山口県立美術館 YAMAGUCHI PREFECTURE ART MUSEUM

まいそう 埋葬

香月 泰男 かづき やすお

1948(昭和23年)

油彩/カンヴァス

〈作品解説〉
温かみのあるオレンジ色の画面に、横たわる人物と、その足元にかがみこむ上半身裸の人物が描かれています。手前にはシャベルが置かれ、そこが地面に開けた穴の中であることを示しています。この絵は、香月泰男がシベリアで最初の冬を過ごしたセーヤ収容所で、命尽きた同胞を埋葬した体験を描いたもの。画面の奥を向いた死者の顔には白い布がかけられています。
シベリアで過ごした最初の冬は想像を絶する厳しいものでした。慣れない極寒と劣悪な生活環境、粗末な食事、過酷な重労働によって、香月が抑留された収容所では抑留者の実に1割が一冬の間に命を落としました。
しかしながら、この絵からは抑留生活の過酷さは伝わってきません。帰還後まもなく描かれたこの絵について、香月は「異郷の冷たい土の下に葬られる戦友を、ことさらあたたかい色で描いた」と記しています。せめて絵の中だけでも、あの寒さから解放してやりたいという思いがあったのでしょう。

〈画家のことば〉
セーヤ収容所では、栄養失調と過労から死者が続出した。収容所の林に小鳥がやってきて、目白のような声でないた。その声は“ジフトリーヤ”と聞こえた。ジフトリーヤとはロシヤ語で病人の意味である。この可憐な姿の、死の予言者の歌に合わせるかのように、毎日のように戦友が死んで行った。体の中の栄養も、精も、根も使い果たした者の死は静かだった。
死者は山の斜面に埋葬した。柩がわりの毛布は、墓に入れる時に取去られ、顔の上にわずかばかりの白布をのせてやるのが、かえって痛ましく、正視出来なかった。凍った土は固くて掘りにくく、穴の浅いところは、地表からわずかに掘り下げた程度だった。雪解けには、その何体かが露出した。
私は異郷の冷たい土の下に葬られる戦友を、ことさらあたたかい色で描いた。

『シベリヤ画集』(新潮社、1971年)

香月泰男【かづき やすお】
生没年 1911~1974(明治44年~昭和49年)
山口県大津郡三隅村(現・長門市三隅)に生まれた香月泰男は、東京美術学校で油彩画を学び、美術教員の傍ら国画会を中心に作品を発表しました。1967年、太平洋戦争への従軍と戦後のシベリア抑留の経験を描いた「シベリア・シリーズ」により、第一回日本芸術大賞を受賞。その作品は今日も多くの人々を惹きつけています。

寸法 72.5×117.0cm
形状 額装

山口県立美術館 YAMAGUCHI PREFECTURE ART MUSEUM

Burial

Kazuki Yasuo

1948

Oil on canvas

〈Commentaries on works on display 〉

The painting uses warm orange colors. A person lies on his back. At his feet crouches another person, shirtless. In the foreground can be seen a shovel, indicating that the setting is a hole dug into the ground. This work depicts Kazuki Yasuo burying one of his fellow prisoners of war during his first winter in Siberia, spent at the Seya concentration camp. The face of the lifeless prisoner that is turned toward the far end of the picture is covered with a white cloth.
That first winter in Siberia was unbelievably harsh. Before the winter was out, the combination of the unimaginably cold weather and the terrible living conditions, meagre rations and punishing manual workload had claimed the lives of around one-tenth of the prisoner population.
Yet the work, painted shortly after Kazuki returned to Japan, does not convey the terrible conditions of the camp. Kazuki wrote that he deliberately chose warm colors to depict his fallen comrade being laid to rest in the cold, hard earth far from home. We can perhaps interpret this as an expression of his desire to see his friend released from the cold.

〈Painter’s words〉

So many died at the Seya concentration camp from malnutrition and overwork. One day a bird settled in a nearby bush and began to warble like a Japanese white-eye. The warbling to me sounded like the word “Jifutoriya”, which means sick person in Russian. Every day, another of my fellow soldiers would succumb. The bird was like the prophet of doom, signalling yet another silent passing of a human with no nutrition left, no vitality, no will to live
The dead were buried on a nearby mountain slope. With no coffins available, the body would be wrapped in a blanket. The act of removing the blanket and covering the body with a thin white cloth that barely covered their face before then putting them into the ground was so heartrending that I had to avert my eyes. Digging into the frozen earth was so hard that we had to lay our friends to rest in shallow graves that were barely below the ground surface. When the snow melted they would be exposed to the open air.
I have deliberately used warm colors to depict the body of my comrade buried in the cold, hard ground so far away from home.

Siberian Series (Shinchosha, 1971)

Kazuki Yasuo 1911 – 1974
Born in Misumi-mura (now Misumi, Nagato City) in Otsu-gun, Yamaguchi Prefecture. Studied oil painting at Tokyo School of Fine Arts, then taught fine art while producing works that were primarily exhibited at Kokugakai (National Painting Association). Kazuki was sent to fight in the Pacific War (WWII), then interned in Siberia after the war. This experience resulted in the Siberia Series, which won the inaugural Japan Art Grand Prize in 1967. This series is considered an important body of work that still resonates widely today.

