第2巻第3章 中国/日本(承前)
ロバート・ヤング(Robert Young, 1858.10.9-1922.11.7)は愉快な人間であった。彼は1880年代に英国を去っていたので,その後の英国の思想の退歩を共有しなかった(経験しなかった)。彼は自分の書斎にブラッドロー(Charles Bradlaugh, 1833-1891: 19世紀英国で最も有名な無神論者で,1866年に The National Secular Societyを創設/右の写真)の大きな写真をかかげており,彼は心の底からブラッドローを崇拝していた。彼の新聞は,私のいままでに知り得たかぎり,最良の新聞であったと思う。彼は,その新聞を,植字工としての給料から貯めた10ポンドの資本で始めた。 彼は私を奈良につれていってくれた。奈良はこの上なく美しいところであり,古代の日本(注:Old Japan と,Oが大文字/Old English →古代英語)をいまだ見ることができた。それから私たちは,改造という現代的な雑誌の,企業家精神旺盛な編集者たちの手中に入った。彼らは私たちを,京都中及び東京中を連れまわし,私たちが出かけるときには新聞記者たちに知らせるよういつも気を配っていたので,私たちは絶えずカメラのフラッシュ・ライトに追いかけられ,眠っている姿までも写真に撮られた。京都と東京の両方で,私たちに会いに来るよう非常に大勢の教授たちが招待された。両都市において,私たちは極端なこびへつらいを持って扱われるとともに,警察のスパイにたえず尾行された。ホテルの私たち部屋の隣りの部屋は,タイプライターを携行した一団の警察官に占有されていた。そうかとおもうと,ホテルの給仕たちは,私たちをあたかも皇族のように取り扱い,部屋からは後ずさりして出て行った。私たちはよく,「給仕のコン畜生!」と言った。すると,すぐに警察官のタイプライターを打つ音が聞こえてきた。私たちのために催された教授たちのパーティでは,私が誰かと少しでも活気のある会話に入るや否やいつもフラッシュをたいて写真が撮られ,その結果,その会話は当然事のこと中断された。 |
v.2,chap.3: ChinaWe went first to Kobe to visit Robert Young, the editor of the Japan Chronicle. As the boat approached the quay, we saw vast processions with banners marching along, and to the surprise of those who knew Japanese, some of the banners were expressing a welcome to me. It turned out that there was a great strike going on in the dockyards, and that the police would not tolerate processions except in honour of distinguished foreigners, so that this was their only way of making a demonstration. The strikers were being led by a Christian pacifist called Kagawa, who took me to strike meetings, at one of which I made a speech.Robert Young was a delightful man, who, having left England in the 'eighties, had not shared in the subsequent deterioration of ideas. He had in his study a large picture of Bradlaugh, for whom he had a devoted admiration. His was, I think, the best newspaper I have ever known, and he had started it with a capital of £10, saved out of his wages as a compositor. He took me to Nara, a place of exquisite beauty, where Old Japan was still to be seen. We then fell into the hands of the enterprising editors of an up-to-date magazine called Kaizo, who conducted us around Kyoto and Tokyo, taking care always to let the journalists know when we were coming, so that we were perpetually pursued by flashlights and photographed even in our sleep. In both places they invited large numbers of professors to visit us. In both places we were treated with the utmost obsequiousness and dogged by police-spies. The room next to ours in the hotel would be occupied by a collection of policemen with a typewriter. The waiters treated us as if we were royalty, and walked backwards out of the room. We would say: 'Damn this waiter,' and immediately hear the police typewriter clicking. At the parties of professors which were given in our honour, as soon as I got into at all animated conversation with anyone, a flashlight photograph would be taken, with the result that the conversation was of course interrupted. |