【文章作業没頭・興奮から、精密検査入院へ】

　昨年末に送付されてきていた「校正チェック」全８万文字超に年始早々から没入しておりました。その作業が締め切り７日に対して１日早く、本日早朝にフィニッシュ。とにかく大量なので、まぁなんとかゴールになだれ込んだ、という無理矢理感はあるのですが、あとはゆっくりと全般に目を入れていって、作業を返送したい。
　ということなのですが、本日からは前々から予定の通り、北海道医療センターの定期の「精密検査チェック」で４日間入院する予定。その直前になんとか作業は間に合った。こういう緊張感のあるプロセスというのは、むしろ精神健康上、なかなかにピリッとしていて良いかも知れません。精神的な若さを維持するためには、この程度の刺激は効果的なのだなぁと実感しております。どうなることかと思っていたのですが、時間に追われることで、メリハリが強調され、最後はラストスパート感が沸き立って、アタマのなかは沸騰気味でした。
　ということで、写真は先日来連絡をいただいているご先祖の故地の寺院から送っていただいた仏像写真集。広島県福山市には、草戸千軒遺跡がありわが家の故地・今津もあるのですが、そちらの「ふくやま美術館」での「国宝明王院本尊33年ぶり公開記展示会」の図録であります。
　だんだんとこういう「仏像・仏画」に面白さを感じてくるようになるモノですね。ちょっと若いときには芸術は宗教というくびきから開放されることで身近になって来たと思っていたのですが、自分の加齢と共に仏像・仏画に強く惹かれるようになってきた。
　飛鳥大仏と作者・止利仏師から運慶など作家たちとその作品から、非常に興味深い示唆が得られるようになってくるモノなのですね。この列島では文化現象として仏教というものが歴史時間、果たし続けてきた深くて広い領域があるのだと再認識させられる。奈良京都といった中枢地域でのそれらはそれとして、地域に根ざした仏像群にも、その地域での人びとの「息づかい」が匂い立っていると感じるようになる。作者としての仏師たちの作り手としての内面性や、依頼者としての宗教者の「祈り」、そしてそれと「対話」し続けてきた地域の人びとの心情のことなどが、層をなして響き渡ってくる。
　多くの先人の生き様を伝えてくれていることが、染み入ってくる感覚。みんな同じようなモノと思っていた仏像・仏画の表情に、超絶な「多様性」を見る思い。この図録を眺めながら、心静かに健康精密診断を、謹んで受けて参ります。あ、ブログは引き続き、毎日書きますのでよろしく。


English version⬇

[From immersion and excitement in writing work to hospital admission for a full check-up].
　Brain boiling during manuscript checks. At times like this, it is good to have a quiet dialogue with Buddhist statues and paintings. I thought they were all the same, but I was reminded of their diversity. ...

　Since the beginning of the year, I have been immersed in a ‘proof check’ of over 80,000 words, which was sent to me at the end of last year. The work was finished early today, one day ahead of the seven-day deadline. Anyway, it's a huge amount of work, so I feel forced to say that I managed to get to the goal, but, well, I just want to slowly put my eyes on the whole thing and send the work back.
　That being said, from today I will be in hospital for four days for a routine ‘full check-up’ at the Hokkaido Medical Centre, as I have been planning to do for some time. I managed to get the work back in time just before that. This kind of tense process is probably rather good for my mental health, as it is quite piquant. I realise that this level of stimulation is effective in maintaining mental youth. I wondered what would happen, but being pressed for time emphasised the sharpness, and at the end I felt a sense of a last spurt, and my mind was boiling.
　The photo is a collection of photographs of Buddhist statues sent to us by a temple in the place where our ancestors were born, who have been in contact with us since the other day. In Fukuyama City, Hiroshima Prefecture, there is the Kusado-Senken Ruins, where my family's ancestral home, Imazu, is also located, and this is a catalogue of the ‘Exhibition of the National Treasure Meio-in Honzon (the main image of Myoin Temple), which is open to the public for the first time in 33 years’ at the Fukuyama Museum of Art in Fukuyama City.
　I gradually began to be interested in Buddhist statues and paintings like this. When I was a bit younger, I thought that art had become more accessible by being freed from the yoke of religion, but as I have grown older, I have become more and more attracted to Buddhist statues and paintings.
　From the Asuka Giant Buddha and its creator, the Buddhist monk Tori-Butsushi, to Unkei and other artists and their works, it is an object from which we can get very interesting suggestions. In this archipelago, we are reminded that Buddhism, as a cultural phenomenon, has continued to fulfil a deep and wide range of tasks over the course of history. Aside from the Buddhist statues in the central regions of Nara and Kyoto, we can also smell the ‘breath’ of the local people in the Buddhist statues that are rooted in the local area. The internal nature of the Buddhist sculptors as creators, the ‘prayers’ of the religious people who commissioned them, and the emotions of the local people who have continued to ‘dialogue’ with them, echo through the layers of the statues.
　It is a sense that seeps into the way of life of many of our ancestors. The feeling of seeing superb ‘diversity’ in the expressions of Buddhist statues and paintings, which I had thought were all the same. While looking at this catalogue, I will respectfully undergo a health check-up in peace and quiet. I will continue to write a blog every day.