倉賀野河岸あって、我が命あり

【倉賀野町を流れる烏川。ここは倉賀野河岸跡です。】

　私が生まれた時点で４人の祖父母はすでに他界しており、私は会うことができませんでした。実は、４人とも幕末の安政年間に誕生しましたが、この４人の先祖のお陰で私は現在この世に生を授かってます。

　４０年ほど前に他界した父が生前説明したところによると、父方の祖父と祖母の生まれは互いに４００ｍ程の比較的近いところで、子供の頃から知り合いだったようです。場所は「原道村」といい、現在の埼玉県大利根町です。二軒の家ともすぐ裏に利根川が流れていて当時は江戸と上州(今の群馬県)倉賀野を結ぶ運搬船の往来で賑わっていました。

　推定、明治10年ころ祖母も適齢期となり、昔ですから、おそらく自分の意思でなく、親の薦めで栃木県に嫁ぎ、子供も生まれました。しかし、しばらくして何とその子供を嫁ぎ先に置いてきて、以前からよく知っていた私の祖父と再会し、近所の村人に見つからないよう二人は隠れて裏の利根川に行き、江戸から来た運搬船に乗せてもらい、着の身着のままで「誰も知り合いのいない遠くまで」と船頭に乗船を頼み、原道村から７０キロほど上流の誰も知ってる人のいない倉賀野河岸についに辿り着いたのです。

　残してきた子供のことが心配であっても、当時の安宿に仮住まいし、【好きな人と一緒になれた情熱】がエネルギーとなって二人は仕事に精を出し、ついに生まれ故郷の名をとって「原道屋」という屋号をつけ、金物屋を始めることができました。祖母はしばらくしてから栃木に置いてきた「忘れられない子供」と涙の面会をしたとのことですが、大変な心境であったろうと推測してます。後にその子を引き取り、その子は倉賀野小を卒業しました。

　その後、倉賀野で生まれた私の父は「原道屋」を引継ぎ、ずっとしばらくして私はこのお店の６人目の子供として生まれました。

　近年、私は祖父母の生まれ故郷である埼玉県原道村に行ってみました。驚いたことに、現在でも原道という地名が残ってます。原道小学校や原道農協の看板を見て「遠い昔、祖父母が青春を過ごした地」を実感できて感慨無量でした。原道小学校に行き事情を説明しましたら先生方が卒業者名簿を見せてくださいました。しかし、祖父母の名はありません。幕末では時代が古く、寺子屋と思われ、原道小学校は開校以前でした。推測するに、私の祖父母は非常に情熱的であり、お陰で私はこの世に存在します。今日９月１５日は祖父の命日で墓参りをしてきます。

Dear my friends abroad

　The simultaneous interpretation for your understanding will be done after my radio gymnastics held in the nearby park and breakfast in Japan time.

..............................................

【Interpretation is summarized due to long sentences

　My father, who passed away about 40 years ago, explained that my paternal grandfather and grandmother were born relatively close to each other, about 400 meters away, and had known each other since childhood. The place was called "Haramichi-Village," in what is now Otone Town, Saitama Prefecture. The Tone River flows just behind both houses, and at the time the area was bustling with the traffic of transport ships connecting Tokyo and Kuragano in Joshu (now Gumma Prefecture).

　It is estimated that around 1877, my grandmother reached marriageable age, and as it was a long time ago, she married and moved to Tochigi Prefecture, probably not of her own will but by her parents' recommendation, and had children. However, after a while, she left her child behind in her husband's home and was reunited with my grandfather named Kakinuma, who she had known well for a long time. The two of them hid from the local villagers and went to the Tone River behind the village, where they got on a transport ship that had come from Edo. With only the clothes on their backs, they asked the boatman to let them on board, saying, "We'll go far away, where we don't know anyone." They finally reached the Kuragano Riverbank, about 70 kilometers upstream from Haramichi Village, where they knew no one.

　Even though they were worried about the child they had left behind in Tochigi-Prefecture, they temporarily lived in a cheap lodging house at the time, and their passion for being with the person they loved fueled them to work hard, and they were finally able to open a hardware shop named "Haramichiya" at their new hometown. Some time later, my grandmother had a tearful meeting with her "unforgettable child" that she had left behind in Tochigi, and I imagine she must have been feeling very emotional. She later took the child in, and he graduated from Kuragano Elementary School. Later, my father, who was born in Kuragano, took over Haramichiya, and much later I was born as the sixth child in the shop.

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