日本その日その日 Ｅ．Ｓ．モース（石川欣一訳） 第二章 日光への旅 ７ 行灯 附“Japanese Homes and Their Surroundings”より「畳」の原文・附図と私の注

　旅館に於る我々の部屋の清潔さは筆ではいい現わし得ない。これ等の部屋は二階にあって広い遊歩道に面していた。ドクタア・マレーのボーイ（日本人）が間もなく我々のために美事な西洋料理を調理した。我々はまだ日本料理に馴れていなかったからである。ここで私は宿屋の子供やその他の人々に就いての、面白い経験を語らねばならぬ。即ち私は日本の紙に日本の筆で蟾蜍（ひきがえる）、バッタ、蜻蛉（とんぼ）、蝸牛（かたつむり）等の絵を書いたのであるが、子供達は私が線を一本か二本引くか引かぬに、私がどんな動物を描こうとしているかを当てるのであった。

図――４０

　六十六マイルの馬車の旅で疲れた我々は、上述の芸当を済ませた上で床に就いた。すくなくとも床から三フィートの高さの二本の棒に乗った、四角い提灯（ちょうちん）の形をした夜のランプが持ち込まれた。この構造の概念は、挿絵（図４０）によらねば得られない。提灯の一つの面は枠に入っていて、それを上にあげることが出来る。こうして浅い油皿に入っている木髄質の燈心若干に点火するのである。日本では床の上に寝るのであるが、やわらかい畳（マット）【＊】がこの上もなくしっかりした平坦な表面を持っているので、休むのには都合がよい。

［やぶちゃん注：置行灯（おきあんどん）である。なお、ここから原典の傍注記号は【＊】で本文に入れ込んで示すこととする（以下、この注は略す）。

「三フィート」９１センチメートル。］

＊　この畳に関する詳細は私の『日本の家庭』（ハーパア会社一八八六年）に図面つきで説明してある。Japanese Homes (Harper & Bros)

［やぶちゃん注：注は底本では全体はややポイント落ちの一字下げで注の前後に有意な空行がある（以下、この注は略す）。

　これは、前出の“Japanese Homes and Their Surroundings”（の再版公刊本。この出版年については「緒言」の私の同書についての注（「私の著書『日本の家庭及びその周囲』」の注）の推理を必ず参照されたい）で、出版社名の“Harper & Bros”は“Harper & Brothers”の略。以下に本電子化の参考にもしている“Internet Archive: Digital Library of Free Books, Movies, Music & Wayback Machine”にある同書の電子テクスト・データを、同所にある原書画像（ＰＤＦ版）で視認校訂した当該箇所“CHAPTER III. INTERIORS.”の“MATS.”の原文を総て示す（原書p.121-125）。図版は斎藤正二・藤本周一訳「日本人の住まい」（八坂書房二〇〇二年刊）のものを用い、相応しいと思われる位置に配した。

 A more minute description of the mats may be given at this point. A brief allusion has already been made to them in the remarks on house-construction. These mats, or tatami, are made very carefully of straw, matted and bound together with stout string to the thickness of two inches or more, the upper surface being covered with a straw-matting precisely like the Canton matting we are familiar with, though in the better class of mats of a little finer quality. The edges are trimmed true and square, and the two longer sides are bordered on the upper surface and edge with a strip of black linen an inch or more in width (fig. 100).

 The making of mats is quite a separate trade from that of making the straw-matting with which they are covered. The mat-maker may often be seen at work in front of his door, crouching down to a low frame upon which the mat rests.

FIG. 100―MAT.

 As we have before remarked, the architect invariably plans his rooms to accommodate a certain number of mats ; and since these mats have a definite size, any indication on the plan of the number of mats a room is to contain gives at once its dimensions also. The mats are laid in the following numbers, two, three, four and one-half, six, eight, ten, twelve, fourteen, sixteen, and so on. In the two-mat room the mats are laid side by side. In the three-mat room the mats may be laid side by side, or two mats in one way and the third mat crosswise at the end. In the four and one-half mat room the mats are laid with the half-mat in one corner. The six and eight mat rooms are the most, common-sized rooms ; and this gives some indication of the small size of the ordinary Japanese room and house, the six-mat room being about nine feet by twelve ; the eight-mat room being twelve by twelve ; and the ten-mat room being twelve by fifteen. The accompanying sketch (fig. 101) shows the usual arrangements for these mats.

