【武相荘＜ぶあいそう＞再訪で気付く「生活者」目線】

　白洲次郎・白洲正子。2人が移り住み、生涯を通して愛した家「武相荘」。
　白洲次郎は吉田茂の側近として戦後焦土と化した日本の復興に辣腕を振るった。特筆すべきは通商産業省（現在の経済産業省）の創設。通産省が日本の経済大国化にとって原動力となったことはよく知られる。一方、白洲正子（しらす まさこ、1910〜1998年）は日本の随筆家。東奔西走する姿から「韋駄天お正」とあだ名された。
　ときどき、機会があればこちらの住宅は参観するようにしております。
　いまはこの夫婦の娘さんが館長となって一般に開放し住宅公開されている。このブログでも何回か記事として取り上げてきています。わたしも住宅周辺の関係の仕事をながく続けてきて、結局「住む人の立場」ということを基本スタンスにしてきたように思います。そうすると作家の家とか、その人物の情報が比較的に残っている住宅「体感」が伝わってくる建築にどんどん惹かれていくようになる。
　この武相荘〜ぶあいそう〜（武蔵と相州の境界の場所という意味とダジャレ的感覚での命名）は、そういう住み手のホンネが明瞭に痕跡として残っていると感じます。以下はこの夫婦の述懐。
　〜無駄のある家
　鶴川の家を買ったのは昭和十五年で、移ったのは戦争がはじまって直ぐのことであった。別に疎開の意味はなく、かねてから静かな農村、それも東京からあまり遠くない所に住みたいと思っていた。
　現在は町田市になっているが当時は鶴川村といいこの辺に（少なくともその頃は）ざらにあった極くふつうの農家である。
　手放すくらいだからひどく荒れており、それから三十年かけて、少しずつ直し、今もまだ直しつづけている。
　もともと住居はそうしたものなので、これでいい、と満足するときはない。
　綿密な計画を立てて、設計してみた所で、住んでみれば何かと不自由なことが出て来る。さりとてあまり便利に、ぬけ目なく作りすぎても、人間が建築に左右されることになり、生まれつきだらしのない私は、そういう窮屈な生活が嫌いなのである。
　俗にいわれるように、田の字に作ってある農家は、その点都合がいい。
　いくらでも自由がきくし、いじくり廻せる。ひと口にいえば、自然の野山のように、無駄が多いのである。牛が住んでいた土間を、洋間に直して、居間兼応接間にした。床の間のある座敷が寝室に、悶居部屋が私の書斎に、赤室が子供部屋に変わった。
　子供たちも大人になり、それぞれ家庭を持ったので、今では週末に来て、泊まる部屋になっている。
あくまでも、それは今この瞬間のことで、明日はまたどうなるかわからない。
　そういうものが家であり、人間であり、人間の生活であるからだが、原始的な農家は、私の気ままな暮らしを許してくれる。
　三十年近くの間、よく堪えてくれたと有りがたく思っている。〜引用以上。

　北海道から全国へと高断熱高気密の技術の革新が進み、建築する側の手業の進展はよろこばしい限りですが、それを受け取る生活者のひとつの典型的なホンネとはこういうもの。
　ときどき自分の中で反芻させていただいています。


English version⬇

A revisit to Busoso from the perspective of a "sei-katsu-sha" (living person)
〜The house was originally designed that way, so I am never satisfied with it. The residents are never satisfied with the house because it has always been that way. 〜The residents strongly agree with this statement.

