(日本語は下にあります)
Freedom of travel has been put on hold. Unlike other natural disasters, conflicts, and unrest that may occur in one corner of the globe, the coronavirus pandemic has touched us all, wherever we live in the world, since it began in 2020. We are all in the same boat. Perhaps Shitamichi Motoyuki saw this change coming. Last year, he gave up travel—a driving force of his work—and chose to settle down in a new place: the islands of the Seto Inland Sea. He saw these islands as waypoints to create connections via the sea rather than fortresses isolated by the sea.
He is an observer of landscapes in his travels, and through his fieldwork, he has continued to document the people, customs, and local histories at his destinations. These encounters have led him to develop a cultural anthropological approach in his creative process. In this article, I trace the chronological trajectory of Shitamichi’s career, how he has transitioned from traveling observer to permanent resident, and what he can see from his new home.
Travel
Shitamichi first came across ruins from the Second World War in 2001 on the outskirts of Tokyo. They were part of a former military aircraft engine manufacturing plant destroyed over the course of three air raids in 1945, which left the structure pocked with bullet holes. This encounter precipitated his series Remnants (2001-2005), in which he traveled Japan to document how these scorched landscapes had been forgotten, covered by layer after layer of reconstruction, urbanization, and modernization. True to its name, his series is a record of the scant remnants of war that remain in inhabited areas around Japan. Shitamichi began to search for the vestiges of the war, finding crude concrete hangars and batteries in today’s flat and uniform landscapes: behind houses, on hills that have since become parks, in the corners of housing complexes built to accommodate the influx of people into the city during the postwar economic boom. It was as if a crack had opened up in the space-time continuum.
His pursuit of war remains eventually expanded beyond Japan. In his subsequent series, Torii (2006-2012), Shitamichi traveled to find forgotten torii gates from the Japanese colonial era. Taiwan was under Japanese colonial rule from 1895 to 1945, having been ceded to Japan from the Qing dynasty of China after its victory in the Sino-Japanese War (1894–95). Similarly, the southern part of Sakhalin Island below the 50th parallel was ceded from the Russian Empire in accordance with the Treaty of Portsmouth following the Russo-Japanese War (1904–05) and was under Japanese rule from 1905 to 1945. After Germany’s defeat in World War I resulted in the loss of its colonies, Japan was among the nations who emerged victorious and was awarded the South Seas Mandate, which included Saipan and Tinian Island. Both islands remained under Japanese control until 1945. Countless shrines were erected in occupied Asian territories, which were often forced to adopt the Japanese language, belief system, and way of life. After the end of the war in 1945, many torii gates, which symbolized Japanese oppression, were destroyed, yet some remain due to the sheer durability of the concrete construction material. Shitamichi set out to track down these remaining torii. In a graveyard in Saipan where a cross now stands. On a verdant subtropical hillside in Taipei. In the vegetation of Tinian Island. On the hills of Sakhalin, Russia. In Changchun, China, a torii still serves as the gate to a street lined with houses. In Taichung, Taiwan, a torii was knocked down and took on a second life as a park bench.
Christianity, though introduced to Japan in the middle of the 16th century, was banned less than a century later. Japan subsequently experienced 200 years of isolation, only reopening its doors to the world with Commodore Matthew Perry’s arrival from the United States in 1854. Perry (1794-1858) became the commander of the East India Squadron after a remarkable victory as the captain of the frigate USS Mississippi during the Mexican-American War (1846-48). Aboard the Mississippi, he led his new fleet to Singapore, Hong Kong, and Okinawa before arriving in Uraga to force the opening of Japanese ports to US trade. America had its sights set on sea routes from the Caribbean to Asia through gunboat diplomacy and military force, a path that Japan would soon follow, exerting an ever-growing desire for conquest through several wars of its own. Japan built sugar plantations and torii on Tinian, which became a brutal battlefield during World War II. When the United States took control of the island in 1944, it became a major military base for air raids on Japan. In fact, the B-29s that dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki departed from Tinian Island.
