 |
日曜日なので、穏やかな内容を書いています。
昔観たスペシャルドラマに大正時代の匂いを引き摺った、昭和の何処かの遊郭を舞台にしたミステリードラマが在りました。
私はそのドラマがとても美しくて好きでした。
今でも好きだったシーンを幾つか記憶して居ます。
ミステリーとしての内容はもう殆ど忘れて居ますが、家が貧しく、遊郭にやって来たは良いものの、女郎（じょろう）や花魁（おいらん）の候補にも成れず、下女として其処で働きながら生きている十代の女の子が主人公でした。
その子の名前は「ふみ」と言いました。
ふみと同じ遊郭に一緒にやって来た子は「上玉（じょうだま）」で、花魁としてもう店に出ているのに、自分は遊郭ですら綺麗な格好をさせて貰えない。（12、3歳ですので遊郭がどういう場所かは、当然ふみも知っています。）
その理由は自分の器量が悪い所為でもあるし、下女としての働きもそんなに上手では無い。けれど犬か猫のようには、店に出ているお姐さん達に接して貰える。
思って居たより虐められないだけでもマシだ、と彼女は考えていました。
でも如何しても（どうしても）不服なのは「ふみ」という自分の名前と、その名前を毎日毎日呼び続けられる事、という大変少女らしい不満を持って居ます。
何故か裏口から訪ねて来るバンカラ学生のようなコートを着た男の人は、用件のついでに自分にも優しくしてくれるようだけれど、如何してそんなに優しくしてくれるのか分からない。
オバさんに叱られている時に限って現れ、何故か自分が叱られないように為る一言を言って、お姐さん達もオバさんもそちらに気が削がれてしまう。
あの男の人は貧乏で甲斐性無しだと、オバさんは言っていた。
それ位が、記憶から取り出したふみの状況です。
やがて何か殺人事件が起こってしまい、その男の人は全く事件解決に関わりが無いのですが、遊郭中がその事件で重く湿りすぎた真夜中の冷たい霧に沈んだ様になり、ふみへの用事もそれ程多くなくなった或る日、男の人がふみを休みの日に外へ誘い、ふみは生まれて初めて異性とデートの様な事になってしまいます。
けれど全然色っぽい雰囲気では無いし、餡蜜を食べさせて貰い、自分の着物は華やかで綺麗な街着でも無いし、田舎から持ってきたつんつるてんの仕立て直しか、お下がりの子供っぽい着物でそれが又嫌で、ふみは、どう考えても此れはデートじゃ無いし、私に何の用だろう？ と思っている間に、じゃあそろそろお店に送って行くよ、という流れになってしまう。
男の人はまるで父か兄のようでもあるが、何方かというと（どちらかというと）困った時にそっと現れる「叔父さん」の様な人で、そんな万年書生の様な人が、如何して（どうして）早くお店に出たいの？ とポツリ尋ね、
「お店に出る様になると綺麗な名前を貰えるから」と小さくなった声で答えます。
「君は自分の働いているお店がどういう所か知っているね？」
「名前が嫌いなんです。どうして私はふみなんて名前なんだろう。誰か名付け親になってくれて、その人は詩人だったんだって。良い名前だって言われたのはその話の一回だけ。古くて田舎のお婆さんの名前だから、ふみって名前が嫌いなの」
「・・・・僕は、君のお父さんに頼まれて君の名前を付けたんだ」
嗚呼だからか。
名付け親だから良くしてくれるのか、と、突然男の人が文人だと分かったふみの態度が畏まるのですが（笑）
「ーーー君の名前は冬に成る赫い実という意味で、とても綺麗な名前なんだよ」
と詩人は冬枯れの林檎の木の枝の下をゆっくり歩きながら答えます。
それで長い間の冬実のコンプレックスは雪のように溶けて無くなります。
恐らくその詩人はクリスチャンだったのだろうと思います。
名付け親というのは、親の代わりに面倒を見る文化ですので。
その後、ふみは助かります。重大なネタバレですが、謝罪の必要は無い筈です。
アンネ・フランクが記した「アンネの日記」でも、それを評した言葉に「アンネは協力者であった家族の男の子に、仄かな恋心を抱いていたようにも読める描写がある」と殊更に書かれる事があります。
そのような酷い状況であっても、女の子又は人間としての心を忘れなかった彼女は偉大である。
というコンテクストは、そのような状況という先入観の外からアンネ・フランクを見つめ、ユダヤ迫害のナチズムに屈しない、「健気」「立派」 「女の子らしい」という彼女の知性への優位性を示したい欲求に負けている、そのコンテクストを発生させた人物の姿を鋭く抉る（えぐる）ように見せてしまいます。
冬美に対しても、そんな気の毒な身の上なのに、年頃の女の子らしい淡い恋心があったに違い無い。やはり女の子だから美しい容姿や着物に憧れて、一番考えなければならない酷い労働環境からの脱出は分からないのだな、と階段の上に勝手に上がって冬美にやけに温かい微笑みを贈ります。
だったら冬美は突然その詩人への態度が変わるでしょうか？
それまで余りお金のない大人だわ、と淡々と接していた冬美が、名付け親です。詩人です。と分かった途端に、当時のインテリと呼ばれた人々に対する大人の態度の様に、急に尊敬して急に女学生のようにしずしずと、詩人の後の付いて歩いています。
只、その状況に居るだけで、本人の美点は本人の天分である。
私達もそうです。
段上からのやけに温かい微笑みに気が付いたら、皆さんはぜひ冬美の事を思い出して下さい。
冬に成る赫い実は林檎かもしれませんが、他の赫い実でもある筈です。
例えば冬の雪を被った淡い網の中の鬼灯（ほおずき）。白い頬にそっと色を彩する赫いルージュ。指先の、少し暗い赫のネイル。貴方にピッタリな、細くシャープで綺麗な踵の高い芸術品。
全てが知恵の実です。
冬の時代では無く、単に季節が冬で、彼女が生まれたのが冬だったからです。
ふみは手紙の昔の言い方でもあります。
私達が日曜版で送り合っている何らかの合図も、赫い実です。
良かったです。ドラマの冒頭から分かり切っていたように、冬美が助かって。
それでは、素敵な日曜日をお過ごし下さい。
20260222 18:35 文章を直しました。
・
・
・
There was a mystery drama I saw long ago, set in a brothel somewhere in the Showa era that still carried the scent of the Taisho period.