Jiro Shirasu and Masako Shirasu moved to Busoso, the house they shaped and loved throughout their lives.
　As a close associate of Shigeru Yoshida, Jiro Shirasu was instrumental in the reconstruction of postwar Japan from the ashes of war. Notably, he founded the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI), now the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI). It is well known that MITI was a powerful driving force in Japan's transformation into an economic superpower. On the other hand, Masako Shirasu (1910-1998) was a Japanese essayist. She was nicknamed "Vikaten Omasa" (韋駄天お正) for her east-bound, west-bound style of writing.
　Occasionally, I try to visit the museum when I have a chance.
　Nowadays, the couple's daughter is the director of the museum and the house is open to the public. I have written about it several times on this blog.
　I have been working for a long time in the area of housing, and my basic stance has always been "from the standpoint of the people who live there. In doing so, I am increasingly attracted to houses built by artists, houses that retain a comparative amount of information about the person who built them, and architecture that conveys a "sense of experience" to the viewer.
　I feel that this Busoso (named in the sense of a place on the border between Musashi and Soshu, or in the sense of a pun) clearly retains traces of the true feelings of the residents. The following are the couple's recollections.
　〜A house with a lot of waste
　We bought a house in Tsurukawa in 1940, and moved to the house just after the war started. They had always wanted to live in a quiet rural village, not too far from Tokyo.
　The village is now Machida City, but at the time it was called Tsurukawa Village, a very ordinary farmhouse that was common in this area (at least at that time).
　It was in such bad shape that he had to give it up, and over the next 30 years, he gradually fixed it up, and is still fixing it up.
　Since that is the way a house should be, he is never satisfied with the way it is.
　Even after careful planning and designing, we find inconveniences when we live in a house. However, if the house is built too conveniently and without any slackness, the human being will be influenced by the architecture, and I, who am not a sloppy person by nature, do not like such a cramped life.
　As is commonly said, farmhouses built in the shape of a rice paddy are convenient in this respect.
　You have as much freedom as you want and can tinker around as much as you like. In a word, like a natural field, there is a lot of waste. The earthen floor where the cows used to live was converted into a Western-style living room and parlor. The tatami room with an alcove became a bedroom, the agonizing room became my study, and the red room became the children's room.
　The children have grown up and started their own families, so now it is a room where they come and stay on weekends.
But that is just for the present moment, and you never know what will happen again tomorrow.
　I am not sure what will happen tomorrow, because such things are homes, people, and human life, but the primitive farmhouse allows me to live at my leisure.
　I am grateful that they have tolerated me for nearly 30 years. 〜That's all I have to say.

　I am very happy to see the progress of the construction industry as innovations in highly insulated and airtight technology have progressed from Hokkaido to the rest of Japan, but this is one of the typical honest opinions of the people who receive these innovations.
　I sometimes ruminate on this in my own mind.

【小さい家の英才たち 民俗と住文化のミッシングリンク-4】

本日は連載していた「柳田國男・生家」シリーズの４回目に復帰。
　兵庫県福崎町のこの家からは「松岡家５兄弟」といわれるほどそれぞれの分野で功績を残した人材が輩出されたという。先般書いたように、柳田は「日本一小さい家」とこの家屋のことを表現していたけれど、同時に民俗学に目覚めていった原点であると告白している。人間の成長に於いて家という環境がどんな影響を与えるのかについて、きわめて興味深い事実のように思われる。
　もちろん「功績を残した」こと自体の冷静な検証ということは必要だろう。人の価値というものはある特定のことがらだけで論じられるべきテーマとは思われない。しかしここでは世間の一般的理解ということに即して前提として考えてみる。
　たしかに、医師・政治家、眼科医・歌人、高級軍人・言語学者、日本画家、そして柳田本人の民俗学の父という業績を併置してみれば、顕彰される事跡の人びととは思える。
　DNA的な優秀さというものがベースにはあるだろうけれど、常人としては「家屋の間取り」とか「空間的環境要件」というようなものにごく自然に興味は向かう。とくに住宅文化を考えてきたわたしのような人間としては、興味を惹かれるのですね。
　間取りとしては図のように整形４間取りと言われる田の字型が基本であり、木材を使って建てられる住文化としてはごく自然なスタイル。日本の伝統的住文化の基本の形式。

