008.桜 02.花見山
008.Cherry Blossom 02.Hanami-yama (Japan)

2021年4月2日

Daigo Ishii (Future-scape Architects)

花見山は奇跡のような里山。春になると、桜だけでなく、レンギョウ、ロウバイ、ボケ、ハナモモなど、さまざまな色の花が咲き乱れます。

Hanami-yama that means Flower Viewing Mountain is a miraculous Satoyama (village-vicinity hill). In the spring, not only cherry blossoms but also flowers of various colors are in full bloom.

花卉と果物の栽培農家が、1920年代、日本を襲った不況と金融恐慌で田畑を失った後、残った山の雑木林を開墾して花木を植え、60年掛けて、生産を兼ねた花の山につくり替えました。見せてほしいという知り合いの声で、昭和34年に公開を始め、今では、福島を代表する春の名所として、訪れた数年前は、駅のバス乗り場は花見山への客で混み合い、駐車場にはすごい数の観光バスが並ぶほど。そして、そんな観光地となった今も、公的支援やボランティアに頼らず、一家で山を維持しているのも、すごいところ。

個人がつくったという話に、訪れるまでは、かなり懐疑的でしたが、実際の花見山は、自然の山とも、計画された公園とも違い、山をキャンバスに見立てて、少しずつ、さまざまな色を時間を掛けて配置した、桃源郷のような美しさ。農作業を通して、春の様子を身体に記憶して来た持ち主がつくった、実在しそうでしない理想の里山であり、この花の重なりは、東北という場所の気候風土のなせる技。単一の桜の花見とは違う活き活きとした春にあふれています。

A flower and fruit grower lost their fields in the recession and financial crisis that struck Japan in the 1920s. They cleared the remaining hill forests, planted flowering trees, and spent 60 years on changing the hill into a field to produce a flower and fruit. Pushed by the requests of acquaintances who wanted to see it, the grower began to open to the public in 1959. Now, it has become a representative spring attraction of Fukushima. When visiting a few years ago, the bus stop at Fukushima Station was crowded with visitors to Hanamiyama, and the parking lot is lined with a huge number of sightseeing buses. Though it has become such a tourist destination now, it is amazing that the grower family maintains the hill without public support.

I was skeptical about it because of the story that it was created by an individual. In reality, unlike the natural mountain and the planned park, it was just the beauty of utopia, in which various colors were little by little arranged over time, likening the hill to a canvas. It is an ideal Satoyama (village-vicinity hill) that is rare to exist, created by the owner who had memorized the state of spring in his body through farming, and this overlapping of flowers is a magic that can be done only by the climate of Tohoku. It is full of lively spring, which is different from the blossom of only cherry flowers.