Remnants and Torii together make up a ten-year documentary that explores a deep interest in Japanese colonial rule. However, I should emphasize that Shitamichi’s works on these past wars are much more than just a record of events. His photographs possess an intricate aesthetic composition and modern perspective that reflect on Japan’s colonial past without the express purpose of criticizing it. Yet his research on the ruins of war reveals a negative legacy. He saw the vitality of nature in the lush grasses that reclaim the earth from military aspirations and the ingenuity of current inhabitants, who repurposed ruins in vernacular ways. The torii he found were covered in verdant subtropical vegetation. Hangars were transformed into dwellings and storage units. Anti-aircraft batteries are now flower beds and monkey parks. Shitamichi turned his gaze to how the imagination and tenacity of both people and nature have helped overcome the destruction and oppression of the past.
Stone Age
When the Apollo 11 lunar module brought the first moon rocks back to Earth in July 1969, Horikawa Michio turned his gaze to the river rocks in his hometown. A founding member of the contemporary art collective Group Ultra Niigata (GUN) and junior high school teacher at the time, he took his students to collect rocks from the Shinano River and create stone mail art, in which he sent people terrestrial rocks through the postal service. The postal workers did their job in good faith and delivered these strange gifts as requested by the sender. These fragments of the Earth gave their recipients an opportunity to think about the vastness of Earth, now trapped in a palm-sized stone, and the vast amounts of time it took to create it.
Like Horikawa, Shitamichi too has been captivated by the stones of the Earth. But it wasn’t until 2011, after the Great East Japan Earthquake, that his interests shifted from recording concrete—an artificial stone that comprises many torii and war ruins—to recording natural stones in the landscape. Creators were left speechless and tragically aware of nature’s overwhelming power in the wake of the landscapes destroyed by the massive earthquake and tsunami that followed. Despite the frequency of his travels, Shitamichi was still based in Tokyo, but the earthquake caused him to have doubts about living in a city that left him isolated from a relationship with nature. On one of his journeys, he came across the tsunami stones of the Miyako and Yaeyama Islands. As the name suggests, these stones are megaliths ejected from the depths of the sea and deposited onto the land by a tsunami. They are frequently found in the Miyako and Yaeyama Islands around the southernmost tip of Japan. The coral reefs here petrify into rocky reefs and are pushed out onto land by large waves in 600-year cycles to form a surreal coastline that is shaped by the same oceanic forces that caused the catastrophic disaster of the Great East Japan Earthquake. These giant boulders, heaved onto the land by a power far greater than human, are worshiped as gods and are used as breeding grounds for migratory birds. They gave Shitamichi a chance to ponder an ancient relationship between humans and nature. Tsunami Stone (2015–) is a series of videos that suggest these giant, windswept stones, which seem infinitely immobile on a human scale of time, do, in fact, move and steadily change on a global scale.
Born in Hanamaki, Iwate, Kenji Miyazawa published only two books during his short 37-year lifetime. He was fascinated not only by animals but also by volcanoes and stones, whose voices he borrowed in his poetry and fairy tales. Cultural anthropologist and critic Ryuta Imafuku reads Kenji’s unfinished drafts and notes the importance of his wisdom in modern society as a tool of deeply speculative self-projection onto inanimate objects like rocks. “Interacting with rocks and stones is a dialogue with the record of life hidden within oneself,” he says.* He also points out that Kenji’s writings are “a rare attempt to approach the world of intrinsic realities in inanimate objects that humans cannot see or hear. He does this as much as humanly possible through the structure of fictional narratives.”** Shitamichi humbly heeds the voices of the tsunami stones, which have seen evolution over eons beyond the scale of human time. And his point of view changes with his travels, bearing witness to the remnants of history. Shitamichi has said, “A stone, like a small planet, is a fragment of the universe, yet at the same time, it traps the universe inside it.”*** While his realization here is full of insight, he also thinks about the world from the stone’s perspective. A stone has witnessed the history of the Earth’s transformation, the source of so much destruction. Through it, we can see the pressing global issues that confront us: global warming, environmental degradation, even a more sustainable future after the pandemic. The stone voices heard on the islands resonate with the stone voices that so fascinated Kenji in Iwate.
