5年前の夜、僕は友達カップルと大工さんと一緒に、古民家で縁側に座っていた。改修中の古民家に照明はまだ設置されていなかったが、狭い谷の上の星空と、魚を焼いていた薪の火がその夜を十分明るくしてくれた。その火のパチパチ、渓流のせせらぎは、長旅の疲れを少し和らげた。夕飯の後、僕らはビールを飲みながら、アコースティックギターを交互に弾いた。それが川上村での初めての夜で、次の春に僕は移住することを決心した。
村に誘ってくれた友達は、横堀美穂だった。彼女は岐阜から川上村の地域おこし協力隊隊員として移住して、1年目はイベントを企画することで忙しかったけれど、だんだん自分の拠点が欲しくなっていった。美穂は宿を開くことにして、空き家の古民家を改修し始めた。「田舎暮らしと言えば古民家やしねえ。都会でできる体験じゃない、村ならでは、がいいよ」と、美穂は考え方を説明してくれた。
僕がその改修中の古民家を初めて訪れた1年後に、美穂と旦那であるニッシーは『暮らす宿HANARE』の貸し切り宿を開業した。それが今から4年前で、その年に生まれた息子を育てながら、宿を運営している。ニッシーはデザインや樽丸を作る仕事をしながら、宿で修繕をしたり、かまどご飯の炊き方をお客さんに教えたりする。宿の掃除や布団の準備は美穂の仕事で、お客さんと話して、仲良くなるのが特技だ。「自分がお客さんよりも村の情報を知ってる。お客さんも村に来て、村のことに多少なりとも興味があって、会話も弾むしね」と。朝のコケコッコーから夜の虫の合唱の時間まで、お客さんは薪割りをしたり、川で遊んだり、地元の野菜を食べたり、隣の樽丸職人と吉野杉の話をしたりして、この村ならではの魅力を感じていられる。移住までではなくても、お客さんは普通の観光より深く、親しく村の文化と接することができる。
お客さんと同じように、僕にもこの宿が村への入り口だった。移住の後でも、彼女たちは先輩として村のいろんな情報を教えてくれた（この連載で書いてきた樽丸職人や茶粥を炊くおばちゃんも紹介してくれた）。お互いの食卓を囲み、夕飯を食べながら、最近の出来事や僕の恋愛話などについて相談したり、一緒にアコースティックギターを弾いたりする習慣がある。移住者の僕にとっては、こんな親しみのある友達がとても大切な存在だ。そう考えながら、村の入り口だけではなく、移住の後のサポートも大事だなと思うようになった。少なくとも、自分の経験では、このサポートのおかげで、ここでの4年間がうまくいっている気がする。
An Entrance into the Village
On an evening five years ago, I was sitting with a couple of friends and a carpenter on the outer ledge of an old traditional Japanese house. The house was under repair and didn’t have any lighting yet, but the starry sky above the narrow valley and the wood fire cooking our fish brightened the evening plenty. The crackle of the fire and the sound of the stream eased the weariness of a long journey just a little. After dinner, we drank beer and took turns playing the acoustic guitar. That was my first ever evening in Kawakami Village, and the next spring, I decided to move here.
The friend that invited me to the village was Miho Yokobori. She moved from Gifu to Kawakami Village through a regional development program, and after busily planning events her first year, she gradually wanted her own base. She decided to start a guesthouse, and began renovating that old, empty traditional house. “Life in the country means a traditional house like this. I wanted something people can’t experience in this city, something only this village has,” Miho explained.
A year after I had first visited that house under repair, Miho and her husband Nisshi opened Hanare, a guesthouse reserved by only one group at a time. That was four years ago, and since then, the two of them have run this guesthouse while they raise their son. While Nisshi does design work and makes staves for sake barrels, he also fixes up the guesthouse and shows guests how to cook rice in the wood-fire pot. Cleaning the guesthouse and preparing the futons is Miho’s job, and her special skill is chatting and getting to know the guests. “I know more about the village than our guests. Since they came here, they’re usually interested in our village, so the conversation continues.” From the cock-a-doodle-do of the morning to the chorus of insects at night, guests chop wood, play in the river, eat local vegetables, and chat with the barrel stave craftsman next door about Yoshino cedar, feeling some of the beauty that only this village can offer. Even without moving here, guests can have a deeper, more intimate interaction with the village culture than a typical tourist.
Just like for the guests, this guesthouse was an entrance into this village for me as well. Even after moving here, the Yokobori’s taught me a lot of different things about this village from their experience. It was them who first introduced me to the barrel stave craftsman and the woman who cooks rice porridge that I wrote about in this column. We also have the custom of gathering around each other’s tables and having dinner, discussing recent topics or my love-life, playing the acoustic guitar, etc. As someone who has moved here, these kind of close friends have been a very important thing. While thinking about that, it’s not just the entrance into the village, but the support after moving here that is important as well. At the very least, in my experience, it has been thanks to this kind of support that the last four years here have gone well.
