天神祭本宮の日に (On the Culmination of Tenjin Festival)

　さる7月25日、帝国ホテル大阪1階ロビーラウンジ「ザ・パーク」で、スウェーデンから来日して京都に滞在中の C さん夫妻とその幼い息子さんに会い、楽しいひと時を過ごした。当日は天神祭の本宮の日で、夕方から花火が打ち上げられるのを見ようと、ホテル周辺の大阪アメニティーパークは、午後の早いうちから人出が多かった。写真は帰途、源八橋から祭りの雰囲気が漂う大川の両岸を撮ったもの（2枚目は1枚目のすぐ右に続く）。

　芸術を通しての社会運動の研究をしている C・C さんに、私は1960年代に盛んだった「うたごえ運動」や戦争中に弾圧を受けた演劇運動のことを少し話したが、知識が不足だったので、後日メールで関連のウェブサイトなどを知らせた。彼からは、「野戦之月」という演劇グループのことなどを教えて貰った。彼が京都の粟嶋堂で見た人形供養について記したブログ記事も面白く、「他の愛用品とはどういう別れをするのだろうか」という文末の疑問に応えて、私は思いつくだけの品々についての供養をコメント欄に記した。

On July 25, I had a lovely time in the lobby lounge "The Park" of the Imperial Hotel Osaka by meeting Mr. and Ms. C. and their infant son, who had come from Sweden and were staying in Kyoto. It was the culmination of Tenjin Festival that day, and Osaka Amenity Park around the hotel were pretty crowded from the early afternoon with people coming to see the evening fireworks. The above photos show the view, as seen from Genpachi Bridge, around Okawa River filled with the mood of festival (the lower photo shows the landscape just to the right of the upper one).

Mr. C. is studying about social movements by means of arts. So I told him a little bit about utagoe-undo (the song movement) most active in the 1960th and theater movements suppressed by the Government during the World War II. However, I lacked detailed knowledge, so that I wrote him later about more about those by email with the citations of some Web sites. He told me about the theatrical troupe Yasen no tsuki. I also enjoyed his blog post on ningyō kuyō (memorial service for dolls) about which he learned at Awashimadō Temple in Kyoto. He wrote at the end of the post, "How do people part with other things they have loved?" In reply to this, I listed kuyō for different things I thought of in the comment column.