FIG. 101. ARRANGEMENT or MATS IN DIFFERENT - SIZED ROOMS.

 In adjusting mats to the floor, the corners of four mats are never allowed to come together, but are arranged so that the corners of two mats abut against the side of a third. They are supposed to be arranged in the direction of a closely-wound spiral (see dotted line in fig. 101). The edges of the longer sides of the ordinary mats are bound with a narrow strip of black linen, as before remarked. In the houses of the nobles this border strip has figures worked into it in black and white, as may be seen by reference to Japanese illustrated books showing interiors. These mats fit tightly, and the floor upon which they rest, never being in sight, is generally made of rough boards with open joints. The mat, as you step upon it, yields slightly to the pressure of the foot ; and old mats get to be slightly uneven and somewhat hard from continual use. From the nature of this soft-matted floor shoes are never worn upon it, the Japanese invariably leaving their wooden clogs outside the house, either on the stepping-stones or on the earth-floor at the entrance. The wearing of one's shoes in the house is one of the many coarse and rude ways in which a foreigner is likely to offend these people. The hard heels of a boot or shoe not only leave deep indentations in the upper matting, but oftentimes break through. Happily, however, the act of removing one's shoes on entering the house is one of the very few customs that foreigners recognize, the necessity of compliance being too obvious to dispute. In spring-time, or during a rain of lung duration, the mats become damp and musty; and when a day of sunshine comes they are taken up and stacked, like cards, in front of the house to dry. They are also removed at times and well beaten. Their very nature affords abundant hiding-places for fleas, which are the unmitigated misery of foreigners who travel in Japan ; though even this annoyance is generally absent in private houses of the better classes, as is the case with similar pests in our country.

FIG. 102.  ATTITUD OF WOMAN IN SITTING.

 Upon these mats the people eat, sleep, and die ; they represent the bed, chair, lounge, and sometimes table, combined. In resting upon them the Japanese assume a kneeling position, ― the legs turned beneath, and the haunches resting upon the calves of the legs and the inner sides of the heels ; the toes turned in so that the upper and outer part of the instep bears directly on the mats. Fig. 102 represents a woman in the attitude of sitting. In old people one often notices a callosity on that part of the foot which comes in contact with the mat. and but for a knowledge of the customs of the people in this matter might well wonder how such a hardening of the flesh could occur in such an odd place. This position is so painful to a foreigner that it is only with a great deal of practice he can become accustomed to it. Even the Japanese who have been abroad for several years find it excessively difficult and painful to resume this habit. In this attitude the Japanese receive their company. Hand-shaking is unknown, but bows of various degrees of profundity are made by placing the hands together upon the mats and bowing until the head oftentimes touches the hands. In this ceremony the back is kept parallel with the floor, or nearly so.

 At meal-times the food is served in lacquer and porcelain dishes on lacquer trays, placed upon the floor in front of the kneeling family; and in this position the repast is taken.

 At night a heavily wadded comforter is placed upon the floor ; another equally thick is provided for a blanket, a pillow of diminutive proportions for a head-support, and the bed is made. In the morning these articles are stowed away in a large closet. Further reference will be made to bedding in the proper place.

 A good quality of mats can be made for one dollar and a half a-piece ; though they sometimes cost three or four dollars, and even a higher price. The poorest mats cost from sixty to eighty cents a-piece. The matting for the entire house represented in plan fig. 97 cost fifty-two dollars and fifty cents.

