「麻疹退治」「ほたる狩」
高宮、藤関医院院長の藤関義樹さんの浮世絵コレクション第二弾を高宮駅にやっと観に行くことができました。展示が前回は目の高さにあって見やすかったのですが、花火の写真に場所を取られて今回は下の方にあって鑑賞するのに残念でしたが、木版画二枚を見せてくださっています。「麻疹退治（はしかたいじ）」と「ほたる狩」です。
藤関さんの解説によると、新型コロナウイルスのような疫病は過去に何度も訪れたとのこと。そしてその対処方法や呪いが錦絵として発刊されたそうです。あばただらけの麻疹童子（酒呑童子のパロディか）が禁物とされる房時、入浴、お酒などにやっつけられている様子が描かれています。
もう一枚は江戸時代、飛鳥山から流れる音無川はほたるの名所で根岸の里でホタル狩りに興じる人たちが描かれています。このあたりは江戸の中心部から外れて自然豊かなところで古くから文人墨客の別宅や隠居所があったと藤関さんの解説は続きます。ほたるが風船のように描かれたり尻餅つきながら川でほたるを追っているのが愉快です。
前の「麻疹退治」ですが、例えば桃太郎が英雄となって鬼退治をするのはよくある絵ですが、こちらは禁物とされる様々なものが疫病をやっつけている絵で何か不思議です。疫病を退治する英雄が分からないからでしょうか。それなら今回も現時点では何がコロナを退治するか分からないというところは同じですね。
I finally made a visit to the Ukiyoe exhibition of Dr. Yoshiki Fujiseki’s collection who is a director of Fujiseki Clinic in Takamiya. The last time when I visited for the first exhibit, it was displayed at the level of one’s eyes but this time the place was taken by photos of fireworks and the exhibitions were placed much lower which I needed to crouch down to look at. Anyhow, I could appreciate two woodprints. They were “Extermination of Measles” and “Firefly Hunting”. According to Dr. Fujisdki’s explanation, Japanese people suffered from infectious disease several times in the past and every time when it happened the coping method or curse were published in color wood print. The boy who has pockmarks in his body （might be a parody of Shuten-dooji :mythical Japanese demon) is being attacked by several prohibitions such as sexual indulgence, bathing, drinking, and so on. The other one is people are enjoying catching fireflies at the riverside of Otonashi-river which is famous for viewing fireflies in the Edo period. This area is away from the center of Edo (Tokyo) with a natural environment, so many writers and artists had their second houses or retirement houses. That’s what Dr. Fujiseki explained. It’s funny to look at how the lights were drawn like bubbles and man tries to catch fireflies even though he fell on his backside in the river. I often saw drawings of heroes beating the bad guys, but I feel strange to look at this because many prohibitions are beating the boy and heroes don’t appear at all. I guess nobody didn’t know who the hero was then. It is quite the same situation at present. Nobody knows what is the best thing to beat coronavirus.
2020/07/13
