Tamio Hojo's "The First Night of Life": The Wail of Hansen's Disease Patient

Leprosy is a disease in which a pathogenic bacterium called Mycobacterium leprae infiltrates various parts of the body, including the skin, and devours the body. Until the middle of the Showa era, it was an "incurable" disease. And, despite the invention of the silver bullet (Promin), the government has taken measures to completely isolate the sick from the abomination and forcibly collect them in a "sanatorium".

f:id:iirei:20210707052047j:plain

This kind of prejudice was great in the 1960s and 1970s when I was in elementary school. The teacher in charge said, "A disease that is scarier than cancer, it is leprosy." "One day, a patient in a sanatorium ran away from the facility because he wanted freedom. Since this disease is transmitted through the skin, the train fishing that this patient touched. You can also get infected from leather. " "It's scary," I engraved in my heart. I thought it was a long time ago that the education was very biased. (This disease is not very infectious.)

Recently, when the name of leprosy itself is discriminatory, the name " Hansen's Disease " is common, and it seems that people who have leprosy have filed proceedings for damages or rehabilitation to the country.

By the way, the novel "The First Night of Life". Takao Oda will also visit one of the patients with Hansen's disease, the "sanatorium". He repeatedly thinks about committing suicide on the way. He travels through vast farmlands to a large sanatorium on the floor. I was briefly told about this facility, and it was his first night, but the guide was assigned to a caring man named Sagaragi, who was careful about other patients, Oda Is impressed. Thinking that he is a young man with one eye shining well. However, I see a variety of patients, including a man whose face has become jerky due to pus due to leprosy, and a man whose nerves are affected by bacteria and sobbing all night.

Oda is taught by Sagaragi that these leprosy patients are no longer humans, but life itself. Sagaragi also confesses to Oda, and the shining one eye is his artificial eye, and in fact he was writing a novel in his notebook just before he lost his eyesight. The competition for "life", whether the eyesight is lost or the novel is completed.

This novel is an experience in which the main character first entered the Hansen's disease treatment center, and in front of the overwhelming power of the facility, his eyes were wide open about "life" that would not be lost even if he had Hansen's disease. The hero in himself lost his desire to commit suicide, and since it was the night when he received the first initiation to burn "life", he called it "first night" and the work itself "The First Night of Life". Furthermore, Yasunari Kawabata praised this work and presented this title to Tamio Hojo.

About Tamio Hojo (wikipedia)

Tamio Hojo ( 民雄　北條:September 22, 1914-December 5, 1937) is a novelist. While he was forced to live in isolation due to leprosy, he left behind his masterpiece "The First Night of Life" based on his own experience. He is his real name: Koji Shichijo （晃司七條）.
He was born in Seoul, the capital of Korea during the Japanese colonial rule (currently Seoul), and grew up in Shimoono-cho, Anan City, Tokushima Prefecture.
He became ill in 1933. The following year, in 1934, he was housed in Zenseien in Higashimurayama Village, Kitatama District, Tokyo Prefecture. He became interested in literature from an early stage, but began to create in earnest after hospitalization. Yasunari Kawabata noticed by "Old Man Maki" and he was called a master by Hojo.
In 1936, won the 2nd Bungakukai Award for "The First Night of Life". He left behind other works such as "The Family" and "The Conception of the House", but he died because of tuberculosis.
Due to prejudice and discrimination against Hansen's disease, his real name was not disclosed for a long time, but as a result of persuading his relatives to disclose his real name for 20 years, the approval of his relatives was obtained in June 2014,77 years after his death, his real name was finally released.

A word of the day: Still, he was a person who had no luck to die from tuberculosis, not from leprosy. The book I read this time is "Complete Works of Hansen's Disease Literature 1 Novel 1" (Kosei-sha)

In addition, the novelist Yasunari Kawabata (mentioned earlier),and the critic Hideo Kobayashi, struggled to Put out to the world "The First Night of Life", but "the god of the novel" Naoya Shiga feared Hansen's disease. He said he avoided even touching the publication for fear of getting sick .As expected, he was a third-class novelist. He was a stupid man.

f:id:iirei:20210707052140j:plain

The first night of life (Kadokawa Bunko)
• Author: Tamio Hojo
• Publisher / Manufacturer: Kadokawa Shoten
• Release Date: 1955/09
• Media: Bunko

Updated once a week on Wednesday or Thursday.