　ただ、この間取りのなかで夫婦と成人したこどもたち５人、夭折したこどもたち３人の合計10人が住み暮らしていたという「狭い家」状況を考え、柳田が「原点」と捉えた民俗・暮らしという視点も重ねて見たら、いろいろな想像力が働いてくる。
　わたし的には成人したこどもたちが全員男子であったことも考え合わせると、家族間コミュニケーションの濃厚さに気付かされる。わたし自身も姉が１人であとは男子が５人という環境で育ったけれど、とくに同性の兄たちからさまざまな「経験知」が積層してくる実感が大きかった。
　わたしは末っ子だけれど、兄たちが経験したことの「知恵」が先験的なものとしてさまざまに利活用できるのだ。たとえば学校の先生についての子ども視点での人物評価などは、知らず知らずに知識が積み重なっていた。「あの先生、オモシロいんだよな」「あの先生はちょっとこういう面がある」みたいな情報がバンバン伝わってくるのだ。
　柳田の「狭い家」という印象の仲に、どうもそういった家族間での情報交流の濃密さが言外に含まれていると思える。お互いに情報交換を重ねていくことで、社会的ノウハウの蓄積が加速化する部分というのがあったのではないだろうか。
　田の字型の間取り図と、そのウチソト的関係性をながめながら、この空間での家族同士のコミュニケーションの日常生活という部分に思いが至る。


English version⬇
　
The Missing Link between Folklore and Housing Culture-4
The power of "family communication" is somewhat losing its richness today. Isn't this a theme that should be examined more consciously? ...

Today we return to the fourth installment of our serialized "Kunio Yanagida: Birthplace" series.
　This house in Fukusaki-cho, Hyogo Prefecture, is said to have produced five brothers of the Matsuoka family, each of whom has made significant achievements in their respective fields. As I mentioned earlier, Yanagida described the house as "the smallest house in Japan," but he also confessed that it was the starting point of his interest in folklore. It is an interesting fact about the influence of the environment of a house on human growth.
　Of course, it is necessary to examine the "achievement" itself dispassionately. The value of a person is not a topic that should be discussed in isolation. However, as a premise here, I would like to consider it in the context of the general public's understanding.
　Indeed, Yanagida's achievements as a physician, politician, ophthalmologist, poet, high-ranking military officer, linguist, Japanese painter, and father of folklore are all worthy of recognition.
　Although DNA excellence may be the basis of his work, I believe that ordinary people are naturally interested in the "layout of a house" and "spatial environmental requirements. Especially for someone like me who has been thinking about housing culture, I am very interested in it.
　As shown in the figure, the basic floor plan is the tano-ji (shaped like a rice paddy field), which is a very natural style of housing culture built with lumber. This is the basic form of traditional Japanese housing culture.

However, when we consider that a total of 10 people (the couple, their five adult children, and three children who died prematurely) lived in this house, and when we also look at it from the perspective of folk customs and lifestyles, which Yanagida considered to be the "starting point" of the house, various imaginative powers come into play.
　I also think of the fact that all the adult children were boys, which makes me think of the richness of communication between the family members. I myself grew up with one older sister and five other boys, and I especially felt a great sense of "experiential knowledge" from my older brothers of the same sex.
　Although I am the youngest, I was able to utilize the "wisdom" of my older brothers' experiences in a variety of a priori ways. For example, my knowledge of how to evaluate a school teacher from a child's point of view was accumulated without my knowing it. Information such as, "That teacher is interesting," or "That teacher has a little bit of this side to him," was transmitted to me in rapid succession.
　Yanagida's impression of the "small house" seems to include such a dense exchange of information among the family members. The accumulation of social know-how may have been accelerated by the mutual exchange of information.
　While looking at the figure of a rice field floor plan and its uchisoto relationship, I was reminded of the daily life of communication among the family members in this space.

