ドイツにおける建設職人の養成

2025年12月13日（土）

（一社）日本断熱住宅技術協会のミラノ・ベルリン研修旅行団は、十一月十四日と十五日の二日間、ベルリンにおいて、Sto社の案内に身を委ねながら、湿式外断熱という技術が現実の建築行為として立ち上がる、その工事現場を静かに見つめる時間を過ごしたのであった。
この視察団を構成していたのは、日本において、外断熱という理念を、いわば自らの身体を賭して推し進めようとしている中小工務店の経営者たちであり、彼らは異国の現場に立ちながら、そこに働く職人たちの身振りや沈黙のあり方に、ある共通した感触を覚えたという。

すなわち、ドイツでは、工事に携わる職人が、自らの仕事を単なる労働としてではなく、誇りを伴った行為として引き受けているように、彼らの目には映ったのである。その印象は、個々の職人の資質というよりも、むしろ彼らを支える職人養成の制度、長い時間をかけて社会の深部に沈殿してきた仕組みの確かさへと、自然に思考を導くものであったらしい。

その話を聞きながら、私自身もまた、この国において職人を育てるための制度が、いかなる思想と歴史の積層の上に築かれてきたのかを、あらためて丹念に調べてみる価値があるのではないか、そう感じずにはいられなかったのであった。

The Milan–Berlin study tour organized by the Japan Association of Insulated Housing Technologies spent two days, November 14 and 15, in Berlin, where—entrusting themselves to the guidance of Sto—they quietly observed construction sites at which the technology known as wet-applied external thermal insulation was taking shape as an actual architectural practice.

The members of this inspection group were owners of small and medium-sized construction firms in Japan who are, as it were, staking their own bodies and livelihoods on advancing the concept of external insulation at home. Standing at construction sites in a foreign land, they found themselves sensing a certain shared quality in the gestures of the craftsmen at work there, and even in the manner of their silences.

That is to say, to their eyes, the craftsmen in Germany appeared to assume their work not merely as labor, but as an act imbued with pride. This impression seemed to lead their thoughts quite naturally beyond the individual qualities of the craftsmen themselves, toward the solidity of the vocational training systems that support them—systems that have, over long stretches of time, settled and accumulated in the deeper strata of society.

As I listened to their accounts, I too could not help but feel that it might be worth once again examining, with careful attention, upon what layers of thought and historical accumulation the institutions for training craftsmen in this country have been built.

 

 

自由学園初等部でご一緒した中山瑞君を国分寺の自宅に訪問

2025年12月12日（金）

もう八十年という歳月が、ほとんど測りがたい時間の層となって私の内に沈殿している、その自由学園初等部の日々に、同じ空気を吸い、同じ言葉を覚えた中山瑞君の住まいを、私は国分寺に訪ねたのであった。二年前に長年連れ添った妻を失い、いまは独りで暮らしていると聞いていた私は、どこか「慰める」という、しかし自分でも正体のあいまいな意図を胸に抱いて、その家の敷居をまたいだ。

ところが、そこで私を迎えたのは、沈鬱ではなく、むしろ静かな確かさに満ちた生活の気配であり、さらに言えば、丹念につくられた蕎麦の、驚くほど滋味深い味であった。私は箸を運びながら、自分が慰める側であるという思い込みが、いつの間にか反転し、こちらこそが慰められているという、奇妙だが確かな感覚に包まれているのを自覚した。

八十年も前の、今となっては細部の輪郭さえ曖昧な出来事を、しかし互いの記憶が呼び水となって、私たちは語り合った。語ることでしか保持できない過去が、言葉の往復のなかで、かすかに息を吹き返す。その時間が尽きたところで、私たちは別れた。

独り暮らしとは思えぬほど、家の内は隅々まで整えられていた。その理由を尋ねると、彼は、自由学園の男子寮で身につけた清掃の習慣なのだ、と、ことさら誇るでもなく言った。その言葉を聞きながら私は、少年期に刻み込まれた行為の倫理が、八十年という時間をくぐり抜け、なお一人の生活を静かに支えている、その事実の重みを思わずにはいられなかった。

Nearly eighty years of time have settled within me, forming layers of duration that are now almost beyond measure. From those days at the Jiyu Gakuen Elementary School, when we breathed the same air and learned the same words, I went to visit the home of my classmate, Mizuho Nakayama, in Kokubunji. I had heard that he had lost the wife with whom he had shared a long life two years earlier and was now living alone. Carrying within me a vague and not entirely examinable intention—something like a wish to “offer comfort”—I stepped across the threshold of his house.

What greeted me there, however, was not melancholy but rather the presence of a life sustained by quiet assurance, and, more concretely still, the surprisingly deep and nourishing flavor of soba, prepared with great care. As I lifted my chopsticks, I became aware that my assumption of being the one to offer consolation had, without my noticing, quietly reversed itself. I found myself enveloped in the strange yet unmistakable sensation that it was I who was being comforted.

We spoke together of events from eighty years ago—incidents whose outlines have now grown indistinct—yet, as each of our memories served as a catalyst for the other, those moments were summoned back into speech. A past that can be preserved only through being spoken breathed faintly back into life through the exchange of words. When that shared time was spent, we took our leave.

Though he lived alone, the house was kept in order down to its furthest corners. When I asked him the reason, he replied without any special air of pride that it was simply a habit of cleaning he had acquired in the boys’ dormitory at Jiyu Gakuen. Listening to him, I could not help but reflect on the weight of that fact: that an ethic of action engraved in boyhood had passed through eighty years of time and was still quietly sustaining the life of one man.

 

 

スーダン出身のAbuさんからメールを頂いた。

2025年12月11日（木）

12月7日に来宅したAbuさんはスーダンの出身で、現在早稲田大学建築学科の博士課程に在学している。今日Abuさんからメールが入った。英国の科学雑誌Routledgeに建築理論に関する論文を投稿したそうである。そのため多忙で、暫くメール出来なかったと詫びてきた。大変礼儀正しく、頼もしい青年である。彼は論部作製以外にも沢山の仕事をやっている。まさに「働いて、働いて、働いて」の典型のような人である。

Mr. Abu, who visited my home on December 7, is from Sudan and is currently enrolled in the doctoral program in architecture at Waseda University. Today, I received an email from him. He told me that he has submitted a paper on architectural theory to the British scientific journal Routledge. He apologized for not being able to write for a while because he had been very busy with that work.

He is a very polite and dependable young man. Besides working on his dissertation, he is engaged in many other tasks as well. He is truly a typical example of someone who “works, works, and works.”