An Island for Settling Down
Shitamichi decided to move to another set of islands, this time to settle down and embark on a new long-term work, one that would focus on the memories that exist on a scale he saw in the stones, far beyond any human timeline.
The Setouchi ” ” Archive, which Shitamichi began in 2019 on the island of Naoshima in Kagawa Prefecture, may not be your typical artwork. Shitamichi announced that he was planning to remodel and operate an island archive at a place known as Miyanoura Gallery 6 Ward, which sits the former site of the only pachinko parlor on the island. Through renovations like putting in large glass windows to allow visitors to see the park next door, he aimed to create a place that was both visually and structurally open to the community. Playing the dual role of director and curator, Shitamichi not only selects the themes for exhibitions related to the island, but he also delves deep into their research, collecting materials and publishing his findings to create and preserve an archive that is accessible to everyone. The exhibitions unfold as a series of interdisciplinary projects related to the memory and history of the islands and the lives of the people who call them home, in a collaboration between himself and local islanders. For Shitamichi, the process of drawing out memories from the islanders is also a process of coming to understand the islands for himself. His first exhibition at the Setouchi ” ” Archive featured the life of Midorikawa Yoichi (1915-2001), a dentist and photographer from Okayama Prefecture who captured many scenes of the Seto Inland Sea. Midorikawa’s production notes, negatives, and prints, all donated by his family, were on display, presenting in a new light the achievements of a local photographer who had begun to fade from people’s memories. The landscapes he photographed and the oral histories of the people who knew him have now been published and recorded through this culture center-cum-archive. The archive has become a device for documenting a region facing depopulation, but Shitamichi’s documentation differs from that of the photographer who captures a scene with their camera.
Wherever he goes, Shitamichi researches, travels, records, and presents his findings. Rather than appropriate the memories of others, which is always a danger lurking in this process, Shitamichi replants and shares memories that are increasingly forgotten. And he is taking his time to carry out this search. The Setouchi ” ” Archive aims to be a place of experimentation, a place for collecting and preserving memories, not focused solely on objects, but creating a space where both creators and residents—who also serve as the audience—can share pressing local issues and sentimental emotions.
In the 1990s, a new curation methodology invited the public to join the conversation. Participatory projects sprung up around the world, due in part to an increasing number of international exhibitions that sought involvement with regional and local communities. Shitamichi is now attempting to practice a more sustainable methodology in his projects by becoming a permanent resident, putting himself on the same footing as the people he is documenting. Susan Sontag also touched on this in a magazine interview. “A good rule before one goes marching or singing anything: Wherever your tug of sympathy, you have no right to a public opinion unless you’ve been there, experienced firsthand and on the ground and for some considerable time the country, war, injustice, wherever, you are talking about.” ****
Today, in a world so divided into “heres” and “theres,” it can be difficult for us to try and imagine what others are going through elsewhere. Shitamichi avoids positioning himself in the overlapping labels of “here” or “there” that pit one perspective against another. Instead, he lives on the islands, continuing to listen and record everyday conversations, in any number of ways, to gain the freedom to interpret and document the past.
Kamiya Yukie ( Gallery Director, Japan Society, New York)
*Imafuku Ryuta. Miyazawa Kenji: Dekunobono Eichi. (“Miyazawa Kenji: The Wisdom of a Nobody”) 2019, Shinchosha, p.158.