I remember forever a scene from that drama that I found incredibly beautiful and loved.
I've almost forgotten the mystery plot itself, but the protagonist was a teenage girl who came to the brothel because her family was poor. She couldn't become a courtesan or an oiran, so she worked there as a maid to survive.
Her name was Fumi.
While a girl who came to the same brothel with her was a top-tier beauty, already working as an oiran, Fumi wasn't even allowed to dress nicely within the brothel itself. (Being only 12 or 13, Fumi naturally knew what kind of place a brothel was.)
Part of the reason was her own lack of beauty, and she wasn't particularly skilled at her work as a maid either. Yet, the older women who worked in the house treated her like a dog or a cat.
She thought it was better than being bullied more than she was.
But what she truly resented was her name, “Fumi,” and the fact that she had to hear it called out to her day after day—a very girl-like complaint.
The man who came through the back door, dressed like a bohemian student in a coat, seemed to be kind to her too whenever he had business there. But she couldn't understand why he was so kind. And whenever the madam was scolding her, he would say something that somehow prevented her from being scolded, drawing the attention of both the girls and the madam away from her.
The madam said that man was poor and good-for-nothing.
That's about all Fumi could recall from her memory.
Then a murder happened. Though the man had absolutely nothing to do with solving it, the entire pleasure quarter sank into a heavy, damp, cold midnight fog because of the incident. One day, when business for Fumi had slowed considerably, the man invited her out on her day off. For the first time in her life, Fumi found herself on something resembling a date with a man.
But it wasn't at all romantic. He fed her sweet red bean paste, and her kimono wasn't a fancy, beautiful street kimono either. It was either a poorly remade one brought from the countryside or a childish hand-me-down, which she hated. Fumi kept thinking, No matter how I look at this, it's not a date. What does he want with me? Before she knew it, he said, “Well, I should take you back to the shop now.”
The man was like a father or an older brother, but more like an “uncle” who quietly appeared when you were in trouble. Such a perpetual student-like person suddenly asked, “Why do you want to start working at the shop so soon?” She answered in a small voice, “Because once I start working at the shop, I'll get a pretty name.”
