仔牛近道

　私と（う）にとって、奈良田追分（ならだおいわけ）の最初のステップは、それはそれは大きな、勇気のいる一歩でした。白根三山の麓、秘境奈良田と呼ばれるこの地域はまた、「古典民謡の里」とも呼ばれるほど、早川町の中でも特殊な文化や芸能が残っている地域なのだそうな。






　奈良田に家族で移ってきての最初の挨拶訪問で、奈良田にある温泉旅館「白根館」を訪れた時の事。白根館の長であり、奈良田の文化保存に取り組む白樺会の会長でもあるMaさんとことばを交わした時、Maさんはすぐに

「・・・ここ奈良田の民謡の一つ『奈良田追分』が、全国の民謡八選に選ばれてね。6月の頭には、熱海での全国の人が集まる民謡の講習会で披露をすることになってんだ。上原さんちは、まぁ小さいお子さんがいるから泊まりのこの会は無理かもしれないけど、せっかくだから踊りの稽古には来て、ぜひ踊りを覚えてよ。」

と早口で話し始めました。その時は何のことやらさっぱり分からぬまま、ほうほう、と聞いていたのがとても懐かしく思えます。5月からは週に一度、公民館に集まって、熱海の会場に行く人も行かない人も、皆で追分の踊りの稽古。どんなものかと子どもたちと参加してみて、びっくり・・・なんて踊りなんでしょう！踊りには全く疎い私ですが、日本舞踊のようでもなく、盆踊りのようでもなく、足の運びと手の動きが奇妙に絡み合って、ひとまとまりの振りを繰り返しているには違いないのですが、切れ目が全く分かりません。そしてまた、高齢のベテランになればなるほど、独自のアレンジを効かせながら、くるくるまきまきにゅるにゅる動きがつながり、かつ軽やかに、気持ちよさそうに踊っているのです。前から、田中泯さんも注目するほどの奈良田追分なのだ、と（ゆ）から聞いていたのですが、ようやく何となく納得・・・。

　唖然として観察していると、おばちゃんたちが丁寧に教えてくれます。ところが、数を数えながらの「ステップ」という概念がなく、おばちゃんたちも当時の大人たちの踊りを見て覚えたというので、私たちも「こうだよ、よく見てやってみな」という指導を受けるわけなのです。ああ、わけが全く分からないけど・・・何だかすごく面白い！

　この踊りを覚えたい、と一番に火が付いたのは（う）でした。引っ越して学校が始まって1か月ちょっと。新しい校風や友達の中で、自分ができないことにも多く気づき、また悪気はなくとも「（学区の中でも）奈良田は遠い」とさんざん言われ、自分たちの兄弟の他には小学生のいないこの奈良田にいる自分に、何だか自信が持てなくて落ち込んでいる時期でもありました。そんな状況もあって、（う）がやってみたいというならば、応援しようじゃないか、踊りなんて全くもって音痴な私も一緒に覚えるから、頑張ってみよう、と‭いうことに。そして、せっかくなら、平日だけど学校も休んで熱海の全国の人たちが集まる場に行けるように頑張ろうよ、と。

　思い切って、会長のMaさんに相談すると、はじめは驚いていましたが、すぐに「浴衣が足りるかな・・・」という検討に入ってくれて、

「やってみたいってんじゃ、頑張ってよ！ただ、踊れるようにならなきゃ、連れて行けないからなー」

といたずらっぽく笑うのでした。さぁ、こちらは笑ってはいられません。週一回の合同練習だけでは全くもって間に合いません。折しも、お隣さんで、去年奈良田にUターンしてきたSさんも一緒に一から覚えるのだということを知り、それは何とも心強いことでした。Sさんには引っ越してきた当初から仲良くしてもらっていて、日々の相談をなんでもできるよきお姉さんなのです。ということで、教えてくれる地元の人がいるときは公民館に集い、さもなければ改修で床が入りたての我が家の一室に集まってDVDやスマホで撮った動画を見ながらの練習が始まりました。

　足の運びを覚え、手の動きと合わせ、いざおばちゃんたちに見てもらうと、ダメ出しの連続。腰を落とせ、手を止めるな、足を出しすぎ、かかとから踏み込め・・・地元の人が何十年も踊ってきた踊りを、一か月でマスターしようなんぞ、無理な話なのかな、と弱気になったり、いや、それは当然、でもこれが奈良田のことを知るための第一歩なのだ、と前向きに（う）と励まし合いながら毎晩練習を繰り返しました。

　そして迎えた最後の合同練習の公民館。（う）、私、Sさんと新人3人だけで何度も踊らされてはおばちゃんたちの指導を受け、最後にMaさんが

「・・・どうにか間に合ったな。よかった、よかった。じゃぁ、最後一回、今度は3人は、人の踊りを見ながらじゃなくて、自分で楽しみながら踊ってみな。」

の言葉で、熱海行きのOKとなったのでした。最後までやきもきしていた（う）も安堵の表情。眠い中、毎晩よく頑張ったなぁ。


（わ）



Narada-oiwake　#1


The very first step of Narada-oiwake had such a big meaning for Umeo and myself, and we needed enormous courage to take this step. Being at the bottom of Shirane-three-mountains, Narada area is called not only the "land of mystery", but also the "village of Japanese traditional folk music", I heard.

