kuroinu

アメリカ人の作者によって初めて僕は、澤田石守衛さんという、秋田犬の保存につとめられた方の存在を知りました。この本は、秋田県の人たち、秋田犬を愛する人たちだけでなく、日本犬が好きなすべての日本人が読むべきだと思いました。そして、生きること、家族、自然、動物、そんなことを考えたい人すべてが。

この本は、以下のような、すばらしい文章で始まります。
There are mountain villages and green valleys throughout Japan, and very few people live in them. The cities teem and buzz with life-each year with increasing speed and sophistication, more crowds and smaller cell phones and a dizzying parade of man-made pleasures. But far away, the snow country world moves quietly, almost forgotten except as a dream This is the story of that dream. It's about one man's devotion to a place and way of being, however preposterous it may seem to others, and how he gently, and not so gently, steers his life there.
もうひとつ、こんな文章も強く記憶に残りました。
In the morning when the dogs bolted from their kennels and followed Morie into the woods, it seemed as though they were disappearing to a magical land, to another time. Their territory seemed boundless, miles and miles of green meadows, forests of towering cedars, and mountain peaks with sheer cliffs. The dogs craved the wild, Morie always said. It kept their instincts sharp, their spirits strong. It kept them from complacency and spiritual decline. Being in the wild reminded them who they really were-and the amazing deeds they were meant for. It was an antidote to the convenience and comfort of modern life. Kitako wondered if people didn't need the wild too.

僕はこの原作に基づいて、映画が作られないものだろうかと思います。澤田石さんは、三菱グループの会社に勤めながら、終戦から退職まで、ずっと東北地域で発電所の建設プロジェクトに関わられてきたそうです。現在では、年齢も９０歳を越えた方です。自然とその一部である秋田犬をこよなく愛した人生に、乾杯！

→朝日新聞記事（澤田石さん紹介）