東三鬼。

　今日は大寒である。一年で最も寒い、といわれる時期だ。立春の前、三十日間を寒と呼び、その前半を小寒、後半を大寒、と分けて考える。「寒に帷子（かたびら）土用に布子」ということわざは、季節はずれの無用なもの、あるいは、あべこべなこと、のたとえだ。

　気象台の記録では、最低気温の記録の上位はやはり大寒の時期である。第一位は旭川での氷点下四一度、一九〇二年一月二十五日だった。青森歩兵連隊が八甲田山で遭難したのは、この時の寒波によるものだ。

「面とれば妙齢なりし寒稽古」永田百々枝。寒さはつらい。だからこそ、それに打ち勝つように気力をふりしぼる。寒稽古、寒念仏、寒垢里（ごり）、寒行。寒中に三味線などの芸ごとに励むのが寒弾き。寒ざらい、ともいう。

　寒苦鳥、というのは想像上の鳥である。夜の寒さに苦しむが、朝になると考えが変って巣をつくらない。無常を感じて変化するとも、日の暖かさに満足して変心するともいう。修行に努力しない。怠け心のたとえに使われる鳥だ。

　寒鰤（ぶり）や寒鮒（ぶな）は脂がのって、うまい。寒の字のつくものが、この時期に増える。寒菊、寒独活（うど）、寒鯉（ごい）、寒卵、寒鴉（からす）……。昨今の都会のカラスには寒鴉などという趣はない。飽食して丸々と肥ったものばかりだ。「寒雀顔見知るまで親しみぬ」富安風生。

　寒という漢字自体に、貧しい、という意味があるそうだ。寒村、寒山、寒林などという言葉には、寂しさが感じられる。一文なしは素寒貧。最近でこそ暖房の利いた場所が多いが、しばらく前までは、寒と貧は直結した印象だった。

　さまざまな工夫をし、人々は気力を充実させて寒の内を過ごすことだろう。だが、そうは行かぬ地域もある。旧ユーゴの人々が、飢えと寒さで一晩のうちに何十人も死んだ、などと聞く。心が寒くなるニュースである。

2021.10.26記す。

16.THE COLDEST TIME OF WINTER

With Mt. Fuji in the distance/Men push a boat to sea/ Braving the coldest day of the season.(Sanki Saito)

Today is "daikan," supposedly the coldest day of winter. The 30-day period preceding "risshun"(the first day of spring under the old calendar) on Feb. 4 is called "kan"(the coldest season). The period is divided into two, the first half considered as "shokan"(literally "little cold") and the second half as "daikan"("big cold").

The proverb "unlined hemp kimono in the 'kan' season and cotton-padded kimono on 'doyo' (the hottest day of the year)" is cited as an illustration of something that is out of season and unnecessary or doing the opposite of what should be done.

The lowest temperatures on record in Japan were registered during the "daikan" period. The record temperature of minus 41 degrees Celcius in Asahikawa City, Hokkaido, was set on Jan. 25, 1902. A cold wave at that time took a heavy death toll among members of Aomori Infantry Regiment during their training march through Mt. Hakkoda in Aomori Prefecture.

With the face guard removed/ A young lady emerges/ During the "kan" fencing drill.(Momoe Nagata)

Cold weather is a hardship. People pluck up their spirits to over-come. Among the specific forms the exercise takes are "kangeiko" (athletic drills in the "kan" season), "kan nenbutsu"(chanting Buddhist sutras),"kan gori"(pouring cold water over one's body, while praying to the gods), and "kan gyo"(extended mid-winter training for Buddhists).

There is also "kan biki"(strumming in the "kan" season) for those learning to play "shamisen," a guitar-like instruments. Another name for the mid-drills is "kan zarai"("kan" exercises).

A bird called "kankucho" is a product of imagination. Having no feathers, it suffers from the night cold. It changes its mind in the morning and decides against making a nest. It is said that the bird changes its mind from a sense of futility――a sense that nothing remains unchanged――or from satisfaction with the warmness of the day. The bird is used as an illustration of a lazy person who does not make efforts for self-improvement.

Fish caught at this time of year, such as "kan buri"(mid-winter yellowtail) and "kan buna" (crucian carp), is tasty o eat because of the increased fat. There are many other names with the prefix of "kan," such as "kan giku"(chrysanthemum), "kan udo"(Aralia cordata), "kan goi"(carp), "kan tamago"(egg), and "kan garasu"(crow).

