Koretsune Sakura
University of Oslo. Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages. Guest researcher / Trainee of “Program of Overseas Study for Upcoming Artists” Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan
ある捕鯨船の記憶: ノルウェーと日本で発見されたふたつのイメージを結ぶアートとリサーチの実践
ノルウェーと日本の捕鯨の歴史は、19世紀末に日本の企業家が当時最先端の「ノルウェー式捕鯨」の技術を学ぶためノルウェーを訪れたことから関わり始めた。それ以前に日本では網を用いた伝統的な捕鯨が行われていた。20世紀初頭、ノルウェーから日本へ機器、船、砲手の技能が導入され、日本の近代捕鯨産業の発展に貢献した。ノルウェー人砲手の存在は日本人労働者と地域社会に影響をもたらしたと考えられるが、文化的な影響はあまり知られていない。遠洋捕鯨の航海の間、捕鯨船員らは鯨素材からさまざまな工芸を作り出した。ノルウェーでも日本でも捕鯨船の産物として絵付けをしたクジラヒゲが見られ、その技法や題材はよく似ている。
本発表では、山口県萩市の神社に奉納された「クジラヒゲ絵馬」を取り上げる。萩地方は日本でノルウェー式捕鯨を取り入れた最初期の捕鯨会社の設立地にも近い。この絵馬に描かれた小型捕鯨船は、かつてのクリスチャニア、現在のオスロで建造された船と考えられる。また、同じ船が20世紀初頭に日本の捕鯨船で活躍したノルウェー人砲手H.G.メルソムの撮影したガラスネガに写されていた可能性がある。日本とノルウェーの間で、同じ船を記録したと考えられるクジラヒゲ絵馬とガラスネガにまつわる歴史と記憶を調査した過程を紹介するとともに、一連の調査活動から着想したアート作品、関連するアート・リサーチの協働展示の実践を紹介する。
The Memory of a Whaling Catcher Boat: A Practice of Art and Research to Tie Two Images Found in Norway and Japan
Norway and Japan are among the countries that continue to catch whales. Whaling practices of Norway and Japan began to cross at the end of the nineteenth century when Japanese entrepreneurs visited Norway to study the cutting-edge whaling technique called the "Norwegian system whaling technique". Traditional whaling was conducted mainly by nets in Japan until then. Technologies, including the equipment, ships, and skills of gunners, were transferred from Norway to Japan in the early twentieth century, significantly contributing to the development of the modern whaling industry in Japan. Working with Norwegian whalers would influence Japanese workers and local communities, but the cultural aspects of this international collaboration are still understudied. Long-term voyages of pelagic whaling provided whalers extra time to create crafts from whale materials. Norwegian and Japanese whalers painted baleens as decorative objects, and there seem to be similarities in painting styles and motifs.
The presentation will introduce one remarkable baleen painting dedicated as ema, or votive painting, to a local Shinto shrine of Hagi, Yamaguchi, Japan. Nearby to this town, the earliest whaling companies in Japan to use the Norwegian system were established. A whaling catcher boat is depicted on the ema, and the boat is recognized as a vessel built in Kristiania, or today’s Oslo. There is a possibility that the same boat was recorded in one of the glass negatives by Henrik Govenius Melsom, a Norwegian gunner who served on Japanese whaling ships in the early twentieth century. I will introduce the memories and histories associated with the ema and glass negative and the process of studying them between Norway and Japan. I will also refer to my practice in a collaborative exhibition of art and research in which the connection of the ema and glass negative was highlighted.