Size 72.5×117.0cm

山口県立美術館 YAMAGUCHI PREFECTURE ART MUSEUM

埋葬

香月泰男

1948

《作品解說》

暖橙色的畫麵上,描繪著橫趟的人,以及蹲在其腳邊的裸著上身的人。前麵放著鐵鍬,顯出在地麵上挖出的洞。此畫描繪的是,香月泰男在西伯利亞度過第一個冬天的塞亞收容所,埋葬死難同胞的經曆。畫麵深處的死者臉上蓋著白布。
在西伯利亞度過的第一個冬天,超乎想象的嚴酷。不能適應的嚴寒以及惡劣的生活環境、粗茶淡飯、繁重的勞動,在香月被拘留的收容所裏,10%的拘留者在這個冬季喪生。
但此畫並沒有表現出拘留所生活的殘酷。這是香月在歸國後不久繪製的畫作,他記錄著:“用溫暖的顏色描畫,被埋葬在異鄉冰冷泥土下的戰友”。至少在畫中,是想把戰友從那種嚴寒中解放出來吧。

《畫家的話》

在塞亞的戰俘營,因營養失調和過度勞累,不斷有人死去。戰俘營的樹林裏飛來小鳥,啼叫聲像是暗綠繡眼鳥。那聲音聽起來像是“吉夫托利亞”。吉夫托利亞在俄語中是病人的意思。就好像配合著這小巧身軀的,死亡預言者的歌聲一般,幾乎每天都有戰友死去。身體裏的營養、精力、底氣都用盡了的死亡是無聲的。
死者被埋在山坡上。替代棺柩的毛毯,也會在入墓時被拿走,隻在死者的臉上蓋上一點點白布,更加刺眼,讓人無法正視。冰凍的土地堅硬難挖,坑淺的地方,隻是從地表稍微往下挖了一些而已。雪融化時,有幾個軀體都露出來了。
我用格外溫暖的色彩,描繪了被埋葬在異鄉冰冷土地下的戰友。

《西伯利亞畫集》(新潮社 1971年)

香月泰男
生卒年 1911~1974(明治44年~昭和49年)
香月泰男出生於山口縣大津郡三隅村(現長門市三隅),在東京美術學校學習油畫,在擔任美術教員的同時,主要在國畫會發表作品。1967年, “西伯利亞係列 “獲得了第一屆日本藝術大獎,描繪了香月在太平洋戰爭中服役以及戰後被關押在西伯利亞的經曆。那些作品至今也受很多人歡迎。

尺寸 72.5×117.0cm

山口県立美術館 YAMAGUCHI PREFECTURE ART MUSEUM

매장

가즈키 야스오

1948

따뜻함이 느껴지는 오렌지 빛 가득한 배경 위에, 가로로 길게 누워있는 인물과, 그 발 끝에서 상의를 벗고 웅크려 앉아있는 인물의 모습이 그려져 있습니다. 화폭 아래 쪽에 삽이 한 자루 놓여있는 것을 보아, 이 곳은 땅을 파낸 구덩이 속이라는 것을 알 수 있습니다. 이 그림은, 가즈키 야스오가 시베리아에서 보낸 첫 번째 겨울, 명을 달리한 동포를 땅에 묻었던 시베리아 포로 수용소에서의 경험을 그린 것입니다. 화폭 안쪽을 향해 고개를 돌리고 있는 시신의 얼굴에는 흰 천이 덮여져 있습니다.
그가 시베리아에서 보낸 첫 겨울은 상상을 초월할 정도로 혹독했습니다. 좀처럼 익숙해지지 않는 극한의 추위와 생활환경, 빈약한 식사, 가혹한 중노동으로 가즈키가 억류되었던 수용소에서는 단 한 철의 겨울 동안, 억류된 자들의 무려 10분의 1이 생을 달리 했습니다.
하지만 이 그림에서는 억류 생활의 가혹함이 느껴지지 않습니다. 일본으로 귀환 직후 그린 이 그림을 두고, 가즈키는 「이국의 차가운 땅 속에 묻힌 전우를, 일부러 따뜻한 색으로 그렸다」고 말했습니다. 적어도 그림 속에서 만큼은 추위에서 벗어나게 해주고 싶은 마음이었을 겁니다.

가즈키 야스오
생몰년 1911~1974 (메이지44년~쇼와49년)
야마구치현 오오츠군 미스미(현 나가토시 미스미)에서 태어난 가즈키 야스오는, 도쿄 미술학교에서 유화를 공부하고, 미술 선생님으로 재직하는 한편, 당시 일본 유력 미술 단체 중 하나인 국화회를 중심으로 작품을 발표했습니다. 1967년, 태평양 전쟁에서의 종군 생활과 전쟁 후의 시베리아 억류 경험을 그린 「시베리아 시리즈」를 통해 제1회 일본 예술 대상을 수상. 그 작품은 현재까지도 많은 사람들을 매혹시키고 있습니다.

치수 72.5×117.0cm