** Ibid., p. 26
***Shitamichi Motoyuki. “New Stone Tools.” http://m-shitamichi.com/newstone
Shitamichi, Motoyuki, “New Stone Tools.” http://m-shitamichi.com/newstone
****Susan Sontag. “Waiting for Godot in Sarajevo,” in
Where the Stress Fall s, ed. 1. Susan Sontag (UK: Jonathan Cope, 2002), p. 298
『移動から定住へ 下道基行が続ける「記録」という行為』
旅をする自由は今、一時停止している。これまでのように世界のどこかで限定的に起こる震災、紛争、事件ではなく、2020年に始まったパンデミックは、世界のどこにあっても私たちの日常、社会に同様に起こり、私たちは事態の渦中に例外なく身を置かざるを得なくなった。そうして急変する事態を予期していたかのように、下道は制作の機動力となってきた「移動」を止め、新たな「定住の地」に移り住んでいた。瀬戸内に囲まれた島に。島は海によって隔たれた要塞というより、海を介してあらゆる土地と他者とに繋がる想像力を下道に与えた。
移動することで見えてくる風景の観察者となってフィールドワークを重ね、人々の生活、習慣、土地の歴史を記録し、そうした出会いを契機に作品制作を展開する文化人類学的思考を下道は展開させてきた。写真機を携え移動する観察者から定住者へと移行する彼のプロジェクトの軌跡と、そこから見ているものを本稿で辿ってみる。
＜旅＞
下道は2001年、東京の郊外に残っていた戦争の痕跡に遭遇した。それは1945年に受けた３度の空襲で大破し無数の弾痕を残した、軍用機のエンジンの元製造工場の一部だった。これを契機に日本中を巡り制作したシリーズ作品《戦争のかたち》（2001-2005）は、焦土と化した戦後の風景が、復興、都市化、近代化という重層的なレイヤーに覆われていく忘却の中で、生活空間にかろうじて残っていた戦争遺構を収めた記録である。のっぺりした均一の風景の中-高度成長期に都市に流れ込む人々を受け入れるべく建設された団地の片隅、民家の脇や裏手の畑、公園となった高台–に時空の亀裂が開いたように、無骨な姿を留めた格納庫、砲台といった戦争の遺産を、下道は探し移動をはじめた。
戦争の痕跡を追っての移動は、さらに海を渡っての旅へとなった。続く《Torii》（2006-2012）のシリーズで下道は日本統治時代の忘形見である神社の鳥居を見つける旅をする。日清戦争(1894-95)の勝利によって中国・清王朝から獲得した台湾(日本統治期間1895-1945)、日露戦争後、ポーツマス条約によってロシア帝国から割譲された北緯50度以南の樺太島・サハリン(日本統治期間1905-1945)、第一次世界大戦に敗北したドイツがすべて失うことになった植民地から、戦勝国の一つであった日本の委任統治となった南洋諸島、サイパン島そしてテニアン島（日本統治期間1920- 1945）。日本の思想、偶像信仰、言葉を強いたアジア地域の占領地に多くの神社が建立された。1945年の大戦終了後、日本統治を象徴する鳥居は破壊されていくが、コンクリート製の堅牢さゆえ、なお残る鳥居のある風景を下道は追った。サイパンでは十字架の掲げられた墓地の中に。台湾・新北では亜熱帯の緑が広がる山腹に。テニアン島の潅木の林、ロシア・サハリンの高台、中国・長春では民家の並ぶ通りをまたいで門となり、台湾・台中では公園となった場所に倒され、ベンチとなり第２の人生を歩んでいた。
16世紀半ばに伝えられたキリスト教が１世紀を経ずして禁教となり、200年以上鎖国の続いた日本は、1854年アメリカからペリーの来航で再び国の扉を開いた。ペリー（1794-1858）はアメリカ-メキシコ戦争(1846-48)でフリーゲート艦ミシシッピー号の艦長として目覚ましい戦勝をあげた後、東インド艦隊司令長官に就き、同じミシシッピー号を擁する艦隊を率いてシンガポール、香港、沖縄を経て浦賀に開国を求めてやってきた。カリブ海からアジアへと向けられたアメリカの軍事的占領の道筋となった海路を、間もなくして日本は辿るように、複数の戦争を通じて占領の欲望を広げていく。日本が統治し、砂糖栽培を行い、鳥居を作ったテニアン島は、第二次世界大戦時の激戦地となり、1944年アメリカの手に渡ると日本空襲の軍事基地となった。広島へ長崎へ原子爆弾を抱えて飛来したB-29はそのテニアン島から出発した。