【ブログ執筆環境とWiFi接続環境のダブル（笑）トラブル】

　ブログ記事の連載として今現在は兵庫県福崎の民俗学の創始者「柳田國男」シリーズを続けてきていますが、きのうはブログの執筆環境がトラブルに見舞われてしまった。辛うじてFacebookでの読者のみなさん向けにはその「休止のお知らせ」は行いましたが、ブログ本文掲載としてはついに一時停止。
　2005年8月9日にブログ掲載を開始して以来、6,600日以上と年中無休だけをこころの支えとして継続してきたものが非常に残念なことになってしまいました。
　しかしこればっかりは自助を超える事態と諦観。　やむを得ませんね。
　出張中だったのでその後も直接的には状況をハンドリングできず、担当スタッフからそのトラブルは回避できた旨の連絡を受けながら、今度はなんと通信のトラブルまでもが発生。
　通常使っている移動先でのポケットWi-Fiが不具合を起こし、その回避策としてのホテルのWi-Fiまでもがなぜか接続不適合。この段階でこうした二重苦、三重苦状況への判断として、もっと根底的な原因と疑ってみることは自然。わたしの判断としてはMacbookPro本体の通信機能の障害を疑わざるを得なかった。まぁ、究極的だけれど、あり得る可能性としてはふつうの判断だろうと思います。
　ところが本体のMac再起動後、ためしにと思ってiPhoneのWi-Fi接続機能に切り替えてみたら、あらま、スムーズに接続できるではありませんか。オイオイ。
　通常のWi-Fi接続の一般的方法が２つもダメだったものが、最後の手段で繋がったということになる。まことに狐につままれたような事態。
　こんなアクシデントが３重にまで偶然重なるということもあるのですね。ちょっと信じられません。ここまでくれば、これは天の声、思し召しと深く頷くしかありません。そういうことで淡々と受け入れて参りたい。
　まぁ18年間、ずっと続けられたことが逆に実に多くの方のご助力の賜物だったということ。

　そういった状況なので本格的なブログ連載シリーズへの復帰には、もうすこし自分の気分を整理整頓してから取り組みたいと思います。本日は取り急ぎ、ブログ環境についてのご報告までとさせていただきます。


English version⬇

Double trouble in blog writing environment and WiFi connection environment
Communication and connection troubles attacked during a business trip. Unable to overcome the problem on my own, I had to pause the blog for a while. However, I will accept it without hesitation and restart. We hope to see you again in the future. Thank you for your continued support.

I have been writing a series of blog posts on Kunio Yanagida, the founder of folklore in Fukusaki, Hyogo Prefecture, but yesterday my blog writing environment ran into trouble. We barely made a "notice of suspension" of the series for our readers on Facebook, but as for the blog text publication, it has finally been suspended.
　It is very unfortunate, because since we started posting the blog on August 9, 2005, we have continued to do so for more than 6,600 days and 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
　However, we have resigned ourselves to the fact that the situation is beyond our ability to help ourselves.　It is unavoidable.
　I was on a business trip, so I could not directly handle the situation after that, and while I was informed by the staff in charge that the trouble had been avoided, this time, to my surprise, even a communication problem occurred.
　The pocket Wi-Fi that we normally use at our destination malfunctioned, and even the Wi-Fi at the hotel, which was a workaround for the problem, somehow failed to connect. At this stage, it is natural to suspect a more fundamental cause for the double or triple woes. In my judgment, I had to suspect a communication failure in the MacbookPro itself. Well, it is an ultimate decision, but I think it is a common judgment as a possible possibility.
　However, after rebooting my Mac, I switched to the iPhone's Wi-Fi connection function just to see if it would work, and lo and behold, the connection went smoothly. Oui, oui.
　After two common methods of connecting to Wi-Fi had failed, I was able to connect as a last resort. It was like being stuck in a fox's claws.
　It is possible for such an accident to happen by chance up to three times. It is a little unbelievable. I can only nod my head and say, "This is the voice of heaven, this is the will of God. I would like to accept it without hesitation.
　The fact that we have been able to continue for 18 years is, on the contrary, the result of the help of many people.

