神さまの仕業　ーネギの一生ー　GALLERY葉画家・群馬直美さん。最高賞「Best Botanical Art Exhibit」受賞作品GALLERY

language　日本語／ English

神さまの仕業　ーネギの一生ー

…A Gift from the Gods: The Life Cycle of the Shimonita Welsh Onion…

伝統農法　下仁田ネギ
Allium fistulosum L.'Shimonita'
　下仁田町馬山地区は東京から電車で約4時間。
　この地の名産として下仁田ネギの栽培がされ、250年の歴史があります。馬山地区では、4月と7月に植え直す二度植えの栽培法が伝統的に行われています。種植えから収穫まで15カ月もの間、大切にお世話をされながら育つネギたちは、人間たちをうまく利用して繁栄し続けていると言っていいかもしれません。
　下仁田町馬山で伝統農法を受け継ぎ11代目となる大澤貴則さんの畑を訪ね、下仁田ネギの生長過程を実物大で描きました。
　6枚の絵による『神さまの仕業ーネギの一生ー』の組作品が、足掛け4年の歳月を経て完成しました。

A Gift from the Gods:
The Life Cycle of the Shimonita Welsh Onion

Allium fistulosum L. ‘Shimonita’
The Shimonita negi is a variety of welsh onion that has been cultivated for two and a half centuries as a local specialty of Shimonita, a small town in Japan about four hours by train from Tokyo. It’s a rare example of an heirloom vegetable that continues to thrive even in this modern day and age—a plant that has “used” humans to its advantage in order to prosper.
Today, farmers in Shimonita still follow the traditional practice of replanting the negi twice, in April and July, with the entire cycle stretching fifteen months from seed planting to harvesting of the greens. These life-size tempera paintings on paper portray the Shimonita negi as I observed them in fields belonging to Takanori Osawa, the leventh in a line of farmers who have safeguarded this hometown heritage.

**神さまの仕業　ーネギの一生ー**
**…A Gift from the Gods: The Life Cycle of the Shimonita Welsh Onion…**

① 2月15日　苗床にて　
ただ1本の葉っぱを地上に送り出すことから、ネギの一生は始まる。そして、葉っぱを次々と脱ぎ捨てるようにしてネギは大きくなっていく。収穫までに登場する葉の数は約25枚。この苗床ネギにも2枚の枯れ葉が見て取れる。青葉との間に次に活躍する葉の兆し。

① February 15: In the Seedbed
The Shimonita negi begins life as a single leaf pushed up from the soil. Old leaves are replaced by new ones as the plant grows, for a total of about twenty-five leaves from birth to harvest. This seedling already shows two withered leaves—and, peeping out from between them and the tall fresh growth, the tip of a youngster that’s next in line to flourish.

② 4月21日　仮植え　
苗床ネギの畑デビュー。「白軸が真っ直ぐで根元が丸く葉っぱが3枚のがいいネギになる」と大澤さんは言うけれど、そんなネギと出会うのは至難の業。「これはいいネギになる」と渡された4月のネギは、とても優しい色をしている。

② April 21: Temporary Planting
The seedlings make their debut in the field. “The ones with straight whites, rounded bulbs, and three leaves will grow to be the best,” explains Mr. Osawa, but such models of perfection are few and far between. “Here’s one,” Mr. Osawa says as he hands me this negi of a most soft and gentle hue.

③ 7月11日　植え替え　
炎天下でネギを抜き畝幅を広げて植え直す。下仁田町馬山で250年続いている人力農法だ。太陽に向かい45度の角度で植え直されたネギたちは、まるでポーズを決めたバレリーナ。葉っぱにできた白い斑点の形は、宇宙人のようだったり首の長いアルパカのようだったり、一つとして同じ形はなかった。白い軸の表面に付いた土。これが葱の命を支えている、と思うと全てのことに意味と価値があり、何一つ省いて描くことはできなかった。

③ July 11: Replanting
As the summer sun beats down, Mr. Osawa pulls up the negi and plants them again after widening the furrows. It’s a process that’s been carried out by hand year after year for 250 years in Shimonita. The transplanted negi line up at a forty-five-degree angle to the sun, like ballerinas in mid-pose. Not a single spot on the leaves of this one is the same, with markings like an ET over here, others like a long-necked alpaca there. Knowing that the soil dusting the white is what cradled the life of this plant, I’m struck anew by the meaning and import of every single detail, and grow more determined than ever not to let even the slightest nuance escape my brush.