“You know what kind of place the shop you're working at is, right?”
"I hate my name. Why did they name me Fumi? Someone named me, and they say that person was a poet. That's the only time I've ever heard anyone say it was a good name. It's an old, country-bumpkin name, so I hate being called Fumi."
“...I named you. Your father asked me to.”
Ah, so that's why. Is he being nice because he's my godfather? Fumi suddenly realizes the man is a literary figure and becomes deferential (lol).
“——Your name means ‘a bright red fruit ripening in winter’. It's a very beautiful name.”
The poet answers, slowly walking along the branches of a winter-bare apple tree.
And just like that, Fumi's long-held complex melts away like snow.
I suppose that poet was probably a Christian.
Since godparents are part of a culture where they take care of children in place of their parents.
After that, Fumi is saved. This is a major spoiler, but you shouldn't need to apologize.
In Anne Frank's “The Diary of Anne Frank,” it is sometimes specifically noted that “there are passages suggesting Anne may have harbored a faint crush on the boy from the family who helped her.”
Even in such a terrible situation, she never forgot her heart as a girl or as a human being.
She is truly great.
This context, however, reveals a sharp critique of the person who created it. They succumb to the desire to view Anne Frank from outside the preconceptions of her situation, to highlight her “plucky,” “noble,” “girlish” intelligence as superior to the Nazi persecution of Jews.
Even for Fumi, despite her pitiful circumstances, she must have had the faint, youthful crush typical of a girl her age. After all, being a girl, she must have yearned for beauty and kimonos, unaware of the most crucial escape from that brutal labor environment.
This context, however, reveals a sharp critique of the person who created it. They succumb to the desire to view Anne Frank from outside the preconceptions of her situation, to highlight her “plucky,” “noble,” “girlish” intelligence as superior to the Nazi persecution of Jews.
Even for Fumi, despite her pitiful circumstances, she must have had the faint, youthful crush typical of a girl her age. After all, being a girl, she must have yearned for beauty and kimonos, unaware of the most crucial escape from that brutal labor environment.
She climbs the stairs uninvited and sends Fumi an oddly warm smile.
So, would Fumi suddenly change her attitude toward that poet?
Fumi, who had previously treated him matter-of-factly as just another adult without much money, the moment she learned he was her godfather, a poet, suddenly revered him like an adult would toward the intellectuals of the time. She began trailing quietly behind the poet like a schoolgirl.
Simply being in that situation, that virtue is her innate talent.
We are the same.
When you notice that unusually warm smile from above, please remember Fumi.
So, would Fumi suddenly change her attitude toward that poet?
Fumi, who had previously treated him matter-of-factly as just another adult without much money, the moment she learned he was her godfather, a poet, suddenly revered him like an adult would toward the intellectuals of the time. She began trailing quietly behind the poet like a schoolgirl.
Simply being in that situation, that virtue is her innate talent.
We are the same.
When you notice that unusually warm smile from above, please remember Fumi.
The bright darkred fruit that ripens in winter might be an apple, but it could also be another bright red fruit.
For instance, the winter snow-covered, pale net-like calyx of the Chinese lantern plant. Bright red rouge gently coloring pale cheeks. Slightly dark, bright red nails at the fingertips. A slender, sharp, beautiful high-heeled work of art that suits you perfectly.
All are fruits of wisdom.
It's not the winter age; it's simply the season of winter, and she was born in winter.
Fumi is also an old-fashioned way of saying letter.
The signals we send each other in the Sunday edition are also bright darkred fruits.
I'm glad. As was clear from the drama's opening, Fumi was saved.
Well then, have a wonderful Sunday.
For instance, the winter snow-covered, pale net-like calyx of the Chinese lantern plant. Bright red rouge gently coloring pale cheeks. Slightly dark, bright red nails at the fingertips. A slender, sharp, beautiful high-heeled work of art that suits you perfectly.
All are fruits of wisdom.
It's not the winter age; it's simply the season of winter, and she was born in winter.
Fumi is also an old-fashioned way of saying letter.
The signals we send each other in the Sunday edition are also bright darkred fruits.
I'm glad. As was clear from the drama's opening, Fumi was saved.
Well then, have a wonderful Sunday.
20260222 18:35 Revised the text.
Translated with DeepL.com (free version)
