伝統精神の継承と年輩者の役割
(Inheritance of Tradition and the Role of Elders)

平成19年9月号掲載(Published in the September 2007 issue)

　今回の伊勢神宮式年遷宮における一日神領民としてのお木曳（きひき）行事の、まさに“大トリ”をつとめさせていただいた6月3日に続いて、去る7月29日、本教から43名の若者たちが「川曳（かわび）き」に参拝奉仕いたしました。この日は今回のお木曳行事の最終日で、教祖神以来のお伊勢様との特別なご縁をよく知る地元の方たちの熱い心で実現できた、まことに有り難い奉仕でした。昨年、そして今年と続けられたお木曳の締めくくりの日を受け持った伊勢市中村町桜が丘の皆さんがつとめる川曳きに、40名の特別枠をもらってのことでした。

Following June 3, when we were honored to serve as one-day shrine parishioners in Okihiki Gyōji お木曳行事　(timber-hauling ceremonies) of Ise Jingu’s Shikinen Sengū—taking part in the very “grand finale”—on July 29, forty-three young people from Kurozumikyō offered service in kawabiki 川曳き(river-hauling). That day marked the final event of this year’s Okihiki Gyōji, realized through the fervent devotion of local people who well understand the special bond with Ise since the Divine Founder. It was a truly grateful form of service.
Kawabiki was carried out by the people of Sakuragaoka, Nakamura Town in Ise City, who had taken responsibility for concluding Okihiki Gyoji both last year and this year. Kurozumikyō was given a special allotment of forty persons to join their service.

　川曳きというのは陸曳（おかび）きといわれる今まで奉仕してきたお木曳と同じように、御用材の木曽の檜（ひのき）の大木を奉曳（ほうえい）するのですが、これを五十鈴川に浮かせて、内宮の宇治橋のたもとまで流れに逆らいながら曳くわけで、浅瀬とはいえ急流の中でのことですから、若くなくてはできないなかなかの荒行です。

Kawabiki is, like okabiki 陸曳き (land-hauling) timber service we have performed before, a ritual of hauling great hinoki cypress logs from Kiso to be used as sacred materials. But here they are floated in the Isuzu River and pulled upstream against the current to the foot of the Uji Bridge of Naikū 内宮 (the Inner Shrine). Though the river is shallow, the current is swift, and so it is a demanding practice that only the young can undertake.

　一行は地元の人たち600余名と一緒に、陸曳きと同じように「エンヤー、エンヤー」のかけ声も勇ましく、時には首まで水につかりながらひたすらつとめました。宇治橋のところで陸に曳き上げて玉砂利の参道をしばらく曳いてから、揃って内宮の大御前に進んでの参拝となりました。

Our group joined more than six hundred local people, shouting the same vigorous “En-yā, En-yā” as in the land-hauling. At times they were immersed up to their necks in water, yet they carried out their duty with single-minded devotion. At Uji Bridge the logs were hauled ashore, then pulled along the gravel approach, and finally the whole group advanced together to worship before the Great Presence of Naikū.

　寒中にこの五十鈴川に腰までつかりながらいわゆる水垢離（みずごり）を取っての修行がありますが、真夏とはいえ五十鈴の清流にひたり、しかも御神木を曳き終えての参宮は格別のご神縁に結ばれ、えもいわれぬ清らかな感動に包まれたようです。副教主を団長にした八代宗芳ら若きお道づれにとって、深く心に残るものがあった川曳き参拝奉仕でした。とりわけ、副教主のように何組かの親子での奉仕もあったようですし、このときをのがさじと若いお父さんの勇姿を幼い子供たちに見せようと家族づれで参拝した人など、今の世の中で稀有（けう）な時を共にできた人たちは本当に幸せだと思います。

There is a practice of mizugori 水垢離 (water austerity) in which one immerses oneself in the Isuzu River up to the waist during the cold season. Even though this was midsummer, to enter the pure current of the Isuzu River and then proceed to worship after hauling the sacred timber was to be bound in a special divine connection, enveloped in an indescribable sense of purity and inspiration.
For the young companions led by the Vice Chief Patriarch and Muneyoshi, our eighth-generation heir, kawabiki service was a deeply memorable experience. In particular, there were cases of parents and children serving together, as with the Vice Chief Patriarch, and families who came so that young fathers could show their children their brave figures. Those who shared such a rare time in today’s world were truly blessed.

　“生の実体験”が少なくなっている今日です。テレビやインターネットはもとより、あらゆるところで進んだ文明の利器にとり囲まれた今日の日本人は、生きている、いや生かされて生きているという、身の震えるような感動を味わう場が少なくなってはいないでしょうか。はいた靴の裏から足の裏を掻（か）くようなことが多すぎて、生の、さらには身をえぐるような実体験が乏しくなっている時代なればこそ、このような時と場を若い人たちがいただいたことを尊く思います。

In our present age, “real lived experiences” have become fewer. Surrounded everywhere by advanced tools of civilization—television, the internet, and more—people in Japan today have fewer opportunities to taste the trembling emotion of being alive, or rather of being sustained in life. Too often it is like scratching the sole of the foot through the shoe. Precisely because raw, even piercing experiences are scarce in this era, it is precious that young people were able to receive such a time and place.

　しかも、国民という意識、自分が日本人であるという思いを実感しがたい雰囲気の今の世の中で、お伊勢様のこのような伝統行事にまさに身を投じての体験は、若い人たちの心に熱くも強いものを刻みこんだろうと思います。

In today’s world, where it is difficult to feel a true sense of being part of the nation or of being Japanese, to throw oneself into such a traditional event of Ise Jingu was surely an experience that engraved something strong and passionate in the hearts of the young people.