　I would like to get my mood a little more organized before returning to a full-fledged series of blog posts. I would like to take this opportunity to report on the blogging environment today.

【暮らしの民俗解析 民俗と住文化のミッシングリンク-3】

　住宅への強いこだわり、住環境への思いが柳田國男・民俗学の出発点であることが明示されていた。柳田は明治43(1910)年には日本民俗学の嚆矢となる『遠野物語』を著した。かれが35歳時であり、この頃は職業としては朝日新聞の論説委員だったとされている。
遠野物語出版との時代的な対比として，その当時北海道で建てられていた住宅例としては函館の相馬家住宅がある。写真と文章は以下文化遺産オンラインHPから転載した。
　〜旧相馬家住宅は函館屈指の実業家・相馬哲平が明治末期に建てた。函館市元町伝統的建造物保存地区内の函館湾を望む高台。主屋は内外とも和風意匠を基調とし港を望む主座敷は良材を駆使し雄大な座敷飾を備えた上質な和の書院造。また玄関脇に設けた応接室は外部を下見板張として窓枠を植物紋様の彫刻で彩り，内部も天井の中心飾りやモールディングなど上質な洋風意匠。和洋調和の意匠優秀な住宅として高い価値。〜以上要旨引用。

　北海道住宅は明治の元勲にして国防としての移民政策を主導した薩摩閥・黒田清輝の領導の元、一定の寒冷対応を考えた結果、日本の伝統住宅ではなく洋風建築の導入が図られ、経済活動の中心地であったこの函館では、見事な「和洋折衷建築」が美感を競っていた状況だったと言えるだろう。
　そういった明治末の時期に柳田民俗学は展開を開始することになる。あるいは北海道や東京が先鞭を付けただろう「洋風化」というものに、ある種の「異議申し立て」の気分が柳田にはあった可能性もある。「そんな軽薄な洋風化などよりも日本住宅での民の知恵と工夫こそが顕彰されるべきだ」みたいな。
　北海道という新開地に挑んできた明治ニッポンの住文化からすれば、その限界を超えていくという志向性もあり得ただろう。しかし明治初期の文系知識人、夏目漱石以来の鬱勃とした心情、近代化最優先という国家目標設定の中で日本の本然を取り戻す、という志向性が高まっていたのかも知れない。
　いちばん上に柳田の研究の足跡を図示した生家の松岡家から寄贈された全体図を示したけれど、文字が小さく見にくいと思われるので以下に２分割した写真を。


　きのうも若干触れたように、全体図のいちばん始めに「有形民俗」「無形民俗」と大きく大項目が仕分けられた上で、右側に「民家」（「居住習俗語彙」という著書に研究が発表された）といういわば基板となった大テーマが示されている。親族として柳田の足跡に対して誇りを持ってこのように分類し記したと思える。
　この部分は全体の中の仕分けとしては１割程度と言えるのだろうけれど、しかし、以下の生活・暮らしの解析においても常に大きく関連するものであることはあきらか。
　はるかな後世、それも北海道での住宅性能進化の現場感覚も知っている人間からすると、この「仕分け」がそのまま、床壁天井の住宅部位別の詳細研究へと変わることもあり得たと感じている。
　その後の北海道の住宅進化と、柳田の研究とはほんの少し方向性が相違しただけなのではないか、そんな想念が湧いてきてならないのです。


English version⬇

Folk Analysis of Daily Life: The Missing Link in the Quest for Japanese Living Culture-3
Kunio Yanagida, the man who brought folklore to the world. Was it a reaction against the priority given to Western-style "design"? The "folklore analysis of daily life" is the missing link in the exploration of Japanese housing culture. ......