When we moved to Narada as a family, we visited every one of the 12 households and greeted the families, and one of those households was "Shirane-kan", a traditional Japanese style hotel with a very fine hot spring. Mr. Ma, who is the head of Shirane-kan as well as a local culture preservation society called "Shirakaba-kai", came out to welcome us. Soon, he started talking about Narada-oiwake saying;

" ....We have traditional folk dances here in Narada, and one of them is Narada-oiwake. And you know what? Narada-oiwake has been selected as one of the 8 precious Japanese folk dances to be preserved and raise awareness about. In June, a 2-day-course of national folk dance workshop will be held in Atami, Shizuoka-prefecture, and we are invited to perform Narada-oiwake there. Well, you have small kids, so you may not be able to join us for a 2-day-trip, but still, join our practice starting from sometime in May. Now that you are in Narada, you should learn the dance!"

He talked very fast and looked excited. I was not really sure what exactly he was excited about, but just listened to him with nods. That time, I was still taking very easy about Narada-oiwake...I didn't even expect that we would take such a big challenge soon...As he mentioned, from May, people in Narada got together in a community center once a week and practised Narada-oiwake dance. I just went with kids to see how it was, and then I was so surprised....what a dance! I don't know much about dance in general, but I saw Narada-oiwake was somehow totally different from what I've ever seen. Neither like NIHONBUYOU(Japanese dancing) or Bon Festival dances, but the movements of feet and arms were mysteriously matching. They looked like repeating a set of certain steps(movements) again and again during a song, but I couldn't find any break between the sets. Furthermore, if you looked at the elderly dancers like Y-grandma in her 80s, they had their own arrangement of movements. They kept dancing drawing circles in the air with their arms, stepping like snakes, and every movement looked continuous and light. More than anything, they looked like feeling so nice dancing: that was really impressive and exciting. I was remembering that Yuki told be before that a famous dancer Mr. Min Tanaka paid special attention to this Narada-oiwake....I felt I knew what he meant, just a little bit.

I was overwhelmed by just watching the dance, then they brought us in a circle and started teaching us the dance. However, they didn't have a counting system for every "step", so they would just say "watch me, move your right foot like this, and then like this" etc.... Well, they used to learn the dance only by watching adults doing when they were young, so they were teaching as they were taught. Myself and kids were almost panic stricken not understanding almost anything of what they were teaching us....yet, it was somehow VERY interesting, I thought.

Umeo was the first one in our family who said "I want to learn it!". At that time, she was going through a bit of hard time at school actually. Since she started her new school life almost one month ago, she tried to adjust to the new environment and came to realise that she was not good at certain things. Moreover, there are no small kids in Narada other than her own brother and sister, and people often say that Narada is so far being at the end of Hayakawa-town. No one tried to hurt her saying that, but she seemed like losing her confidence and was looking for something that she could be proud of. Under such circumstances, though I'm NOT good at dancing at all, I agreed with her and decided to join the regular dance practices together. I also suggested to her to aim at joining the 2-day-workshop in Atami in June. To join the trip, she would have to take one day leave from the school, but I thought it's worth skipping a day from school.

Umeo made up her mind, so I explained to Ma-san. He looked surprised at the beginning, but soon started considering about our costume saying "...oh, we have to find more sets of Narada-oiwake's Yukata (an informal cotton Kimono for summer)." And he continued with naughty smile,

"If you guys want to try learning the dance, do it, most welcome! However, unless you really master it, we wouldn't take you to Atami, okay?"

Alright, but we didn't have any time for being relaxed and smiling! We couldn't even wait for the next practice day on Wednesday, but had to practise more and more. It was such a happy coincidence that S-san, who grew up in Narada when she was a child, left after marriage but came back to Narada last year, was also the one who had to learn Narada-oiwake from a scratch. She had been such a nice woman and our favorite neighbor since we moved to Narada, so it was such a big relief that the three of us, Umeo, S-san and myself, were in the same boat. Well, to be exact, we, Umeo and I, might have been in a more challenging situation being totally new comers. Anyway, we practised in the community center when any of local people could spare time for us to teach, but otherwise we practised in our house by watching DVD and recorded the dance on a Smart Phone. We practiced every evening.

We tried to learn the movements of the feet first, then matched with arm movements. Though we thought we got it, our teachers, local Narada women, pointed out many things such as,

"Lower your body!"
"Don't stop the movements of your arms and hands!"
"Your step is too big."
"Touch the floor with your heel first, not toe!" and so on...

Are we mad trying to remember the dance in a month, that the local have been dancing for many decades? I used to wonder many a time, but at the same time I encouraged myself and Umeo saying that it's of course a foolish challenge, but we all know it. Still, we decided to take the challenge because this could be our first gate to enter the Narada world. Only by believing in this decision we motivated ourselves to practise every evening.

Then, finally the last Wednesday came before the Atami trip, that was a weekly practice day at the community center. They let us dance in front of Narada women. As always, they gave us bitter comments, but at the end, Ma-san said;

"...Okay, somehow you guys made it on time. Good, then, try dancing once more for the last time. This time, don't look at others' dancing but enjoy your own dance with music."

With his words, we could finally confirm that we were going to join the Atami trip. Umeo looked really relieved indeed. Well done, Umeo, practising till late every evening...!


Wakana