“正反合”の世界
(The World of Thesis–Antithesis–Synthesis)

平成28年8月号掲載(Published August 2016)

　かねてじっ懇にしていただいています現代美術の大家・高橋秀、桜夫妻が、多額の私財を投じて始められた秀桜基金による海外留学制度が、予定通り１０年間、１０回をもってこの春に終了いたしました。

The distinguished contemporary artist Prof. Takahashi Shū and his wife Mrs. Sakura, with whom I have long enjoyed close friendship, devoted a large portion of their personal fortune to establish the Shūō Fund for overseas study. This program, planned for ten years and ten rounds, came to its conclusion this spring.

　全国から毎年２００名近くの若い美術家たちが応募し、最終的にしぼられた１０名が神道山に集い、名だたる美術評論家等の専門家も加わった選考委員会で３名が選ばれ、多くの留学費を戴いて各々が希望の国々へ出掛けて約１年間、特異な体験を積んできています。

Each year nearly 200 young artists from across Japan apply. From these, ten finalists gathered at Shintōzan 神道山, where a selection committee including renowned art critics and other experts chose three. These selected artists received generous support for study abroad, and each spent about a year in their chosen countries, gaining unique experiences.

　「それぞれの国に出掛けたら、自分の制作のことは離れて“遊んで来い”。遊ぶということは、とらわれのない本当の心の自由を得ることだ。そういう中で日本人として日本を感じてきてほしい」。いつも高橋秀氏が、贈呈式の度に彼ら彼女たちに与えられたはなむけの言葉です。

　これは、若くして安井賞という文学でいえば芥川賞に当たる大きな賞を受けながら、その賞の余慶に与ることを快しとせず、敢然と日本を離れてイタリアに渡り、以来４０余年、彼の地で画業に勤しんできた氏にして言える言葉でした。外国から見続けてきた、わが国日本の現状を憂えるいわば憂国の思いがなさしめたこの留学基金でした。世に言う“孝行したい時には親はなし”また“病んで後初めて健康の価値を知る”で、イタリアという日本を遠く離れたところで日本を強く感じたご自身の体験が元となっていました。しかも氏は、イタリアに行って１年間、絵筆を持たない生活に終始されたのです。絵描きに絵を描くなとは、ある意味で死ねと言われたに等しい状況に自らを追い込んだのでした。

“Once you go abroad, leave aside your own production and simply play. To play means to gain true freedom of the heart, free from all constraints. In that freedom, I want you to feel Japan as Japanese.”

These were always the words of encouragement that Prof. Takahashi Shū gave to the young artists at each award ceremony. They carried special weight, for he himself, though young, had won the prestigious Yasui Prize—comparable in literature to the Akutagawa Prize (a prestigious literature prize of Japan)—yet refused to rest on its honor. Instead, he boldly left Japan for Italy, where he devoted himself to painting for more than forty years.

This study‑abroad fund was born of his deep concern for Japan, seen from afar. It was inspired by his own experience: the old saying goes, “When you wish to be filial, your parents are no longer there,” and “Only after illness do we realize the value of health.” In the same way, living far away in Italy, he strongly felt Japan’s essence.

Moreover, during his first year in Italy, he deliberately refrained from touching a paintbrush at all. For a painter to be told not to paint is, in a sense, to be told to die. He thrust himself into that extreme situation by choice.

　その１年後に生まれた作品は、絞り込んだばねが弾けるように、明るくもたくましい生命力に充ちたものになりました。日本では、どちらかといえば暗い感じの作風が、底ぬけの明るいものに激変しました。

The works born a year later burst forth like a compressed spring released, filled with bright and vigorous vitality. What had once been a rather somber style in Japan transformed dramatically into one of boundless brightness.

　このことこそ「まること」で、極端な所に自らを立たせることによって逆にぐるっと廻って対極ともいえる所が見えて来る、もって全体を掴むことができるという天地自然の道理を具現されたのです。それだけ、広い世界を自らのものにしたということです。教祖神の説かれる
　海あれば山もありつる世の中にせまき心をもつな人々（御歌八四号）
のところです。

This, indeed, was the realization of marukoto まること (round wholeness)— by placing oneself at an extreme, one comes full circle to perceive the opposite, thereby grasping the whole. It was the embodiment of the natural principle of heaven and earth, and it meant that he had made the wider world truly his own.
As the Founder taught:
Where there is sea, there is also mountain; in such a world, let people not hold narrow hearts. (Outa No. 84)

　この御神詠に関して私はかねて申し上げていることですが、霊地神道山が深山幽谷の趣を持っていると言われるのは、大教殿を中心に西側や北側に急峻な崖があって深い谷が控えているからだと思っています。最も高い所の「日拝どころ」でも海抜１２０ｍほどですから、山というより丘陵地に近い神道山です。谷深ければ山高しで、しかも古代吉備王国以来、神南備山と崇められてきた“吉備の中山”の東南に位置する神道山です。

Regarding this divine poem, I have often remarked that Shintōzan (“Mount Shintō”) is said to possess the atmosphere of deep mountains and secluded valleys because, around Daikyōden 大教殿 (the Main Shrine) at its center, steep cliffs rise to the west and north, with deep valleys lying beyond. Even at the highest point, the Nippai 日拝 (sunrise worship) site reaches only about 120 meters above sea level, making Shintōzan closer to a hill than a mountain.
Yet, as the saying goes, “The deeper the valley, the higher the mountain.” Shintōzan lies to the southeast of Kibi no Nakayama (“Mount Nakayama of Kibi”), revered since the ancient Kibi Kingdom (c. 2-5 century C.E.) as a kannabi‑yama 神南備山 (a “divine dwelling mountain”), a sacred mountain where the divine spirit dwells.