④ 12月8日　収穫　
「葉っぱに勢いがあるネギを種取り用で畑に残す」と大澤さん。収穫したネギを持ち、ふと私は苗床に目をやり驚いた。そこには来年のためのネギが小指の長さほどに葉を伸ばし、その奥には再来年のための種取り用のネギが綺麗に並んで植えられているではないか！　ネギの命の循環が大澤さんによって守られている。

④ December 8: Harvest
At harvest time, a few negi with the most vigorous leaves are left behind to flower and seed. With this freshly harvested negi in hand, I glance toward the seedbed and am surprised to find next year’s seedlings already sprouting to about the length of a pinkie, and beyond them, negi from this season transplanted in neat rows in order to be grown for their seeds, which will yield greens for harvest two years hence. And so the cycle of life endures, watched over by the capable Mr. Osawa.

⑤ 2月15日　枯れ葉ネギ　
驚いたことに枯れ葉を一皮むくと中身は純白の瑞々しさ。生食では辛い下仁田ネギは、火を通すと極上の甘さと柔らかさになる。みそ汁にして頂くと、口の中で夢のようにとろけた。人生断トツの旨さに、「歳をとり皺だらけになっても、みんな中身は純白で瑞々しいのだ、きっと」。　自然と人が育んだ枯れ葉ネギの恵みの言葉。

⑤ February 15: The End of the Harvest Season
Don’t be fooled by the crackled outer leaves—beneath them shines a thick, juicy white sheath. Though sharp-tasting when raw, Shimonita negi turn irresistibly sweet and succulent when cooked. This one I enjoy later in miso soup; the pieces melt lusciously in my mouth, the most amazing I’ve ever tasted. “We all grow old and wrinkled with time, but that doesn’t mean we still can’t be young and dewy inside.” That’s the message of blessing from this vegetable born of nature and human hands.

⑥ 3月14日　花のはじまり　
花のはじまりのネギは創造力に満ちている。左側の枯れ葉はガニ股で歩く人の脚。右側の枯れ葉は本を読みながら走る少女の姿。そして、白軸の下方にグラサン男の顔。少し離れて見るとそれは、ジョンレノンの横顔にも見えてくる。

⑥ March 14: The Flower Head Emerges
A negi about to flower is nothing if not an artist. The two browned leaves on the left seem to mimic someone stomping about bowlegged; the ones on the right, a girl running with her eyes on a book. And in the front center of the white sheath, just to the left of the dark line, lurks a man with sunglasses. Stand back a little farther and watch him turn into John Lennon in profile!

⑦ 4月21日　花　
この花の絵をよく見ると、花びらに緑色の筋入り筋なし、オシベも大小2種類なのに気付く。ネギの花びらは内外3枚ずつの二重構造になっていて、外側の花びらに筋がある。オシベも時間差で出現。先発3本が花粉をつけると残り3本が出てくる。後発隊の方が大きい。緑色の部分は繊細で少し触れただけで痕がつく。この花の軸についた痕跡は、大澤さんと私の手の痕。

⑦ April 21: Blossoms
Look closely and you’ll see that each floret on the flower head shows two types of petals and two types of stamen. Each blossom is double-layered, with three outer petals that have green veins and three inner ones that do not. The two sets of stamen emerge one after the other: once the first three bear their pollen, the other three, which are larger, grow into place. The whitish green length below the flower head will immediately turn dark even with the slightest touch. The marks seen here are from Mr. Osawa’s hands and mine.

⑧ 6月13日　種取り　
ネギはとてもオシャレな野菜。葉が服だとしたら結実までに約30回着替える。青葉がフォーマルドレスで枯れ葉はダメージファッション。半透明の薄皮を何枚も纏っている。花が終わるとキスチョコの形をした実ができる。実の皮が弾けると中は3室で黒い種が1個ずつ宿っている。　6月ー大澤さんは種を採り、10月、苗床に種をまく。　こうして下仁田ネギの命が、聖火の炎のように続いてゆく。

⑧ June 13: Seeds
The Shimonita negi is a most fashionable vegetable, you could say—if you think of the leaves as its clothes, then it changes outfits around thirty times from birth to seed. The green leaves are its crisp formal best, the dry ones more like damage jeans. And all around, many translucent layers of skin wrap like a scarf or a shawl.
Once the blossoms die, they leave behind pods shaped like Hershey’s Kisses, which burst to reveal three chambers each encasing one black seed. In June Mr. Osawa gathers those seeds, planting them in the seedbed a few months later in October. So the negi lives on, like a torch of hope, or of peace, being passed down in Shimonita from generation to generation.

Translation by Chikako Imoto