朝夕安居
この作品は私が私の為に画いたとでも
云はうか　つまり他の鑑賞に供するこゝろを
持たなかつたと云つてもよい
物ごゝろを覚える頃から住み慣れた
築地あたり夏の朝靄がうすれる頃から
巷を走る新聞売の鈴の音に始まつて
煮豆屋の車を呼び留めたる人妻は
一
軒燈の紋に知られる芸人の住居で
その裏小路にはひと志きり賑はふ
井戸端の朝も過ぎて日ざかりともなれば
百日紅の木蔭に憩ふ風鈴屋の
姿も見られる　ガラス細工の品ばかりと
云つてよいこの売物は擔ぐ天秤の撓ふに
つれて涼風を招くやうに爽やかな響きを
町中に傳へてゆく
二
日影も漸く傾きかけると戸板一重を
木楯にして行水がそちこちに行はれ
厨ではやゝ後れたランプ掃除が忙がしい
夕空にかゝる月影に蝙蝠がヒラヒラと
舞ひその頃から戸毎に縁台の夕涼みが
始まる
市内の所々に空地の多かつたころで
八丁堀に見た麦湯の腰掛茶屋を
こゝに写す
三
そこに働く女たちを人呼んで麦湯の
姐さんと云ひ湯呑茶碗になみなみと
注ぐ麦湯桜湯に添へてこぼれるやうな
愛嬌をふりまく
夜も漸く更けて　いたいけな辻占売が
赤い提灯を提げて
　淡路しま通ふ千鳥恋のつぢうら
その幼い歌声がだん遠くなつて闇に消える
四　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　印

---

Chōseki Ankyo (Daily Life of the Common People in Downtown of the Meiji Period), Interpretation (ca. 1960)
ink on paper; matted
24.9 x 65.7 cm

Daily Life in the Meiji Period: Urban Classes

I drew these pictures for myself in the sense that I did not intend to present them to others for viewing.
My earliest memories are of the bells of the newspaper sellers running through the streets and the wives calling out to the bean seller’s cart as soon as the mist lifted on a summer’s morning in dear old Tsukiji, where I spent my childhood.

1.
People are milling about in the alley at the back of the house of the actor identifiable by the crest on the lantern over his door. When the morning gossip is over and the sun is high in the sky, a seller of wind chimes rests here in the shade of a crepe myrtle. The weight of his glass trinkets bend the poles of his portable stall, and the sound of the tinkling carries through the town as if summoning refreshing breezes.

2.
When the shadows draw long, people bathe, sheltered behind makeshift shields of single sliding doors. In the kitchen, having left it rather late, a woman rushes to clean a lamp. When bats flutter about in the moonlit evening sky, people relax on benches outside their homes, enjoying the cool evening breeze. Tea stalls spring up on vacant lots in the city, like the barley tea stalls at Hatchōbori.

3.
“Barley tea girl!” Customers are calling out to the waitresses working there, filling the teacups to the brim with parched-barley tea and tea made of pickled cherry blossoms spreading good cheer. At last the evening grows late, and the harmless fortune tellers set up their red lanterns.
The plovers flying back to Awaji Island sing of love’s fortune as their cries gradually fade away in the dark.

Seal