くすかきKusukaki
太宰府天満宮（福岡）／2010～継続中Dazaifu Tenmangu Shrine, Fukuoka, Japan／2010-ongoing
太宰府天満宮の樟の杜を舞台に千年続くことを目指す参加型アートプロジェクト。毎年、春になると落ちてくる大量の樟の落ち葉を掻いて、かつて存在した千年樟を皆で協働し描き出します。樟の落ち葉掻きをすることで、人と人、人と土地の記憶をつなぎ、千年という時間に想いを馳せる朝を一年に一度、皆で迎えます。A participatory art project in the camphor forest of Dazaifu Tenmangu Shrine aims to be a continuous project that will last for a thousand years. Every year the participants rake many camphor leaves which fall in spring. They use the leaves on the ground to draw a thousand-year-old camphor tree that used to exist there. Raking leaves together early in the morning once a year brings people together, connects them with memories of place, and has them imagine a period of a thousand years.
見えないものを感じるFeeling Things Not Seen
毎年四月、樟の杜を形成する巨大な木々は一斉に若葉を芽吹かせ、古くなった葉っぱは、絶え間なく地上に降りそそいできます。お宮の方々は幾世代にもわたって、その葉を掻いて、新芽を見上げ、樟の木と向き合ってきました。そんな境内の天神広場には、今日の樟の杜を形づくる巨大な木々と同様に長く大事にされてきた、樹齢千年ともいわれる一本の樟の木（※）が存在しました。Every April, the giant trees of the camphor forests form new buds as old leaves fall to the ground without pause. From generation to generation, people at the shrine faced the camphor trees, raking the leaves and looking up at the young buds. At the Tenjin Square of the shrine were many giant trees. They form the camphor forest we see today along with a camphor tree which was said to be a thousand years old. It was loved and cared for by people for many years.*
〈くすかき〉は、この地で千年続く樟の落ち葉を“掻く”という毎日の行為を通して、人々が出会い、語らう場をつくり、会期最終日「くすのかきあげ」に集まった掻き手によって、かつて存在した千年樟の姿を“描き”出そうという試みです。それは“目には見えないもの”“見えないけれど大切なもの”を感じるという、日本人が元来持っている特有の感性のあり方を伝えていく、年に一度の出会いと再会の場となっています。In this Kusukaki project, I try to create a place for people to meet and talk each other through the daily act of “raking” the thousand-year-old camphor tree which existed there and on the final day to “draw” the figure of this tree with the gathered participants for the event Kusu no Kakiage. This annual project has been a place for meeting and reunion, which reminds us of an inherent sensibility peculiar to the Japanese― feeling “things not seen” and “unseen but important things.”
※天神広場にあった千年樟（16号木）は参拝者の増加による地固めや酸性雨の影響で1994年に枯死した。*A thousand-year-old camphor tree (16-sized-tree) in Tenjin Square died in 1994 because of the compacted soil from increased worshippers and acid rain.
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