Nasakejima

2017-2020

♪沖で見たときゃ鬼島と見たが、来てみりゃ八丈は情け島

八丈島に伝わる民謡、ショメ節の一節である。これは八丈島に流されてきた流人の心情を詠ったものとされる。

私が八丈島を繰り返し訪れるようになったのは「故郷」への憧れからだった。

東京郊外にある、地域社会との繋がりの薄い住宅地で生まれ育った私は、故郷という意識を持ったことがなかった。それぞれの故郷を語る、方々から来た大学の友人らが羨ましく、いつしか自分の中で理想の故郷像を夢見るようになった。

そんなとき出会ったのが八丈島だった。都会の直線的な時間とは全く違う、島独特のゆったりとした円環的な時間の流れ。山と海、温かな人々に囲まれた暮らし。夢見てきた故郷像と重なった。

しかし、訪問を重ねるごとに島の違う表情が見えてくる。島暮らしを夢見て移住するも、現実の厳しさに苦悩する人。魚が減ったと嘆く釣り人。働き手の減少を嘆く商店主……。島の若者はよりよい教育や職を求めて島を離れてゆく。

私が抱いた「夢の八丈島像」など、所詮外部の、本土の人間の押し付けでしかないのだと気付かされる。

国もまた、八丈島に繰り返し何かの役割を担わせてきた歴史がある。

八丈島では縄文時代から人々が独自の生活を営んできたが、江戸時代になると徳川幕府のもと流刑地に定められ、流人第一号の宇喜多秀家にはじまり、明治時代までに約1900人の流人が送られた。

太平洋戦争下では南方からの米軍の侵攻に備え軍事拠点とされた。島内には多くの基地が作られ、他方で島民は集団疎開を強いられた。疎開船が攻撃を受けて沈没した「東光丸事件」では149名が命を落とした。

また戦後は「東洋のハワイ」とまで呼ばれる人気の旅行先だったが、海外旅行の自由化によって本物のハワイが身近になり、1970年代ごろから観光客は激減。廃業に追い込まれた当時のリゾートホテルは今も廃墟のまま佇んでいる。

時間が止まったかのようなその風景は、島の特徴である緩やかな時の流れの裏側を見るようにも感じられる。

そんな過去を持ったこの島の未来には、どのような展開があるのだろうか。この島には、メディアが取り上げるようなセンセーショナルな問題があるわけではない。日々の暮らしを静かに継続してゆく島の人々の毎日があるだけだ。そして現在の問題の多くは、国内の他の地域と同様に、産業の衰退や人口減少などに起因しているともいえる。

しかし、だからこそ、一つの地域とじっくりと向き合い、そこにある問題を単に良し悪しで語るのではなくただ事象として捉えてゆくことによって、どの地域もが抱える共通の課題についての理解も深められるのではないだろうか。

人が人として当たり前にそこにいて、そこで生きていく権利さえ保障されにくくなってきている世の中で、このような島のありかたを見つめていくことは、自分と社会、そしてこの先の日本を考えることと同義である。

From far off in the ocean, it looked like a devil’s island
But once I came ashore, I found Hachijojima to be an island of compassion

This is a line from a folk song which has been handed down on Hachijojima Island.

It’s a song that expresses the feelings of exiles who were sent there.

What brought me to Hachijojima again and again was my yearning for a “hometown”.
As someone who was born and raised in a residential suburb of Tokyo with little connection to the local community, I was never really conscious of having a hometown. When university friends talked about their hometowns, I felt a bit envious. Eventually, I began to dream of what my ideal hometown might be like.
It was around that time that I encountered Hachijojima. The slow, circular flow of time peculiar to the island was completely different from the linear time of the city. Living in a place surrounded by mountains, the sea, and warm people overlapped with the image of the hometown that I had dreamed of.
However, with each visit, I began to see different aspects of the island: A person who moved there hoping for a new life on the island but now suffering from the harshness of reality, a fisherman lamenting a decrease in fish, a shopkeeper lamenting a decrease in workers, young people leaving the island in search of better education and employment.
I came to realize that the image I held of Hachijojima was nothing more than a dream that I, someone from the outside, was imposing on the island.

The nation has also had a history of repeatedly making Hachijojima play a role.
People had been living their own lives on Hachijojima since the Jomon period. However, during the Edo period, the island was designated as a place of exile under the Tokugawa Shogunate, starting with Ukita Hideie, the first exile sent there. By the Meiji period, approximately 1,900 people had been sent.
During the Pacific War, Hachijojima was used as a military base in preparation for the invasion of U.S. troops from the south. Many bases were built on the island, while the islanders were forced to evacuate. One hundred forty-nine people died in the "Tokomaru Incident" in which the evacuation ship was attacked and sank.
After the war, Hachijojima became a popular travel destination known as the “Hawaii of the Orient". However, with the liberalization of overseas travel, the real Hawaii had become familiar, and the number of tourists had dropped sharply since the 1970s. The resort hotels built at that time, which were eventually driven out of business, still stand in ruins. The landscape makes it feel as if time has stopped. It’s like looking at the other side of the gentle flow of time that is characteristic of the island.

What kind of development will the future hold for an island with such a past? There aren’t any sensational issues for the media to cover. There are only the people of the island who quietly continue to live their lives each day. And it can be said that many of the current problems they face are caused by the decline of industry and depopulation, as is the case in other parts of the country.
Yet, for this reason, by deliberately facing one specific place and grasping its issues as they are, rather than simply talking about them as being either good or bad, we can deepen our understanding of the common issues faced by all regions.

In today’s world, where it’s becoming harder to live in dignity or even, just to be, focusing on such an island is synonymous with thinking about yourself, society, and the future of this country.