The traditional image of "kan garasu" is a bird perched on a bare tree. The crows which live in the cities these days are so fat that the image they project is completely different.

I have spent so long a time/Watching "kan" sparrows/That I can tell some from the others.

The chinese character for "kan" is said to denote "poverty." Terms like "kanson"(poor village), "kanzan"(deserted mountain), and "kanrin"(deserted forest) reflect solitariness. Being penniless is called "sukanpin"(literally meaning "nakedly cold and poor"). Nowadays there's heating in most places we spend our time, but feeling cold was perceived to be directly related to poverty until some time ago.

Enduring the coldest season, people make various devices to fill themselves with spirits to cope with it. But there areas where such efforts do not work. Several scores of people in the former Yugoslavia have died in the single night. It is shuddering news.

Copy on 2021.10.27

17　アメリカの地名 P.40

　米国の地名は面白い。世界中の国や都市がそろっている感じである。モスクワ、ベルリン、アテネ、カイロ、ペキン、レバノン……。筆者はペンシルベニア州の町で、ジャパンという通りを見つけたことがある。

　世界各地から人々が集っている国だ。昔からいた、先住民の、言葉も地名に残る。メシ（大きな）シブ（川）からミシシッピというように、コネチカット、アラバマなど五十州の半分以上の州名は、いわゆるインディアンの言葉が起源だ。

　その点では、アイヌ民族の言葉が地名に多い北海道に似たところがある。もう一つ、たとえば「幸福」というような地名が北海道にあるのと似た現象である。抽象的な言葉が地名に多い。

　その数の多さは、多分、世界一だろう。ハッピ―（幸福な）、リバティー（自由）、インディペンデンス（独立）、フィラデルフィア（善意）、イクオリティー（平等）……。きりがない。

　ホットスプリングズ（熱泉）という地名を、トルスオアコンシクエンセズ（真実を語れ、さもなくば重大な結果が）がなどと長い名に改名する。テレビ番組の名を住民投票で市名にした例だ。抽象名詞を使うことに違和感は少ないらしいj。

　地形や特徴に感じて自然の土地に名をつけようと区別するのが地名の始めだろう。山、川、野、沼、田、森、　と具体的な言葉もとにした地名が日本にも外国にも多い。米国にも多い。

　だが米国で抽象的な名詞が目立つのは、それらが示す価値を住民が大切にしたいと考えて国造りをしてきたからであろう。米国を統一する接着剤は何か、と社会学者のデービット・リースマン氏に尋ねたことがある。

「ホープ（希望）」という答えが返ってきた。ホープという名の町出身のビル・クリントン氏が、大統領に就任する。

2025.05.21　記す。

17.INTERESTING U.S.PLACE NAMES

Place names in the United States are interesting. The impression is that the countries and cities of the world can be found there--Moscow, Berlin, Athens, Cairo, Beijing and Lebanon. In a town in Pennsylvania, I once found a street named Japan.

The United States is a country where people from all over the world have gathered. Many place names are the words of the natives who had lived there since ancient times. Asin the case of Missiippi which comes from "misi" (big) and "sipi"(water), the names of more than half the 50 states were taken from Indian words, including Connecticut and Alabama.

On this point the United States is similar to Hokkaido, where there are many place names that Ainu words. Another similar phenomenon is the existence of such place names as "Kofuku"(happiness) in Hokkaido. There are many place names that are abstract words.

Their number in the United States is probably the largest in the world. Happy, Liberty, Independence, Providence, Freedom, Philadelphia, Benevolence and Equality. There is no limit.

The name Hot Springs is changed to the long Truth or Consequences. This is an example the name of a television program being made the city name by a referendum. There apparently is little objection to using abstract nouns.

The naming of places probably began with giving names to the natural land in line with the topography and special features in order to differentiate the place from other places. Place names based on such concreate words as mountain, river, field, marsh, rice fied and forest can be found in great numbers in Japan and in other countries, including the United States.

That there is an outstanding number of abstract place names in the United States is probably because Americans built their nation with the feeling that they wanted to take good care of the values represented by these words. I once asked sociologist David Rieman what unites the Unied States.

His answer was,　”Hope. “Bill Clinton, who comes from a town named Hope, assumed presidency Wednesday.

Copy on 2025.05.21