記憶を辿る 4話
– 令和の模索 –
– The Search for Reiwa –
山城に嫁いできた母親の父もまた、バイタリティ溢れる人だった。
クリーニング店の傍ら、喫茶店や不動産など手がけていた。高度経済成長期、団体旅行や修学旅行客が主だった京都の旅行業に食い込み、旅館から出るリネン類を 一手に担っているクリーニング店だった。
寝る暇なく働いている父の姿を見て育った母は、手伝うことは当たり前の日常だったようだ。
これだけ聞けば、あららという声も聞こえてきそうだが、三種の神器と呼ばれていた家電をいち早くに購入し、実家の居間ではTVが見たいと近所の人で溢れかえったこともある そんな体験をさせてくれるような祖父だった。
そういうお金の使い方をする祖父。
見栄っ張りのようだが、物やお金に支配されていないように思う。
My mother, who married into the Yamashiro family,her father was also a man full of vitality.
In addition to his dry cleaning business, he was also involved in coffee shops and real estate. During the high-growth period of the Japanese economy, the dry-cleaning business was a major player in Kyoto’s travel industry, which was mostly group tours and school trips, and it handled all the linens from the hotels.
My mother, who grew up watching my father work without a moment’s sleep, took it for granted that she would help him.
He was one of the first to purchase home appliances, which were known as the “three sacred treasures,” and the living room of my parents’ house was once overflowing with neighbors who wanted to watch TV.
That is the kind of grandfather who spends money that way.
He seems to show off, but I don’t think he is controlled by things or money.
関東大震災から 1日違いで京都に移り住み難を逃れた祖父。
戦場から無事に帰還できた直系の祖父からも感じるのは、精一杯 今を生きるということが共通しているように思う。口には出さないし、表現などは全くなかったが、自分の身を粉にしてでも家族に何かを残そうとしていた。
当時の思いを今は聞くことができないが、無事に難を逃れられた感謝、運を授かった命を活かしたい そんな気持ちが強かったのではないだろうか。
明日がわからないからこそ、今を生きる。
彼らの残した無言の教え、先行きが不透明な令和の今日も自問自答している。
My grandfather, who moved to Kyoto one day before the Great Kanto Earthquake and escaped the disaster.
My grandfather, who returned safely from the battlefield, shared the same feeling of living life in the present to the best of one’s ability. He never said it out loud or expressed it at all, but he was trying to leave something for his family, even if it meant risking his own life.
I cannot ask him about his thoughts at that time, but I believe that he was grateful to have escaped the disaster safely and wanted to make the most of the life he had been blessed with.
Because we do not know what tomorrow will bring, we must live in the present.
This is the silent lesson they left behind, and I am still asking myself this question today in Regiwa, where the future is still uncertain.