写真の男性は私の父です。お雛様は、私の妹の為に、母方の祖父母が買ってくれました。もう82才になる父は、妹が嫁に行った後も毎年お雛様を飾っています。このお雛様は組み立てや並べ方が細やかで、そういった作業は全て父が担当していて、もはや雛祭りは父の為の行事のようになっています。
このレンガ造りのトンネルは、私の実家の近くにあり、昔は蒸気機関車が走っていました。今は自転車と歩行者用の道路になっています。こんな雰囲気ですが、実際は海が近く、このトンネルを抜けると港のある集落に出ます。
祖父の時代は、その蒸気機関車に乗って出兵して行きました。トンネルをいくつか抜けると、隣の上越市に出ます。そこには自衛隊高田駐屯地、かつての陸軍十三師団がありました。祖父と祖父の兄はそこから戦地に向かいました。祖父たちが日中戦争で戦うことになる中国国民政府の首相、蒋介石も若き頃、その高田駐屯地で訓練を受け勤務していました。
そして、このトンネルは、父が幼き頃、父の一番下の弟が友達とトンネルの上から蒸気機関車を見ていて、誤って落下し、数日後に亡くなった場所でもありました。まだ5才、ちょうど五月の母の日の事でした。祖母はその時、畑に出ていて家を空けていました。父はそのことを未だに悔やんでいて、事故のあった時間に、祖母が畑なんかに行ってたから病院に連れていくのが遅れた、家にいれば間に合ったかも知れないと何度か言った事がありました。祖母は黙っていたと思います。父はそういうことを言う人だから、私は父と馬が合いません。祖母が畑に行っていたのは、そこが一番心が休まる場所だったからなのに。
父の肖像写真を撮るならこの場所で、お雛様と共にと思っていました。祖母は100まで生きて、その子の命日と同じ5月の母の日に老衰で亡くなりました。
この道は私のランニングコースで、トンネルを抜けると見える海を眺めながら走るのがとても好きです。このトンネルの中を走る時は、家の過去の事を思いながら、だけどけして振り向かないように走ります。
The man in the photo is my father.The dolls were bought for my sister by her maternal grandparents. My father, who is now 82 years old, has been putting up Hina dolls every year since his sister got married. The Hina dolls are meticulously assembled and arranged, and my father is in charge of all of these tasks, so the Doll's Festival has become an event for him.
This brick tunnel is near my parents' house, and a steam locomotive used to run there in the past. It is now a road for bicycles and pedestrians. Although it looks like this, it is actually close to the sea, and after passing through this tunnel, you will come to a village with a port.
In my grandfather's time, he went to war riding on that steam locomotive. After passing through several tunnels, you will emerge into the neighboring city of Joetsu. The Self-Defense Force Takada Garrison, formerly the 13th Army Division, was located there. From there, my grandfather and grandfather's brother went to war. Chiang Kai-shek, the prime minister of the Chinese National Government whose grandfathers would fight in the Sino-Japanese War, also trained and worked at Garrison Takada in his youth.
This tunnel was also the place where my father's youngest brother, while watching a steam locomotive from the top of the tunnel with his friends, accidentally fell and died a few days later when my father was a child. He was only 5 years old, and it was Mother's Day in May. Her grandmother was out in the fields at the time and away from her home. My father still regrets that, and has told me several times that he was late in taking her to the hospital because her grandmother was out in the fields at the time of the accident, and that he might have made it in time if he had stayed home. I have said something. She thinks her grandmother kept her quiet. My father is the kind of person who says things like that, so I don't get along with him. Her grandmother used to go to the fields because that was the place she felt most at ease.
I thought that if I was going to take a portrait of her father, I would take it with the Hina dolls.
Her grandmother lived to be 100, and she died of old age on Mother's Day in May, the same anniversary of her child's death.
This road is my running course, and I love running while looking out at the sea as I exit the tunnel. When I run through this tunnel, I think about my home's past and try not to look back.
Namiko KitauraNamiko Kitaura
Namiko KitauraNamiko Kitaura
Namiko KitauraNamiko Kitaura
前田博雅Hiromasa Maeda
前田博雅Hiromasa Maeda
Namiko KitauraNamiko Kitaura
前田博雅Hiromasa Maeda
前田博雅Hiromasa Maeda
佐藤弘隆SATO Hirotaka
