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太宰府天満宮 文書館／（福岡）2018

太宰府天満宮 文書館／（福岡）2018

太宰府天満宮 文書館／（福岡）2018

太宰府天満宮 文書館／（福岡）2018

太宰府天満宮 文書館／（福岡）2018

太宰府天満宮 文書館／（福岡）2018

北欧に位置するフィンランドでは、夏の訪れが日本に比べて遅くにやってきます。初夏を迎えた5月、僕は南西部に在るヴァーノ島に滞在していました。フィンランドの沿岸地域にはおよそ40000もの島が在ると言われています。バルト海に面する近くの群島だけでも3000は在り、キミト島の先端にあるカスナスの港からフェリーでヴァーノ島へ向かう途中、僕は島影ばかりを眺めていました。友人に紹介された赤い屋根のコテージに辿り着き、島を歩き始めると、数日前まで固く閉じていたであろう新芽が、開こうとしているのが目に留まりました。眩しい陽光が数日照らし続けたことで、一気に夏がやってきたのです。岩陰から伸びゆく草木。新緑に萌える木の葉は、まだ雛鳥の産毛のように柔らかく、風に揺れていました。普段は人口15人程の小さな島で、空を飛ぶ白鳥の羽音までも聞き取れるくらい静かです。けれど、夏の間は繁殖のために渡り鳥が集まり、羽根を休めるように、フィンランドの人々も休暇を過ごすために島を訪れるので、賑やかな季節がやってきます。この旅で出会った人に島への道を尋ねたところ、彼はヘルシンキから船でやって来たといいます。ここへやってくる人々にとって夏の休暇は、それぞれの船旅と共にあるようです。
（「辺つ方（へつべ）の休息」展＠太宰府天満宮　会場テキスト「群島での夏のはじまり」より抜粋）

In Finland, situated in Northern Europe, the arrival of summer is much later than that of Japan.  In the early summer month of May, I was staying at Vänö Island, in southwestern corner of Finland.  40,000 islands are said to exist in the coastal area of Finland.  Archipelago facing the Baltic Sea is said to number 3,000, and while heading to Vänö Island in a ferry from Kasnäs harbor at the tip of Kemiönsaari, I was constantly following vague outlines of islands in distance.  After reaching the red roof cottage recommended by my friend and setting out for a walk, numbers of new buds which were probably not seen until a few days before caught my eye.  They were just about to sprout.  The bright sun shining for a few days called for the summer all at once.  Plants were beginning to grow from rock crevices.  Fresh green leaves of trees, appearing to be soft as peach fuzz of baby birds, were swaying in the wind.  Its regular population being only 15, the tiny island was so quiet that we were able to hear flapping of wings of swans flying above.  But, during the summer months, the island becomes lively with visitors coming on vacations as though migrating birds resting their wings when they gather for breeding purposes.  When I asked a traveler whom I met during my stay how he came to the island, he told me that he came from Helsinki by boat.  It seems that summer vacation for those who come to the island is always together with each person’s boat trip.
（Text from Beginning of Summer in an Archipelago by Nao Tsuda, Tranquility at the Shore exhibition at Dazaifutenmangu）