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Portfolio /作品一覧

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Art History /アートヒストリー

不穏な時代と自由

しかしそれは大人の話。子どもたちと言えば、世間からも、うるさい親の目からも解放されて、自由を満喫していたと言います。現代のようにきれいなショッピングモールも楽しい遊園地もありませんが、学習塾も受験もなく毎日子ども同士で日が暮れるまで遊んでいられる日常は、ある意味で現代よりも幸せだったと言えるでしょう。
敦子もその空気をしっかりと感じていたそうで、「勉強などで無理な競争をしなくてもよかった分、子どもたちはみんな仲が良かった」と回想しています。

戦争と学び、朗読、踊り

不安な世相を感じながらも自由を満喫した幼少期が過ぎ、敦子も小学校に入学します。しかし1939年に第二次世界大戦が勃発すると、日本は急速に戦時下の緊張した時代へと様変わりしました。
無論、敦子の青春も例外ではありません。女専に進学したのに、憧れのセーラー服に袖を通す間もなく、朝から晩までモンペ姿でお国のためにと働かされました。軍服修理に芋掘り、壕みぞ掘り、竹槍訓練。果ては学徒動員で工場に派遣され、訳もわからずベニヤ板で飛行機部品を作らされる始末です。
戦中・戦後という動乱の時代に青春を翻弄された敦子ですが、そんな日々の中にあって彼女の救いとなったのが踊りと朗読でした。
幼少期から踊りが好きだったと回顧する敦子ですが、その腕前は学生ながら異彩を放っていたと言います。実際、敦子は学生時代、同級生ら数人で浜松市周辺の舞台に呼ばれて大勢の観客を前に踊りを披露していました。
「踊りが上手い生徒５、6人で舞台に立っていましたね。とても楽しかったですよ。」
当時でも学生が複数のオファーを受けていたというのは異例の話であり、それほど彼女の踊りが素晴らしかったことを示す証と言えるでしょう。
一方の朗読は、幼少期には特別に意識するものではなかったようです。しかし、ある日の授業のことでした。敦子の朗読を聞いていた先生が、堪えきれずに涙をこぼしたのです。教科書から顔を上げた敦子は驚くばかりでしたが、この時から自分の朗読が他の人とは少し違うかもしれないと思うようになります。そして、漠然と自分の中にあった表現する喜びをはっきりと実感するようになっていったのです。

家も学校も失った敦子は、山村の納屋で命をつなぎます。８月には終戦となりましたが、ぼろを身にまとい、食べる物も乏しい有様でした。そんな苦しい状況の中にありながらも、彼女の中には、「勉強したい！」という強い思いが芽生えていました。そんな折、ある私塾で彼女の心を明るくしてくれる先生に出会います。敦子はこれまでも先生との巡り合わせが良く、小学校、女学校、専門学校で5人の先生と出会いましたが、いずれも彼女の長所を認めてくれていました。そんな日々の中で、敦子は「自分自身を認める」というまたとない恩恵を受けることができたのです。

詩との出会い、そして現在

女子専門学校を無事卒業後、敦子は産婦人科の研修医だった夫と出会い、結婚します。しかし新婚生活は決して夢のようなものではありませんでした。わずか半年後に夫が生涯の病を発症し、さらに子どもにハンディキャップがあるとわかったのです。
敦子は、病院では経営を、家では家族を懸命に支え、危ない橋を渡る覚悟で苦境を乗り切ります。幸いにも夫婦仲は良く、夫も医師としての技術は確かでした。彼女の献身もあって病院は大きなミスもトラブルも発生することなく、無事に医業を終えることができました。天の救いだったのかもしれません。
そんな敦子に、詩という新たな喜びが生まれます。それは彼女にとって歌であり、祈りであり、誰かに届けたい想いでした。詩という新たな世界を知った敦子は、再び輝きを取り戻します。これまでの荒波多き半生の中に詩作の動機は散りばめられていました。
敦子の作る詩が評価を高めるのに、それほど時間はかかりませんでした。人生の荒波の中、深く深く潜るように深淵の世界へ誘う彼女の表現世界は、ごく自然で、そして人間の本質を捉えていると広く賞賛を受けています。
池谷敦子という1人の表現者が乗り越えてきた半生は、並大抵のものではありません。しかし様々な困難を切り抜けて来られたのは、自分を知り、認めることができたからなのでしょう。それが他人を大切に思い、気持ちを伝えることにつながったからに違いありません。

Uneasy Times and Freedom

Iketani Atsuko was born in Hamamatsu City, Shizuoka Prefecture in 1929 as the first of four children. At the time, Japan was in the midst of the Great Depression, and there were signs that the country was about to enter the Pacific War. In the eyes of the young Atsuko, the adults seemed to be heading single-mindedly towards war.
Her hometown of Hamamatsu was an industrial area and continues to be to this day. At the time the city was focused on the production of military goods.
There were also many military facilities in the area around Atsuko, and it was a familiar sight to see soldiers strutting around. It was a time completely inconceivable nowadays, when the Iketani family, a typical family but possessing a large tatami room, occasionally lodged officers.
But that is what it was like for the adults. As for the children, Atsuko says they were enjoying their freedom, free from the world and the eyes of their nagging parents. There were no beautiful shopping malls or entertaining amusement parks like today, but there were also no cram schools or entrance exams, and children could play together every day until nightfall, which in a sense made for a happier time than today.
Atsuko also had a firm feel for the mood of the time.She recalls, “All the children got along well because they didn’t have to compete with each other in their studies.”