　ところで、本誌の６月号で紹介いたしましたように、私は、去る３月７日に除幕式をつとめた、天台宗の故葉上照澄先生の顕彰碑の碑文を書かせていただきました。ここに記していますように、先生は先の大戦の終戦直後に比叡山に登り、千日回峰という極めて厳しい修行に入られました。特にその最終段階では、９日間、不眠不休不臥、断食断水して祈り続ける行も完遂されましたが、それはご自分の死臭が迫ってくるほど苛酷なものでした。この９日間の修行中、午前２時に標高８００ｍの修行堂から出て、仏様に供える水を汲みに行くのですが、“その時の空気のおいしかったこと。仙人がかすみを食って生きるとはこのことかと思った”と述懐されていました。

As I mentioned in the June issue of this journal, I was honored to compose the inscription for the memorial monument of the late Tendai master Hagami Shōchō, unveiled on March 7. As recorded there, immediately after the end of the war he ascended Mount Hiei and entered the extremely severe practice of the thousand‑day kaihōgyō 回峰行 (extreme ascetic practices of pilgrimage walk on Mount Hiei).
In its final stage, he completed the nine‑day ordeal of continuous prayer without sleep, rest, food, or water. It was so harsh that he felt the very odor of death approaching. During those nine days, at 2 a.m. he would leave the training hall at an altitude of 800 meters to fetch water for offering to the Buddha. He later recalled: “How delicious the air was then. I thought, this must be what it means when hermit sages live by eating mist.”

　死の渕に自らを追い込むことによって、反対に生の有り難さ、いのちの尊さを強烈に体得されるところとなったのでした。まさにいのちの“正反合”の実体験でした。

By driving himself to the brink of death, he came to realize all the more vividly the preciousness of life. It was truly a lived experience of life’s thesis–antithesis–synthesis.

　それは、本教の立教につながる教祖神のお若き頃の大病においても言えることです。

This can also be said of the Divine Founder’s own youth, when he was struck by serious illness leading to the revelation of our faith.

　人一倍ご両親思いの強い方であっただけに、御二方の流行病による突然のしかも相次ぐご昇天は、宗忠様をして悲しみのどん底に突き落としてしまいました。ついには労咳（肺結核）に倒れられ、１年余りの静養もむなしく、いよいよ生死の渕に立つところまで追い込まれました。静かに死を覚悟された宗忠様でしたが、せめて最後にお日様にお別れのご拝をしようと、家人に頼んでお日の出の拝むことのできる縁側に抱いて出していただかれました。この御日拝こそ孝心のなせるところです。幼い頃よりご両親と共に毎朝手を合わせてきた御日拝が、御自らが「おかげをいただく」時となりました。このどん底の所から「うす紙をへぐように」に日一日と本復に向かわれたのです。その年、文化１１年（１８１４）１１月１１日（旧暦）の冬至の日、大感激の中にお日の出のお日様とご一体になり、神人一体の場にお立ちになりました。

Deeply devoted to his parents, Divine Munetada was cast into the depths of grief when both suddenly passed away from epidemic disease. Soon after, he himself collapsed with tuberculosis. More than a year of convalescence proved in vain, and he was driven to the brink of death. Quietly resigning himself to die, he asked his family to carry him to the veranda where he could bid farewell to the rising sun. This act of Nippai (sunrise worship) was born of filial piety. Since childhood he had joined his parents in daily morning worship of the sun, and now, at this final moment, it became the occasion of receiving divine grace.

From that lowest point, his recovery advanced “as if peeling away thin layers of paper” day by day. On the 11th day of the 11th month of the 11th year of Bunka 11 (1814, lunar calendar), the winter solstice, he was overwhelmed with joy as he became one with the rising sun. At that moment he stood in the unity of God and man.

　それからの教祖宗忠神としての３０有６年間、数ある宗教の教祖、開祖の中でも「有り難い」の一言をここまで唱え、記し、体現された方はないといわれるほど、陽気で感謝に満ちた歳月を重ねられたのです。

For the thirty‑six years that followed, as he lived as the Divine Founder Munetada, no other religious leader is said to have spoken, written, and embodied the single word “arigatai 有り難い” (“grateful”) to such an extent. His life was filled with cheerfulness and gratitude.

　「難有り、有り難し」「難を受け損にすな」をはじめ、陰極まって陽に転ずる冬至の有り難さを説かれるなど、いわばマイナスの生むプラスこそ本当のプラスであることを身をもって教えて下さっています。

He taught: “Difficulty is gratitude” (Nan ari, arigatashi 難有り、有り難し), and “Do not take hardship as loss.” He also proclaimed the blessing of the winter solstice, when the extreme of darkness turns to light. In this way, he showed by his own life that the true positive is born from the negative.

　本教の明治時代の先輩方は、道の友が病に倒れると“おめでとう”と言って拍手を打って激励したと伝えられています。その病が重ければ重いほど、ご神徳の有り難さ、生かされて生きている真実の奥深いところを体取することができて、その感動の中に本復のおかげを受けることができるということを、お互いに確信していたからです。

In the Meiji era (1868-1912), it is said that when a fellow believer fell ill, the seniors of our faith would clap their hands and say “Congratulations!” to encourage them. The heavier the illness, the deeper the realization of divine grace and the truth of being kept alive. In that profound emotion, they were confident that recovery would follow.

　今日の私たちが学ぶべきところを、高橋秀氏夫妻の人生に見、葉上照澄先生に教えられ、あらためて教祖神はもとより御道の先輩方のすごさに頭を垂れることです。

Today, we too must learn from such examples. We see it in the lives of Prof. Takahashi Shū and his wife, in the teaching of Ven. Hagami Shōchō, and above all, in the Founder and the remarkable seniors of our Way. To them we bow our heads in reverence.