--Raising Silkworms |
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製作：小川プロダクション Production Company : Ogawa Productions |
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冒頭、老女によって語られる蚕（彼女はそれを「お蚕（こ）さま」と呼ぶ）にまつわる民話は、牧野において蚕が神の使いであり、行方不明になったお姫さまの生まれ変わりであることを示す。蚕の体の紋様は姫を守った馬のひずめの跡であると民話では言われている。この導入部から我々は蚕の飼育の世界に引き込まれる。そして蚕とともにその半生を歩んできた木村サトさんの指導の下、小川とそのスタッフは実際に蚕の飼育を営み、この過程をフィルムでも紡いで行くのである。 映画は春の蚕の誕生から餌である桑の葉の選択、そして何度かの脱皮を経て、ようやく秋を迎え繭を作るまでの作業を細部にわたって見せてくれる。そして我々は蚕たちとともに長年生きてきたサトさんの「時間」を、小川らスタッフとともに共有することになる。この「時間」こそが、小川が牧野村に移り住み、以後の作品でも映画作家と百姓を兼業とすることで大きな広がりをみせるスタンスの基礎となるのである。 |
The film opens with a old woman recounting a folk tale concerning silkworms (she calls them " honorable worms " ) in which the Magino silkworms are seen as the reincarnation of a vanished princess, and as messengers of the Gods. In the folk tale it is said that the pattern on the bodies of the silkworms is the same as the hoof print of the horse that protected the princess. This introduction draws us into the world of raising silkworms. Ogawa and his staff spin out a film from the process of actually raising silkworms themselves, under the direction of Kimura Sato, a woman who has spent half her life with the silkworms. The film shows us in exquisite detail the process involved: from the birth of the silkworms in the spring, through the selection of mulberry leaves for their food and the repeated shedding of their skins as they grow, to the cocoons that they make in time for the autumn. Along with Ogawa and his staff, we come to share the same sense of " time " as Sato, who has spent many years with the silkworms. This time spent with Sato, in particular, formed the basis of the broadened attitude that Ogawa demonstrated in his later films after moving to Magino and working as both filmmaker and farmer. |