末尾にある“fig. 97”（この図面の家屋に係った畳の総経費が５２円５０銭であったと述べている）もキャプションと一緒に参考までに以下に示す（キャプションの最後の上付きの「１」があるのは、後の“FIG. 98.”で同標題で別の家屋の平面図を出しているからである）。

FIG. 97. ― PLAN OF DWELLING-HOUSE IN TOKIO.¹

1 P, Parlor or Guest-room ; S, Sitting-room ; D, Dining-room ; L, Library ;

 St, Study ; SR, Servants’ Room ; B, Bed-room ; K, Kitchen ; H, Hall ;

 V, Vestibule ;  C,Closet ; T, Tokonoma ; Sh, Shrine ; U, and L, Privy.

このキャプションの“Parlor”は応接間、“Library”及び“Study”は斎藤・藤本訳「日本人の住まい」では前者を「書院」、後者を「書斎」と訳しているが、これは図面を見ると寧ろ後者の方が「書院」で（“ St ”の左手にあるのは“ C ”（押入れ）とするが、これは誤りで明らかに書院造りの違い棚と床の間である）、前者は寧ろ“Parlor or Guest-room”とすべき座敷である。“Hall”は「こゝろ」にも出てくる玄関の間で、“Vestibule”が玄関である。“Shrine”は神棚である。

　以下、語注を附す（斎藤・藤本訳「日本人の住まい」を一部参考にした）。

●“A brief allusion has already been made to them in the remarks on house-construction.”は以下の“The making of mats”の注の引用部を参照。

●“the Canton matting”広東茣蓙（カントンござ）。最近、しばしば見かける中国製のイグサを用いた四角い座布団（布団ではないので変な言い方だが）、敷き茣蓙のこと。現在も広東省はこの茣蓙の産地である。

●“The making of mats”これは畳床（たたみどこ）の製作の意。次にある“the straw-matting”が畳表（たたみおもて）の意。畳の大きさは前の“SELECTION OF STOCK.”（建築用材の選択方法）の部に“As the rooms are made in sizes corresponding to the number of mats they are to contain, the beams, uprights, rafters, flooringboards, boards for the ceiling, and all strips are got out in sizes to accommodate these various dimensions. The dimensions of the mats from one end of the Empire to the other are approximately three feet wide and six feet long;”（約９０センチメートル×１・８メートル相当）とある。以下は、畳屋の前での畳表を張っている光景を簡潔に描写している。

●“As we have before remarked”前注に引用した直後に“and these are fitted compactly on the floor. The architect marks on his plan the number of mats each room is to contain.”とある。

●“yields”物理的にへこむ、の意。斎藤・藤本訳「日本人の住まい」では『弾性（イールド）を感じる』と訳す。この後も同訳は『長年のあいだ使ったものは弾性がなくなり』と訳すが、原文には学術的な（文字通り）お硬い「弾性」（例えば“elasticity”）という表現は見られない。

●“From the nature of this soft-matted floor shoes are never worn upon it, the Japanese invariably leaving their wooden clogs outside the house, either on the stepping-stones or on the earth-floor at the entrance.……”以下で、モースは初めて日本人が家屋に入る場合に履き物を脱ぐことを述べ、その習慣がフロアの美観を守っている点で称賛している（但し、長雨の時期には湿気を吸い黴臭くなること、畳干をしなくてはならないこと、蚤の格好の棲み家となること等を同時に述べている）。

●“Upon these mats the people eat, sleep, and die ;”当たり前のことを言っているのだが、私の様に寝室以外に畳がない家に永く暮していると、何か、しみじみとした懐かしさと古き良き日本の面影を感じてしまうのは何かもの狂ほしくなってくる。

●“lounge”この場合は、“lounge chair”で、寝椅子の意。

●“the haunches”通常このように複数形で、人の臀部（尻）・腰部をいう。

●“a callosity”は“callus”（カルス）と同義で、ここでは常時正座することによって生ずる足の甲や踝（くるぶし）の座り胼胝（だこ）のことを言っている。

●“lacquer and porcelain”漆器（lacquer ware）と瀬戸物（chinaware）。

●“a heavily wadded comforter”ぎっしりと詰め物を施された掛け布団。

●“Further reference will be made to bedding in the proper place.”後の“CHAPTER IV. INTERIORS (Continued). ”に“BEDDING AND PILLOWS.”として一項を設けている。］