Official

On this monument, a poster of the Minatoya Ezo Paper Store drawn by Yumeji is fitted with a ceramic plate, and the lyrics of "Yoimachikusa" are engraved on the right.

　　A person who can't live　
　　I don't have to do it.　
　　Koyohi will not come out of the moon

Yumeji Takehisa has demonstrated his multi-talent talent. Not only paintings, but also poetry and novels were published in the world. It is also said to be the pioneer of graphic designers, and its design still captures the hearts of many people.

I think that painting is what he is most recognized in the world, but he really wanted to become a "poet." However, since I couldn't live, I tried drawing a poem in the form of a picture instead of letters, and gradually became known.

That's why? There is a place where you can feel the emotions that are backed by poetry, and I am curiously attracted to the paintings that he drew.

From "NDL Image Bank"

Also, his poems written straight are also wonderful. Songs were added to the poem of "Yoimachikusa", and it became a nationwide hit in the middle of the Taisho era.

"Evening wait grass," It is doubtful that the song was directly related to the Minatoya Esoshi Paper Store, but it is the most known poem written by him, so it is engraved on the monument of the Minatoya Esoshi Paper Store I think it is.

If you look up this "monument of evening waiting grass", it seems that there are not only here in Chuo-ku, but also in Okayama where he was born, Kitakyusyu who spent a period of youth, Aizu who visited on a trip, etc. .

In particular, the stone monument on Ashikajima in Choshi, Chiba Prefecture seems to be the head family, and I wanted to ride the Choshi Electric Railway, so I visited this winter.

From Choshi Station, take the longing Choshi Electric Railway to reach a few stations, Ashikajima Station. There were quite a few tourists on board, but I was the only one who got off at this unmanned station. Recently, I like to visit such a little quiet place.

<At Choshi Electric Railway / Ashikajima Station>

This "Ashikajima Station" is the easternmost station in the Kanto region. If you walk a little, you can also get to the Pacific coast near Inubosaki.

This area, which boasts a scenic landscape, is a recreation area where many villas were once built, and many literary people from the Meiji and Taisho eras stayed.

In Chuo-ku, Tokyo, it is a place like Kaikaikan.

In 1910 (Meiji 43), Yumeji also visited Ashikajima.

I spent this summer with my former wife, Tamaki, who got married once and broke up and lived together again, and his eldest son, Nijinosuke (2 years old).

It was when I was sitting on a slightly elevated hill on the beach and sketching the beautiful sea of Matsubara.

A woman crossed in front of Yumeji.

It's an encounter with "Hagawakawa Kata", a young girl like the moon. It was the end of summer, Yumeji 25 years old and Hasegawa 19 years old.

Yumeji Takehisa is known as a lovely painter. I decided to leave a story about what I was doing while I came with my family, and Yumeji liked Mr. Hasegawa. Mr. Hasegawa is called "Oshima-san", and he draws as a model of the picture and repeats dating.

However, this pale summer vacation with Oshima ended in about 10 days.

After that, he reunited in the winter six months later, and at the same time in the summer of the following year, Yumeji will come to Ashikajima again. But I didn't see you anymore. Mr. Oshima was supposed to marry others with the help of a parent who worried about his relationship with the wanderer Yumeji.

A stone monument on Ashikajima, which stands relatively lonely.

"Evening wait grass" is said to be a poem of Yumeji's own sad love, mourning that he met Oshima on Ashikajima and was unable to meet him.

　　A person who can't do it　
　　I don't have to do it.

　　And the moon.

From this stone monument to the beach.

Walk along the sandy beach of Ashikajima, climb a slightly elevated hill, and sit down. Look at the sandy beach and release the shutter as it tastes while being blown by the pleasant sea breeze.

I don't know if Yumeji sketched on this hill. Why did you come to this sea? 。 Did Yumeji, who visited again at the same time, try to see the continuation of his interrupted dream?

When you look up on the Internet, it generally seems that "When Yumeji came to Ashikajima the next year, he couldn't meet because he was married." I think it's a poem that expresses the loneliness of Yumeji, saying that he couldn't meet or didn't know that he came here, but he didn't.

However, the book I read said, "When Yumeji came to Ashikajima the following year, Oshima had decided to marry him, so he did not try to meet directly just from a distance." According to this interpretation, I feel that not only loneliness but also something like a little pain and tooth itchy of Yumeji.

<Illustrations in Yumeji's Poetry "Dontaku">

Whether it was a single thought of Yumeji or both thoughts. What did you think of Yumeji?

If Oshima had thought like Yumeji, he was waiting here, and "the man who couldn't come" was Yumeji who had just come there. Is this poem a poem that imagined the loneliness of Oshishima?

I had imagined it on the hill.

This evening's three-line poem was published in Dontaku, which was published as the first collection of picturesque poems in the year before opening the Minatoya Esoshi Paper Store (1913). However, originally in 1912, there was a slightly longer original poem published in a magazine under the title of "Samisengusa".

　There is no way to do it.
　The song of the evening of the bell grass　
　Oh, that's blown by the wind.
　A person who can't come　
　I don't care about it.
　"I don't think it's a good thing."
　I'm afraid I'm afraid I can't.
　I don't know the moon tonight.

Yumeji has been shrinking from this original poem to three lines in seventy-five tone.

And what is the grass of "Evening Waiting grass"? There seems to be a debate, but it seems that it is a flower that blooms after waiting for the night, such as a giant pine tree or a moonflower. It is based on Yumeji's sense that "Evening grass" instead of "Waiting grass". Maybe it's okay if it's a flower that blooms at night.

A free idea is born to the reader by being a "vague" three-line poem entitled "Evening Waitsou".

It is still a poem of thoughts for Oshima, but I think it is good for the reader to freely imagine what to read in those three lines.

When I read this poem, it may be that I was caught in the trap of Yumeji Takehisa.

August 29, 1911 (Meiji 44)
　I was dreaming, and I heard the sound of the sea.
　I'm going to Matsubara, I don't have anything to do.
　See a man's house far away.
　See you going to the town.

This is a diary of Yumeji written on this day. It's a diary, but it's very poetic.

<There is another monument of evening waiting grass in Choshi>

By the way, the place where the idea of the poetry of evening waiting grass was born seems to have been the theory of Okayama or Aizu before, but now it seems that this Ashikajima is calm.

Unfortunately, there is no theory of Chuo-ku at all.

<Books/Information referenced>
★“Okayama Bunko 171, Yumejigochi Museum,” Yuichi Narahara / Nihon Bunkyo Publishing / 1994
★"Okayama Bunko 111, Yumeji no Furusato", Yoshio Sanada / Nihon Bunkyo Publishing / 1984
★"Dontaku" Yumeji Takehisa / Business Nipponsha / 1913
★"Yume 2 Diary 1 (Meining 40 to 4 years)" by Yumeji Takehisa / Mikio Nagata / Chikuma Shobo / 1987
★"National Diet Library NDL Image Bank"
　　　(https://rnavi.ndl.go.jp/imagebank/)
★"Okayama Prefecture Homepage"
　　　Monument related to "Minatoya Esoshi Paper Store"
★"Choshi City Homepage" Literature Monument
　　　Flowers of Choshi City