《戦争のかたち》《Torii》２つのシリーズは、日本統治について関心を深く傾け、10年以上費やしたドキュメンタリーである。けれど、過去の戦争をめぐる下道の作品で重視されるべきは、彼の撮る写真に単なる記録以上の美学的な構成力と、現代に向けられた視点が宿っており、植民地支配を顧み、批判する目的に留まっていないことだ。戦争遺構のリサーチから彼が見つけたのは、これら負の遺産、兵どもの夢の跡を覆う青々とした夏草の生命力であり、現代の住人たちによりバナキュラーナーな用途へと遂げた変化である。鳥居は亜熱帯の繁殖力旺盛な緑に覆われ、格納庫は倉庫に、住居に、砲台は花壇や動物園の猿山へと姿を変えた。下道の視点は、過去の破壊と占領を、自然、また市井の人々の想像力と逞しさがどう乗り越えてきたかへ向けられる。
＜石の時間＞
1969年、人類初めての月面着陸を果たしたアポロ11号が「月の石」を持ち帰った。地球にも石はある、「新潟現代美術集団(GUN)」(1967結成)の設立メンバーである堀川紀夫は、月から故郷の河原に目を転じた。教鞭をとっていた中学校の生徒たちと信濃川の河川敷で「地球の石」を拾い、これを郵送するメールアートを始めた。郵便局員は誠実に職務を全うしこの奇妙な贈り物を送り主の依頼通りに届けた。堀川の送った地球の断片に、受け主は手のひら大の石に閉じ込められた大地の広がりと、生成にかかった壮大な時間に想いを馳せる機会を与えられた。
下道も地球の石に魅せられたひとりだ。彼がコンクリートという人工の石−戦争遺構あり鳥居−のある風景から自然石に関心と記録の対象を移していくのは、2011年、東日本大震災以降のことだ。大地震とそれに続く津波が破壊した風景は、表現者たちの声をも飲み込む圧倒的な自然の力を私たちに知らしめた。東京を拠点にしながら活動を続けていた下道だったが、震災により自然との関係性から隔絶された都市での生活に疑いを向けた。その中で彼が出会ったのが宮古・八重山諸島の「津波石」だ。その名の通り、津波が海の奥底から押し上げ、陸地に運び込んだ巨石で、日本の最南端、宮古・八重山諸島に多く存在している。この辺りではサンゴ礁が石化して岩礁になり、これが600年といわれるサイクルで大波に押し出され陸に顔を出す。東日本大震災で起こった壊滅的な災害で目の当たりにした同じ海の力は、日本の南端の島沿岸に一種シュールレアルな風景を作ってきた。人為を超えた力でしか移動の叶わない、陸地に押し上げられた巨石は、神宿るものとして崇められ、行き来する渡り鳥を迎え入れる繁殖地となっている。石は、自然と人間の間に長い長い時間築かれてきた関係に想いを巡らす契機を下道に与えた。《津波石》(2015-)は人間の時間からは未来永劫動かないように見える巨石が、地球尺度の時間では確実に動き、変化していることを示唆すべく、海を渡る風とともに動画での記録に収められている。
岩手・花巻に生まれ、37年の短い生涯をこの地で閉じた宮沢賢治は、生前２冊の本を自主出版したに留まったが、動物だけでなく、火山や石に魅せられ、その声を借りて詩や童話を編んだ。文化人類学者で評論家の今福龍太は、賢治の未完の草稿を読み解き、石のような無生物に対して、深く思索的な自己投影の心を持つ彼の叡智の、現代社会における重要性に注目する。「岩や石と対話することは、自己の内部に秘められた種的な生命記録との対話」*であり、賢治の創作は「人間が見ることも聞くこともできない実在物の内在的リアリティーの世界に、物語という仮構を通じて可能な限り接近しようとする稀有の試み」**と指摘する。下道は人間の時間を超えた気の遠くなるような長い時間に起こった変化を見つめてきた津波石の声に、謙虚に耳を傾けようとする。そして自身が旅することで歴史の痕跡を目撃しようとすることから、彼の視点は転換する。「小さな惑星のような石ころは、宇宙の欠片であると同時に、その内側に無限の宇宙を閉じ込めている」***という下道の気づきは、豊かさを与える一方、破壊の力の源となる大地の変転の歴史を目撃し続けてきた石の視点で、私たちの身の回りで起こっている緊急かつ普遍的な生物の課題–温暖化や環境破壊、さらにパンデミックを経験し今後の持続可能な世界–について思考を向ける。島で聞いた石の声は、岩手の地で賢治を魅了した石の声に共鳴している。
