What has disappeared from the suburbs （郊外から失われていくもの）
ある日、家の近くにある畑が造成され、空き地になった。気がつくと、空き地はコインパーキングに姿を変えている。やがて空き地は更地へと再び整備され、そこにコンビニエンスストアが開店し、通りの向こうにも別の店舗が建てられた。市民の森の木々が切られ、田畑を潤す河川は護岸工事されて、道路が徐々にアスファルトで塗り固められていった。郊外の再開発が進み、大通りを遠くまで歩いても、同じような景色をした街並みが続いている。
郊外は、私が幼い頃から暮らしてきた故郷だ。今日も郊外では、スクラップ・アンド・ビルドが繰り返され、混沌としたその景色の変容は、現代の世相を鋭く反映している。郊外での暮らしは、無意識のうちに私自身の背景となり、私が社会を見つめるための、比較・対照の物差しになっている。郊外の再開発は、時と共に自然や環境を少しずつ消失させ、そして私は、過去の街並みの記憶を少しずつ喪失している。
私は郊外の変容に対して、興味と心のわだかまりを同時に感じる。それは再開発によって徐々に均質化する郊外から、街の個性的な人情みが失われつつあるからだ。郊外は都市化され生活が便利になったが、私たちは隣人と接する機会が少なく、互いの顔が見えにくい、他者に不寛容な社会を築いている。私は他者への共感やまなざしという想像力は、社会の豊かさを構成する、基盤のひとつであると考える。私は、郊外から失われていく何かを見つめ続けている。
One day, a field near my house was being redeveloped and turned into a vacant space. I noticed that a vacant space had been transformed into a coin-operated parking lot. Soon a coin-operated parking lot was cleared and redeveloped again. Then a convenience store opened there, and another store was built across the street. The trees in the “citizen’s forest” were cut down, the river that fed the fields was revetment, and the roads were repainted with asphalt. Suburban redevelopment has progressed, and even if you walk far down the main street, you will see the similar cityscape.
The suburbs have been my hometown since I was a child. Today, the suburbs are still being scrapped and built over and over again, and the chaotic transformation of the cityscape is sharp reflected of the today’s world. Suburban life has unconsciously become my own background and standard by which I compare and consider the way to look society. Over time the redevelopment of the suburbs has gradually erased environment, and my memory of the old cityscape was slowly lost.
I was interested in the transformation of the suburbs, at the same time, I had an anxious feeling. Because, the humanity of the suburbs is being disappeared which are gradually becoming homogenized through redevelopment. Although redevelopment of suburbs has made life more convenient, but there are decrease opportunities to contact with our neighbors. Now I think that intolerant society is being built at the suburbs. I believe that the ability to empathize and the imagination to look at others is one of the foundations which make up more richness of society. I keep looking at something what has disappeared from the suburbs.
©︎ 2022 Hajime Ohashi
