Yosemite Summer in '99 ... Part 2 

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Aug. 21, '99
Mariposa Grove in the south had many old and young trees, such as giant sequoia, sugar pine, ponderosa pine, cedar and fir. The oldest is 3000 year old, and the tallest is almost 100 meter high. A giant sequoia had been used to offer people to go through its trunk hole by car, and another one was like a huge chimney with big hole from the bottom to the top. A big tree got lightning four times in one afternoon. They all are alive with fine leaves.

It was a great grove, but we enjoyed Merced Grove (in the photo) more, because it's far from road and quiet to listen to the nature. A famous Japanese shrine-carpenter Nishioka told that a well-made wood building can survive as same term as the tree life length of the material wood. The 3000 year old tree could live another 3000 years as a building. What a long single life! How does the tree see us?

ヨセミテ南端のマリポサの森には巨木が林立し、その中には樹齢３０００年、高さほとんど百メートルなんてのもあります。ある午後に４回も落雷に遇ったのや、幹にトンネルが開けられ、かつては車を通していたセコイア、落雷によって樹全体が大きな煙突のような筒になってしまったのもあります。どれも立派に緑の葉を養っています。すばらしい森でしたが、７マイルの道をツーリストカーが案内し人でにぎわうので、私たちは、公園の西の外れからマーセッドの森に往復５キロ弱歩き、森の声に耳を澄ますほうをもっと楽しみました。写真は、そこのセコイアの巨木群です。



Related EL characters:
{37,66(plant 植物)}: tree 木
{{37,66},10(place　所)}: forest　森
{{37,66}14}: tree trunk 幹
{{37,66}14,{20(out)28}(surface　面)}: bark　樹皮
{17(upward)07(much)}: high　高い
{07,{36(time),67(life)}: aged, old 年配、古老
{36,48}(year){36,67}(age): 3000 year old　３千歳
33: round {10,48(cover)}(house, building): round house 円形の建物
{12(zigzag shaped),66(plant)}: fern　しだ
{24(stable),66}: root　根

Aug. 18, '99
Roundhouse: They rebuilt a Miwok village houses and acorn granaries for tourists in behind of the visitor-center. The round house was the center of Miwok village ceremonial activities. Original roofs of roundhouses were earth-covered, but this has a roof of incense seder bark and smells well inside.

We had a chance to hear Julia Parker's telling and singing around here and inside of the roundhouse. She(around 70) was born as a Pomo Indian in the coast and married with a Miwok man. When they were young, they had to go to an Indian school. Indian school wasn't the place to learn Indian cultures, but to forget them and learn English and Euro-American way to live. Since her husband and her families have kept rich traditional cultures, she has good skill for basketry and wisdom to survive in the forest. Their traditional baskets are not only beautiful but also can hold water to be boiled putting burning rocks in. However she can't use her native language very well. She can sing some traditional songs, but after the upper and her generations die, the beautiful literature and the Miwok history of 4000 years in this land will gone away with them, she is afraid of. Earlier I learned basket-work from her. She was so enthusiastic to teach it. Each stitch of her basket is remembering and singing its former forest life as a root of bracken-fern or a willow branch in its new shape. 



ミーウォーク・インディアンの円い儀式集会所：　一度は壊され消されようとしたインディアン文化が見直され、新しく彼らの集落が復元されました。集会所は古くは土で覆われた屋根でしたが、これは杉とその樹皮でできていて炉を囲む内部には木の香が漂い円形なので落ち着ついた気分になりました。

ここでインディアンのジュリアの歌や話を聞くチャンスに恵まれました。彼女は海岸部のポモ部族出身ですが、ミーウォークの男性と結婚し、両方の文化や知恵を身につけた７０くらいの笑顔がかわいいおばさんです。彼らは、若い頃、インディアン文化を忘れさり英語と欧米式生活用式をおぼえるためのインディアン学校に入れられ、満足に母語を話せなくなりました。けれど彼女はすばらしい籠編みの技術やこの地の森で生きる知恵を人種を問わず受け入れる人に残そうと、一所懸命に伝えようとしています。日本人はワラビの根を掘ってでんぷんを採り食べましたが、彼らはこの根の繊維を鉄気の泥で媒染して籠の繊細な模様作りに欠かせない黒いコードにします。精密に編んだ彼らの籠は、美しいばかりでなく、水を入れて焼き石で煮炊きをするのにも使われていました。材料の収集も一目ずつ編む作業も、誠心誠意を込めなければ絶対にできない仕事です。ジュリアの歌声を聞きながら、巨木の命のように、自然と密着しごまかしのない彼らの伝統的な生き方の価値も未来に枝を広げて生き続けることを祈らずにはいられませんでした。

written by Yoshiko Aug. 25, '99
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