In Japanese, original

北條民雄の「いのちの初夜」：ハンセン氏病患者の慟哭

癩病（らいびょう）という病気は、癩菌という病原菌が、皮膚をはじめ、体の各部に浸潤して、体を食い荒らすという病気で、昭和の中頃まで「不治」の病でした。そして、特効薬（プロミン）が発明されたにも関わらず、発病者を娑婆から完全に隔離して、「療養所」に強制的に集めるという策を国は取っていました。

f:id:iirei:20210707052047j:plain

このような偏見は、私が小学生だった１９６０年代から１９７０年代にもおおいにありました。担任の教諭が、「癌より怖い病気、それは癩病」「いつか療養所の患者が自由を欲しくて施設を逃げ出したことがある。この病気は皮膚から感染するから、この患者が触った電車のつり革からも感染するぞ」・・・と言った具合。「それは怖い」と心に刻みつけました。ずいぶん偏向した教育だと、よほどあとになって思いました。（この病気は、さほど感染力が強くないのです。）

最近では、癩病という病名自身が差別的だと「ハンセン氏病」という名称が一般的で、癩病だった人たちが、損害賠償とか名誉回復の訴えを国に対して起しているようです。

さて、小説「いのちの初夜」。尾田高雄もハンセン氏病の患者のひとり、“療養所”をひとり訪ねていきます。途中自殺することを何度も念じながら。広大な農地を抜け、建坪のおおきな療養所に行き着きます。ざっとこの施設のことを教えられて、初の夜を迎えるのですが、案内役としてあてがわれたのは佐柄木という面倒見の良い男で、他の患者について気配りをちゃんとしていることに尾田は感心します。片目がよく輝く青年だな、と思いながら。ただ、ハンセン氏病が重篤になり、膿で顔がぐじゃぐじゃになった男、神経まで菌に冒され、一晩中すすり泣きをする男など、いろいろな患者を目にします。

尾田は佐柄木から、これらハンセン氏病患者は、もはや人間ではない、いのちそのものだと教えられます。その佐柄木も、尾田に打明けるのですが、例の輝く片目は義眼であり、実は視力を失う直前でありながら、ノートに小説を書き綴っていたのです。視力がなくなるか、小説が完成するか、の「いのちがけ」の競争。

この小説は主人公が、ハンセン氏病治療所に初めて入所し、その施設の圧倒的な力の前で、ハンセン氏病になっても、失われない「いのち」について、大きく目を見開かされる経験を綴り、主人公本人も、自殺願望は失せ、ここで自分も「いのち」を燃やそうと思う最初のイニシエーションを受けた夜なので、「初夜」とし、作品自体「いのちの初夜」としたのですね。さらに言えば、川端康成がこの作品を激賞し、このタイトルを北條民雄に贈ったということです。

北條民雄について（wikipedia）

北条民雄（ほうじょうたみお、旧字体：北條民雄、1914年9月22日 - 1937年12月5日）は小説家。ハンセン病となり隔離生活を余儀なくされながら、自身の体験に基づく名作『いのちの初夜』などを遺した。本名：七條晃司（しちじょう・こうじ）。
日本統治時代の朝鮮の首都京城（現・ソウル）に生まれ、徳島県阿南市下大野町に育つ。
1933年に発病。翌1934年、東京府北多摩郡東村山村の全生園に収容される。早くから文学に関心を持ったが、入院後本格的に創作を開始した。『間木老人』により川端康成に注目され、彼を師と仰いだ。
1936年、『いのちの初夜』により第2回文學界賞を受賞。その他に『癩家族』『癩院受胎』などの作品を遺したが、結核のため夭折した。
ハンセン病に対する偏見や差別により、長らく本名は公表されていなかったが、出身地の阿南市が親族に20年間に亘り本名を公開するように説得した結果、2014年6月に親族の了承を得て、没後77年経ってようやく本名が公開された。

今日のひと言：それにしても、ハンセン氏病ではなく、結核でいのちを落すとは、つくづく運のない人でした。なお、今回読んだ本は「ハンセン病文学全集１　小説一」（皓星社）　また、先にも挙げた小説家の川端康成とか、評論家の小林秀雄とかは、『いのちの初夜』を世に出すために奔走しましたが、「小説の神様」志賀直哉は、ハンセン氏病が移るのを恐れ、刊行物を触るのさえ、忌避したと言います。さすが３流の小説家です。バカな男です。