It was clearly stated that his strong commitment to housing and his thoughts on the living environment were the starting point of Kunio Yanagida and his folklore. In 1910, Yanagida wrote "Tales of Tono," a pioneering work in Japanese folklore. He was 35 years old, and was an editorial writer for the Asahi Shimbun newspaper at the time.
In contrast to the publication of Tales of Tono, the Soma Residence in Hakodate is an example of a house built in Hokkaido at that time. The photos and text are reproduced below from the Cultural Heritage Online website.
　〜The former Soma Family Residence was built by Teppei Soma, one of Hakodate's most prominent businessmen, at the end of the Meiji period. It is located on a hill overlooking Hakodate Bay in the Motomachi Traditional Building Preservation District of Hakodate City. The main house, both inside and out, is based on Japanese-style design, and the main room overlooking the harbor is a high-quality Japanese-style shoin-style house with a magnificent tatami room decorated with fine woodwork. The reception room by the entrance is clapboarded on the outside, and the window frames are decorated with carved plant patterns. The interior also has a high-quality Western-style design with a central ceiling ornament and moldings. The house is highly valued for its excellent design that harmonizes Japanese and Western styles. 〜The above is an abstract quote.

As I briefly mentioned yesterday, at the very beginning of the overall chart, there are two major categories, "tangible folk customs" and "intangible folk customs," and on the right side, the major theme of "private houses" (which was the subject of research published in a book titled "Vocabulary of Habitation Customs") is indicated, which is, in a sense, the substrate. It seems that Yanagida, as a relative of Yanagida, took pride in his footsteps and categorized them in this way.
　Although this part of the book may account for only about 10% of the total, it is clear that it is always highly relevant to the following analysis of life and livelihood.
　From the point of view of someone who had a sense of the evolution of housing performance in Hokkaido in a much later period, I feel that this "sorting" could have been used as a basis for detailed research on each part of the house, including floors, walls, and ceilings.
　I can't help but think that the subsequent evolution of housing in Hokkaido and Yanagida's research may have differed only slightly in direction.

【家の狭さと寒さ〜民俗と住文化のミッシングリンク-2】

　1875年（明治8年）に生まれ1962年（昭和37年）に87年の生涯を閉じた日本民俗学の父・柳田國男さん。その生家を探訪しての「取材」シリーズであります。幼少期に近隣の地域の「知的情報センター」であった、江戸期以来の大庄屋家である三木家住宅の蔵書を耽読したことがエピソードとして知られる。
　この播州の英賀をルーツに持つ三木家一族は戦国期の地域武力勢力であった「三木氏」の末裔という伝承を共有している存在。英賀の三木城籠城当時の武家の中には司馬遼太郎さんのご先祖さまもいたという。
　どうもこの家系の周辺には歴史とか民俗とかに深い造詣を持たれた人物が発掘される。
　こちらの柳田國男さん生家は県の重要文化財指定を受けている。そういうことで公開されているので、その空気感を味わうことができる。柳田國男さんはとくに「小さい家」と生家での暮らしを表象されて民俗学研究の基盤となっていたと告白されている。そしてその出発点は、家の小ささから来る、日本人の暮らしようへの強い思いだったのだろうと思われる。
　日本人と住まい、という意味ではその後のわたしたち北海道人はまさにその点で、好むと好まざるに関わらず、直接的に向き合わさざるを得ず、結果として「高断熱高気密」という住宅技術の開発・摂取に向き合って行った。民族の北方展開フロンティアとして「すみごこち」に向き合って、住宅性能向上という大テーマに立ち向かって行った。そのときに日本の伝統的住宅工法に「解」を求めたけれど、残念ながらその道は開かれず、やむなく北欧や北米に知見を求めた。高断熱高気密という工法の道筋は開けたけれど、建築工法は日本独特の木組み、柱・梁で構造を作る「在来工法」。必然的に出来上がる「部材間のスキマ」は活発な空気流動を必然化させて、あたたかい家という目的には、基本的に合致しない。むしろ、その空隙は材の乾燥を維持させる家の長命化根拠ともされていた。そういうなかから地域の官民学総体で工法発展に全力を挙げてきた。
　たぶん柳田さんのような方が北海道に生を受けていれば、また違った民俗学に集大成したのかも知れないという想像を抱いている次第です。