　過日、わざわざ副教主を訪ねて来て神道山に滞在した、平野哲哉というジュネーブの国連機関に勤める人との会話は、私にまた新たな熱いものを引き出してくれました。

The other day, a man named　Mr. Hirano Tetsuya, who works at a United Nations agency in Geneva, came especially to visit the Vice Chief Patriarch and stayed at Shintōzan. My conversation with him drew out in me yet another new and passionate feeling.

　かつて副教主が大学を終えて留学したロンドン大学での寮生活で、同室だった誼（よしみ）で訪ねて来た氏だけに、2人は寛（くつろ）いで話も随分はずんでいました。彼は外国での生活が長い分、日本人としての自覚は逆に強いものがあるようで、小学生の2人の子供を連れて日本に帰っては日本人としての心を植えつけるのに努めていると言い、次回は神道山での生活を子供たちに経験させたいと語っていました。

Because he had once been the Vice Chief Patriarch’s roommate during dormitory life at the University of London, where the Vice Chief Patriarch studied after graduation, the two were able to relax and enjoy lively conversation. Having lived abroad for many years, he seemed to have an even stronger sense of identity as a Japanese. He said that when he returns to Japan with his two elementary school children, he makes every effort to instill in them the heart of being Japanese, and he expressed his wish that next time he would let his children experience life at Shintōzan.

　このような人に会いますと、いまだにわが国は昔からの島国根性が抜けていないのかなという思いに駆られます。古来わが国は外国を見つめ、その良い所をとり、肌に合わないものは取り入れない、また入れても捨てることをくり返して来ました。それは海という大きな壁、距離のあるおかげでした。インドに誕生した仏教が中国、朝鮮半島を経（へ）て日本に伝わり、日本というよい土壌を得て花開いたことなどは最たることでしょう。科学技術による数々の製品も生まれたのは外国ですが、日本で完成度を高め、世界から持てはやされるようになっているのは周知の通りです。それだけ外国から見られる立場になっているにもかかわらず、昔ながらにこちらから見るだけで、広い意味での“人の目”を気にしないままで時を重ねてはいないでしょうか。

When I meet such people, I am driven to wonder whether our country still has not outgrown its old island-nation mentality. From ancient times, Japan has looked toward foreign lands, taking what was good, refusing what did not suit, and even discarding what had once been adopted. This was possible thanks to the great barrier of the sea and the distance it provided.
The transmission of Buddhism, born in India, through China and the Korean Peninsula to Japan, where it found fertile soil and blossomed, is a prime example. Many products of science and technology were first created abroad, but in Japan their perfection was refined until they became admired worldwide.
Yet even though we are now in a position of being observed by other countries, we still seem to spend time only looking outward ourselves, without truly caring about “the eyes of others” in the broader sense.

　情報化時代といわれる今の世界では、わが国を囲む四方の海はないにも等しいといえましょう。日本から見て地球の裏側のことも瞬時に分かるように、裏側の人もわが国のことが直ちに分かるわけです。平野氏は「真の日本人が真に世界に通じる人です。英語が話せるということが国際人というのではなくて、話の中味が肝心で、日本人の良き特質を体した人が初めて世界に通じるのです」と言い切りました。私は話を聞きながら昔ドイツの哲人が言った「真のドイツ人が真の世界人」というひとことを思い浮かべていました。

In today’s world of the information age, the seas surrounding our country are almost as if they did not exist. Just as we can instantly know what is happening on the far side of the globe, so too can people there immediately know about Japan.
Mr. Hirano declared: “A true Japanese is one who truly connects with the world. Being able to speak English does not make one international; what matters is the substance of what is said. Only those who embody the good qualities of the Japanese can truly connect with the world.”
As I listened, I recalled the words once spoken by a German philosopher: “A true German is a true world citizen.”

　本教にご縁の深い現代美術家高橋秀氏は、イタリアでの40年を超える生活体験から夫人桜女史とともに「秀桜留学基金」という名のもとに、多額の私費をもって若い美術家たちに外国生活の機会を与える制度を作られました。昨年誕生したこの基金で、この秋3名の美術家がそれぞれ希望の国へ出かけて行きます。世に言う「可愛（かわい）い子には旅をさせよ」ではありませんが、美術にいそしむ感性でもって、海外での生活を通じて日本を強く感じてほしいとの願いのもとに始められたものです。

Contemporary artist Prof. Takahashi Shū, who has deep ties to Kurozumikyō, together with his wife Mrs. Sakura, established the “Shu-Ou Foundation Study Abroad Award” out of their own resources, drawing on more than forty years of life experience in Italy. This fund, created last year, provides young artists with opportunities to live abroad, and this autumn three artists will each go to the country of their choice. It is not simply the saying “Send a beloved child on a journey,” but rather begun with the wish that, through life overseas and with the sensitivity devoted to art, they may come to feel Japan more strongly.

　私は高橋先生ご夫妻の日本を想（おも）う心、若者に期待する熱い心に感動しました。人生の先輩は後輩に身をもって範を垂れるとともに、若い人に伝統精神の核にふれる機会を与えることの大切を改めて思いました。

I was deeply moved by Prof. Takahashi and his wife’s heartfelt concern for Japan and their passionate expectations for young people. I was reminded anew of the importance of elders setting an example with their own lives, while also giving the young opportunities to touch the core of the spirit of tradition.

　それは同時に、伝統精神の継承をひとつの大きな使命とする本教のあり方を再認識する好機ともなりました。

At the same time, it became a valuable occasion to reaffirm the way of Kurozumikyō, which holds the inheritance of the spirit of tradition as one of its great missions.