Learning, Recitation, and Dancing During the War

After a childhood full of freedom despite the uncertainty of the world, Atsuko went on to higher education. However, with the outbreak of World War II in 1939, Japan rapidly changed into a tense wartime environment.
Of course, Atsuko’s youth was no exception. Even though she attended a girls’ school where she had the time of her life, she barely had time to enjoy her longed for sailor dress when she was forced to work for her country from morning to night in women’s work pants. She repaired military uniforms, dug potatoes, dug shelters, and trained with bamboo spears. Eventually, she was sent to a factory as part of the student mobilization program and was forced to make airplane parts out of plywood without understanding why.
Atsuko’s youth was bombarded by the turbulent years of the war and post-war years, but it was dance and recitation that helped her through those days.
Atsuko recalls that she has loved dancing since she was a child, and her skills were unique even as a student. In fact, when Atsuko was a student, she and several of her classmates were invited to dance on stages around Hamamatsu City in front of large audiences.
“You were on stage with fi ve or six students who were good dancers. It was a lot of fun.”It was unusual for a student to receive multiple off ers even at that time, and this is proof of the superior quality of her dancing.
Recitation, on the other hand, was not something hat Atsuko was particularly aware of in childhood. But something happened in class one day. The teacher, who was listening to Atsuko’s recitation, was unable to restrain herself and burst into tears. Atsuko looked up from her textbook surprised, but from this moment on she started to think that her recitation might be a little diff erent from that of other people. She began to have a clear realization of the joy of expression that had existed vaguely within her.
However, Atsuko was struck by a further misfortune. In June 1945, around 100 U.S. B-29s attacked the skies of Hamamatsu, bombing the city without mercy. This air raid, later called the Hamamatsu Air Raid, burned down more than 15,000 houses and took the lives of 1,717 people. At the time, the Iketani family had evacuated to the mountains, and Atsuko, who went to work at a munitions factory, was the sole keeper of the house.
Late that night, Atsuko was awakened by a roar. Realizing what had happened, she jumped up and ran for the air-raid shelter.
However, the sky in front of her was already turning red, and she immediately ran out of the shelter, thinking it dangerous. Atsuko fled farther and farther north along the Tenryu River. The shelter where she had been hiding earlier was bombed and no trace remained of it. It was a harsh night for the 16-year-old.
Atsuko lost her home and her school, and kept herself alive in a shed in a mountain village. The war ended in August, but Atsuko was clad in rags and had little to eat. In spite of this difficult situation, she had nurtured a strong desire to study within herself.
Then she met a good teacher at a private school who breathed inspiration into her. Atsuko had had good luck with teachers in the past. She had had five teachers between her elementary school, her girls’ school, and her vocational school, and all of them recognized her strengths. During this time, Atsuko received the unique blessing of “recognizing herself.”

Encounters with Poetry, and the Present

After successfully graduating from women’s technical school, Atsuko met and married her husband, who was a general practitioner of obstetrics and gynecology. But her newly-wed life was not a dream come true. Only six months later, her husband developed a lifelong illness and she also found out that her child had a handicap.
Atsuko worked hard to support operations at the hospital and her family at home, and she overcame a difficult situation with the resolution of one crossing a dangerous bridge. Fortunately, the married couple got along well, and her husband was a skilled physician. Thanks to her dedication, the hospital was able to complete its medical operations without any major mistakes or problems. It was probably divine salvation that guided her.
Then Atsuko discovered a new joy: poetry. To her, poetry was a song, a prayer, a feeling she wished to convey truly. Having discovered this  new world of poetry, Atsuko regained her radiance.
The motivation for Atsuko to compose poetry was scattered throughout her life, which has been one full of rough patches.It did not take long for the poems Atsuko created to grow in reputation. Her world of expression, which invites us to dive deep into the abyss of life’s stormy seas, has been widely praised for its naturalness and for capturing the essence of human nature.
The life that this one artist, Iketani Atsuko, has pulled herself through is not an ordinary one. However, she was perhaps able to overcome her many troubles because she was able to know and acknowledge herself. This must have led her to care for others and to express her feelings.

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Solo Exhibition /個展

 

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Profile /経歴

池谷敦子 Atsuko Iketani

1929年　静岡県に生まれる
日欧宮殿芸術協会正会員
作品出展国遍歴（JEPAA関連事業）：ドイツ、フランス、マルタ、カナダ他

Born: 1929 Shizuoka, Japan
affiliated Group:JEPAA member
Exhibition of Works(JEPAA): Germany, France, Malta, Canada…

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