＜定住の島＞
島で石が見つめてきた、人間の時間を超える記憶に想いを巡らし、続いて下道は新たに長期的な作品に着手するため別の島への移り住むことを決めた。
下道が香川県直島で始動した《瀬戸内「 」資料館》（2019—）は、美術家の作品というには少し風変わりと見えるかもしれない。島で唯一のパチンコ店跡を改装し『宮浦ギャラリー６区』として起動していた場所を、島の資料館として下道が企画・運営に乗り出すというのだ。隣接する公園がガラス窓から見えるようさらなる手が加えられ、視覚的、構造的にも地域に開かれた場所を目指した。館長と学芸員の二役を担うべく、島に関する展覧会のテーマを選び、これを掘り下げリサーチし、資料を集め、展示・公開し、閲覧可能なアーカイブを作り保存する。島に定住し、その土地の記憶と歴史、島民の生活の営みに関わる一連の学際的プロジェクトは、自と島民との協働となる。島民から思い出を引き出す過程は、同時に下道が移り住んだ島を知る過程となる。初回は歯科医であり地元の瀬戸内海を数多く撮影したカメラマン、岡山県出身の緑川洋一(1915-2001)を取り上げた。遺族から寄贈を受けた緑川の制作ノートやネガやプリントが展示され、時間の経過と共に、人々の記憶から薄れてしまう一人の地元写真家の実績と、彼によって撮影された土地の風景、証言者たちの語るオーラルヒストリーは、「資料館」という文化施設を通じて公開され記録に留められる。「資料館」は過疎の土地での記録装置となり、下道は自身がカメラを向ける撮影者になるとは違う形で「記録」を焼き付けている。
様々な土地についてリサーチし、旅をし、記録し、紹介する。そのプロセスに潜む危険、他者の記憶を収奪してしまうのではなく、忘れられつつある記憶を再び植え付け、共有する。時間をかけながらその模索を下道は続けている。ここでは「もの」にだけ集約されることのない、体験の場、記憶の収集と保存が行われ、緊急的課題、センチメンタルな感情を作り手と鑑賞者でもある住人が共有する場の創出が目指される。
1990年代に市井の人々の参加を誘うキュレーションの方法が導き出され、コミュニティーや地域社会との関わりを求めた国際展の増加も一因となって、参加型のプロジェクトは世界で同時多発的に広がった。下道のプロジェクトはその方法論を自ら定住者となることで、あくまで同じ歩調で、より持続可能な方法で実践を試みる。スーザン・ソンタクは雑誌の質問に答える形で語っている。「行進に参加したり、何かを歌ったりする前に守るべき鉄則とは—共感の強弱はさておいて、その場に居合わせて、そこで、じかに、かなりの時間、その国、戦争、不正義、その他の対象について体験していない限り、自説を世に問う権利はないということ」と****。
世界は「そこ」と「ここ」に分断され、お互いを想像する努力をなかなかすることができずにいる。「そこ」と「ここ」を重ね、自らを見る他者の視点で自らを位置づけしようとするのではなく、自らが過去を解釈し記憶する自由を得るために、下道は島に住み、日々の会話に耳を傾けて、様々な記録の方法を続けている。
神谷幸江 （ジャパン・ソサエティー、ニューヨーク ギャラリー・ディレクター）
*今福龍太『宮沢賢治 デクノボーの叡智』2019年、新潮社、p.158
**同著、p.26
***下道基行《新しい石器》http://m-shitamichi.com/newstone
Shitamichi, Motoyuki, New Stone Tools, http://m-shitamichi.com/newstone
****スーザン・ソンタク、富山太佳夫訳『サラエボで、ゴドーを待ちながら』2012年、みすず書房、p.235
Susan Sontag, Where the Stress Falls, 2002, Jonathan Cope, UK, p.298