YANAGUSAWA GIEN AND AKISHINO YOHEI

柳沢淇園と秋篠与平

Outside the village of Akishino in the district of Ikoma of the province of Yamato , there is a small temple of Nyo-i-rin Kwannon, and one day when Yanagisawa Gien was crossing over Mt Ikoma he stopped there for a while to have a smoke and admire the scenery.

大和国生駒郡秋篠村のはずれに如意輪観音と言うお寺があり、ある時、柳沢淇園が生駒山を越えてそのお寺の側を通り一服しながら景色をみて休んでいました。

Here he saw a man blind on one eye whom he supposed to be the caretaker, busily engaged in shaping Sotobas,

そこには片目が見えない寺男でしょうか、卒塔婆を忙しそうに作っていました。

•  Sotoba wooden lath inscribed with Sanskrit characters set up by a tombstone. From Sanskrit “Stupa.”

•  卒塔婆とは木の板にインドのサンスクリット語を書き墓石の脇に立てておく物で、サンスクリット語でスターバと言います。

and when he hailed him the man put side his unfinished piece of wood, got up and raked together the ashes on the hearth, put on some shavings and soon had a kettle boiling over it, whereupon he carefully washed a Tea bowl stained with he offered to Gien with the remark:

淇園がその寺男に声を掛けると、彼は作りかけの卒塔婆を脇において炉に釜を掛け木屑をくべて湯を沸かし、汚れた茶碗の洗って淇園へ茶を差し出して言いました。

“It is some tea I have just got from Osaka .

「大阪から取り寄せたお茶です。

I hope you will enjoy it.”

一服して下さいませ。」

Gien drank two or three bowls and the man went on:

淇園は二、三杯を飲み干しまし、彼が話します。

“This is not my native country.

「私は元々ここの者ではありません。」

When I was young I spent some twenty years in Kyoto, working at my trade of a joiner, but now I am getting on and my sight is bad, and I have had rather a succession of trouble, so I have come over here at the invitation of a friend, and here I suppose I shall end my days.

「若い時は京都にに住み、二十年ほど指物師の職業を営んでおりましたが、目も悪くなり幾つかの災難にもあって、友人の誘いでここへ参り臨終まで暮らそうと思っております。」

Well, it seems that Cha-no-yu began by being the diversion of people like me.”

「そして、気晴らしに茶の湯のまね事でも始めております。」

And he produced another bowl with some cakes.

そして、菓子をお皿にのせて出しました。

These were nothing else but the buds of the Tatara tree coated in bean-paste and roasted.

その菓子はたたらの木の実を剥き味噌を塗り焦がしたもので淇園は初めて見たものでした。

Yanagisawa thought them very uncommon and had another bowl of tea with then and the old man went on:

老齢の寺男は、またお茶を入れ淇園に差出し話しました。

“When I was in Kyoto I got to know a lot of Tea masters, and used to be invited to their meetings and studied a bit myself, but it seemed to me that most of them thought Cha-no-yu was something quite apart, for they used to order all sorts of complicated things to be made for it.

京都にいるときは沢山の茶匠に出会い茶会へも足を運びましたので、少しは茶を知ってまいりました。

しかし、実際、ちょっと違うかな〜と思う事も正直ございました。

There was a man who took a great fancy to a Tea-room called the ‘something-or-other-An' on Higashiyama, built by some famous master, and had one just like it built for himself, and for the floor of the Tokonoma, he ordered a piece of wood with seven knots in it.

例えば、東山に茶室を建てた宗匠がいらっしゃって、何とか庵とか、、、名の通った方でしたよ、

その方が茶室床の間に七つの節がある床材を所望されたのです。

When I asked him why seven, he said because the original room had seven.

何で七つの節がある木をですかっと尋ねると、「本歌の部屋がそうだから」っとお答えになった

のです。

I thought this the funniest thing on earth, because the only reason the great master had knots in the floor was that when he built it he could not get any wood without them, and however much a man may admire a master and wish to follow him, this blind imitation can hardly be called handing on his tradition, it is rather exposing his short comings in public.

世の中には滑稽な方もいるものだと、たぶん、始めに茶室を建てられた宗匠はそこに七つの節がある

板を使おうとは思わなかったはずで、たまたま他に板が無くその板を使った。

その宗匠は多くのお弟子から慕われ、たぶん、この度の宗匠もそのお一人だったのだと思います。

世間からちょっと外れた常識がこの世界には存在するのですね。

I take it the Way of Tea does not so much enjoin people to be clean as recommend them not to be dirty, and that its entertainment consists in making up for what is lacking in ones equipment by some ingenious contrivance.

綺麗に綺麗に磨き上げることが茶の道ではなく、汚れていなければ良いと、

おもてなしの心とは様々な工夫や思案の賜物であると私は思うのですが。

The interest lies in things being a little deficient or imperfect, and a superfluity is always tasteless.

不完全の中にこそ風情が生まれのであって、余計なものは往々にして味がございません。

People get into habits, unfortunately, and though a man may fancy all sorts of different things you can't call him really a man of taste until he has got rid of them.

人は習慣の中にいて、残念ですが、好みは様々ですがそこにとどまっていてはそれだけではないでしょうか。

Unless a man understand ordinary logic but yet is not found by it, you can't call him a real Tea Master but only a man who fancies Teaism.”

その常識を超越した所に茶の精神が存在するのだろうと私は思います。

Gien was astonished and charmed at this elegant discourse and thought he would like to take the man home with him and employ him.

淇園はびっくりもし魅力的だとも感じ、是非、我が家へつれて帰り召抱えたいと思いました。

Then he said:

そして言いました。

“Well, can you write me something as a souvenir of this pleasant meeting?”

「お会いできた記念に何が一筆いただけませんか。」

But he could not write.

しかし彼は書きませんでした。

So he asked for one of the Sotoba instead.

が、卒塔婆の代わりと言って。

“Ah, that's an ill-omened present,” was the reply, “but I think I have something.”

「役にもたたないつたない紙切れですが、、、」

And he looked in a box and found a piece of paper with some writing on it.

小さな箱を開け何か探していると一枚取り出し淇園へ差し出しました。

Giean looked at it and read:

読むと

It may be fragile, but better make a thing of earthenware than of wood.

「それは壊れやすい、しかしそれは木で作るよりも土が良い。

Don't make anything of metal that you can make of pottery.

陶を金で作ることはないと同じで。

What you make of wood, make of wood and what you make of pottery make of pottery make of pottery.

木で作るものは木が良く、陶で作るものは陶が良い。

Only make of metal what can't be made of anything else.

金で作るものは他にはない。

Never make anything of metal that can be made of wood or earthenware because you think you will make money by it.

金子を木や陶で作ることは出来ないのだから。

Akishino Yohei.”

秋篠与平