３月中旬の寒い朝に、僕は川上村柏木地区の辻谷達雄さんを訪れた。僕らは居間の掘りごたつに入り、葛湯を飲んだ。86歳である辻谷さんはこの地区に生まれて育ち、ずっとこの家に住んでいる。多くの人は親しみを込めて、彼を「たっちゃん」と呼ぶ。「山しかない、ほんま」と辻谷さんは低くて、温かい声で説明し始めた。「せやけど、きれいな水を育むのは山やな。この水が一番人間に大事なことや、みんなつながっとる」。家の裏の山を少し登ってみたら、山頂まで長く続く森林に入る。彼は子どものころ、その森で友達と遊びながら、山菜を採ったりした。
森でいろんなことを学んだ辻谷さんは中学校を卒業した時、「自然を楽しみ、人類を愛す」と寄せ書きに書いた。15歳から50年間林業の仕事をした辻谷さんは、65歳になっても、そんな自然を楽しむ、人を愛する心がまだ強かった。だから都会の人が村の人と交流をして、自然を楽しめるように何かをしたくて、彼は１９９９年に「たっちゃんクラブ」を始めた。
「たっちゃんクラブ」では月１回、郷土料理を作る、山の観察をする、山菜採りをするイベントを開催していた。参加者を抽選で決めるしかないほど、「たっちゃんクラブ」は人気があった。「みんな食べたい山菜を採ってきて、それらをおいらは選別してきて、河原で天ぷらにしてな」と辻谷さんは言った。都会の子どもたちは、ボタンを押して火を点けるのではなく薪で火を熾して、料理をして、びっくりしていた。みんなで山菜採りをしていると、動物に遭遇することも多かった。「マムシは出た、いっぱい。その時に、おいらは杖で頭をぎゅっと……」と辻谷さんは拳でマムシの頭を打つ真似をした。「河原でみんなで食べてな。女の子らは『もうないか、ないか？』と聞いて。で、『あんたら今食ったのはマムシやで』と言って！」。辻谷さんは思い出して笑った。
そんなふうに川上村で楽しく交流することが辻谷さんの目標だった。「何に人気があるか、何に魅力はあったか、おいらには分からんけどな」と彼ははっきり言ってくれた。逆に、彼は山の魅力をほかの人に聞いて、お互いの観点を知り合う。辻谷さんは昨年「たっちゃんクラブ」の最終回を開催したけど、先日話し合った時、その「自然を楽しみ、人類を愛す」心がまだ快活だった。僕らは家の敷地から山へ登り、山を少し歩いた。「そうか、エリック、マムシを食べとれへん、まだ？ 今年１回、マムシを食べさせなあかんな」と辻谷さんは笑い、山を登り続けた。
Vol.22 Tacchan, Enjoying Nature and Loving Humans
On a cold morning in mid March, I visited Tatsuo Tsujitani in the Kashiwagi district of Kawakami Village. We sat in the hori-gotatsu in his living room and drank warm kuzuyu. The 86-year-old Mr. Tsujitani was born and raised in Kashiwagi, and has lived in this house his whole life. Many people affectionately call him “Tacchan”. “It’s nothing but mountains, really,” Tacchan started to explain in his deep, warm voice. “But it’s these mountains that bring us clean water. This water is the most important thing for people, we’re all connected.” If you climb a little up the mountain behind his house, you enter the forest that continues all the way up to the top of the mountain. When he was a child, he would play with his friends in that forest and picked wild vegetables.
Having learned a lot in the forest, when Mr. Tsujitani graduated from junior high school, his farewell quote was “Enjoy nature and love humans.”. He worked in forestry for 50 years since the age of 15, and even at the age of 65, he still had a heart for enjoying nature and loving humans. Mr. Tsujitani wanted to do something so people from the city could interact with locals in our village and enjoy nature, so he started his “Tacchan Club” in 1999.
The Tacchan Club held monthly events where they made local food, observed the forests, or picked wild vegetables. It was so popular that they had to have a lottery to determine who could participate. “Everyone picked what they wanted to eat, I would sort through them all so they were safe, and we would fry them as tempura on the riverside,” he said. Kids from the city were surprised to build a fire from wood to cook, and not by just pressing a button on the stove. While everyone was picking wild vegetables, they would often run into animals. “There were mamushi vipers, a lot of them. When that happened, I’d take my cane and get their head…,” Mr. Tsujitani used his fist to imitate hitting a viper. “We’d all eat it on the riverside. The young girls would ask, ‘Is there anymore, is there anymore?’. So I said, ‘Hey, you know you guys just ate mamushi!’,” Mr. Tsujitani recalled and laughed.
Having that kind of fun and interaction in Kawakami was Mr. Tsujitani’s goal. “What’s popular, where the beauty is, I don’t know any of that,” he told me straight. Instead, he asks others where the beauty of the mountains is, and they learn one another’s perspectives. Mr. Tsujitani held the final Tacchan Club event last year, but when I spoke with him the other day, his heart that “enjoys nature and loves humans” was still very active. We climbed up to the mountain from his house and walked around some. “Oh really, Eric, you haven’t had mamushi yet? We’ll have to have you try it this year,” he laughed and climbed higher up the mountain.