　図は柳田國男の民俗学の解明領域をあらわしたもの。その研究の基盤領域として大きく「民家」が示されて、その素材、工法の研究が挙げられている。
　たぶん、このスタートラインが北海道民にとっては決定的にこだわらざるを得なかった部分。播州と、当時はまだ人口進出の進んでいなかった「新開地」北海道の相違になったのでしょう。人生を決定づけたであろう青春期に柳田さんが多少なりとも北海道と縁を持てば、日本の住文化は違う展開だったかも知れない。そのあたりが、ミッシングリンクという思い。
　同じく住宅への強い興味を出発点としながら、一方は民俗学の創始に至り、かたや北海道民は非文学的・非情緒的な理性的透明性に向かったと言えるのでしょうか。文学と科学か。


English version⬇

The Missing Link Between Smallness and Coldness of Houses - Folklore and Highly Insulated Houses - 2
From the mid-Meiji period to the mid-Showa period, there was a difference in the direction of housing culture development. One was toward emotionality, the other toward rational transparency. ...

Kunio Yanagida, the father of Japanese folklore, was born in 1875 and passed away in 1962 after 87 years of life. This is a series of "interviews" exploring his birthplace. He is known for an episode in his childhood when he indulged in reading books in the collection of the Miki family residence, a large headman's family since the Edo period, which was an "intellectual information center" for the neighboring community.
　The Miki family, which has its roots in Eiga, Banshu, shares the tradition of being descended from the Miki clan, a local military force during the Warring States period. It is said that Ryotaro Shiba's ancestors were among the samurai families at the time of the siege of Miki Castle in Eiga.
　Apparently, people with a deep knowledge of history and folklore have been discovered in the vicinity of this family.
　Kunio Yanagida's birthplace has been designated an important cultural property by the prefecture. As such, it is open to the public so that visitors can experience the atmosphere of the house. Kunio Yanagida confessed that the "small house" and the life in his birthplace were the basis of his folklore research. The starting point of his research was probably his strong desire for the Japanese way of life, which comes from the smallness of the house.
　In terms of the Japanese and housing, we in Hokkaido were forced to directly confront this very point, whether we liked it or not, and as a result, we faced the development and consumption of "highly insulated and airtight" housing technology. Facing "Sumigokoshiki" as the frontier of the northern development of the people, they confronted the major theme of improving housing performance. At that time, I sought a "solution" in traditional Japanese housing construction methods, but unfortunately that path was not open, and I was forced to seek knowledge in Northern Europe and North America. Although a path was opened for a highly insulated and airtight construction method, the construction method was the "conventional construction method," which is based on the unique Japanese wooden structure of posts and beams. The "gaps between members" that inevitably form between members inevitably lead to active air flow, which is fundamentally incompatible with the goal of a warm house. Rather, the voids were considered to be the basis for maintaining the dryness of the wood and thus prolonging the life of the house. It was against this backdrop that the local government, private sector, and academia all made efforts to develop the construction method.
　I imagine that if a person like Mr. Yanagida had been born in Hokkaido, he might have compiled a different kind of folklore.

The figure shows the areas of Yanagida Kunio's ethnography. As the basic area of his research, "minka" is shown as a large area, and the study of its materials and construction methods is mentioned.
　Perhaps, this starting point is the area that Hokkai-do people had no choice but to stick to. It probably became the difference between Banshu and the "newly developed" Hokkaido, which at that time had not yet advanced in population. If Mr. Yanagida had had some connection with Hokkaido in his youth, which would have determined the course of his life, Japan's residential culture might have developed differently. This is the missing link in my mind.
　While both share the same strong interest in housing as their starting point, one has led to the creation of folklore, while the people of Hokkaido have moved toward a non-literary and non-emotional rational transparency?