序文　Plorogue                                      

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*English follows Japanese
　今号のゲストは�W号に続いて梁丞佑（ヤン・スンウー）氏である。氏が2007年の10月にフィリピンのマニラとその近郊を訪れたときの写真を収録している。わずか10日足らずの訪問にもかかわらず、その写真は現代フィリピンのある側面を鋭く捉えている。目の良さ、勘の良さは、あるいは荒木経惟氏に通じるものがあると言ってもよいかもしれない。フィリピンは東南アジア諸国の一員と考えられているが、その歴史は大きく異なる。インドシナ半島の諸国は、インドと中国という大文化圏にはさまれていたため、自らも独自の王朝と文化を古代から発達させたが、フィリピンが最初に接触した文明国家はスペインであり、16世紀以降19世紀の末にアメリカが干渉してくるまで、その支配下に置かれた。そのため先住民族もその文化も甚だ特定しにくい。現在のフィリピンはもちろん独立国だが、最大の社会的課題はスペインが輸出商品作物生産のために作った大地主農園（アシェンダ）の地主階級がいまだに政治経済を支配しており、そこで働く農奴に近い小作農との貧富の差が極端に大きいことである。マルコスもアキノもその改革に取り組んだが、自らも大地主であり、十分に成功したとはとても言えない。ただ貧困な後進国という目で見られがちなフィリピンのために弁護すると、この国は言論の自由が認められ、政党政治による選挙が行われている民主国家であり、その投票も文字で書いて行われるほど義務教育が普及しているということだ。これは貧富の格差、治安の悪さ（表紙の民兵は銃を持っている）とは別の問題である。
　話は変わるが、今年2010年は将来の日米関係を決定する象徴的な年となったと言える。鳩山民主党政権は、沖縄を代表とする日本における米軍基地の問題について初めて正面からアメリカと議論を試みた。これは従来の反日米安全保障条約の運動が、60年反安保も70年反安保も野党と市民グループが主体だったのに比べ、与党が率先したのだから画期的なことと言ってよかったはずである。ところが、それに対するマスコミや世論の反応はどうであったか。どちらも米軍基地の移動や縮小について交渉している自分たちの首相を少しも支援しようとせず、政治と金の話、公約が期日どおりに実現しないという話題に終始し、足を引っ張るだけだった。鳩山に世論の支持がまったくないことに気付いたアメリカは、日本人の「隷民化」が完成したことに満足して、以後まともな応対をしなくなった。鳩山の服装の趣味の悪さをコラムで嘲るのみとなったのである。小林信彦氏は、大新聞がこんなに保守化したのは戦後初めてと嘆き、今後は取らないと憤慨していたが（「週刊文春」）、保守化というより「痴呆化」と言った方がよかろう。彼らにとつてはサッカーのＷＣや高校野球の方が大事なことらしい。かくして完成したアメリカとのハッピーな関係については、唐仁原信一郎氏の写真「Yokota Friendship Day」をご覧いただきたい。
　藤原敦氏の「鹿児島」は前号のつづきである。今回は、祖父藤原藤門氏の遺影も登場する。歌人であった氏が長く教職につかれていたことは前回でも述べたが、それについての短歌を紹介してみよう。
　『親なきは産なきは選考に洩れ洩れてよきいくたりの生徒を残す』
これは就職試験のときに、片親や貧家の生徒が不利な扱いを受けていることを嘆いた歌だ。この傾向は今も変わらぬが、戦前はさらに甚だしかった。この歌を見ても氏が熱心な良き教師であったことがわかる。
　最後になったが、飯島望美氏は1979年、埼玉県生まれ。共立女子短期大学卒の本誌初めての女流の登場である。彼女の生家が畜産業であることは本人が書いている。「豚」のシリーズは、本誌掲載作は未発表だが、すでにニコンサロンで写真展が開かれているので、ご存知の方も多いだろう。別に豚に限らず、風景の写真にも特異な才能を示す、今注目の写真家といって過言ではない。今後の活躍が期待される。

長谷川明

Introduction

Our guest for this issue is again Mr. Yang Seungwoo, as you may recall we had him as our guest on the 4th issue as well. We are featuring photos that he shot when he visited Manila and nearby areas in Philippines back in October 2007. He was only there for less than 10 days or so,however, his photos have sharply captured a certain aspect of Philippines. I have a feeling that his vision and intuition are quite similar to that of Mr.Nobuyoshi Araki. Philippines is considered as a part of South East Asia, but its history is dramatically different from other countries in the region. Since countries in Indochina are located right inbetween two major cultures of India and China, although they have developed their own dynasties and culture since the ancient days, their first contact with civilized country was Spain and they were Spanish colony from 16th century to towards the end of 19th century when US has interfered. Because of this, native people and culture are very hard to specify now. Philippines now is, of course, an independent country, however, the biggest issue that their society is facing now in Philippines is that the group of land owners of huge farms created by Spain to produce commercial goods for exporting is still dominating the political economy and the economical gaps between landowners and farmers who work for those land owners, whose working conditions often resemble that of serfs, are extremely big.

Marcos and Akino have made attempts to change this situation, however, they, too, were land owners and their attempt did not bring an adequate success. Philippines is often regarded as a poor third-world country, but people in this country have freedom of speech and they have a democratic government with proper elections with a number of different political parties and the votes are taken by writing down letters; a proof for sufficient national education system. This is, however, different issue all together from tremendous gap between the rich and the poor and general safety of the nation. (The soldier on the cover is holding a gun.)

By the way, this year, year 2010 served as a symbolic year for predicting the future relationship between U.S. and Japan. The Democratic Party of Japan led by Hatoyama has attempted to hold discussions regarding U.S. bases in Okinawa as well as various other areas in Japan in straight-forward manner for the first time. This was revolutionary since it was led by the ruling party instead of being a grass-roots movement supported by the opposition party, which had been the case for the past "anti-Japan-U.S.Security Treaty" that had taken place in the 60s and the 70s. How did mass media and people in Japan react to this? Japanese citizens did not show the slightest in tension in supporting their own prime minister who was fighting to move or downsize U.S. base and they only talked about matters around politics and money and how the promised dead line was not met. It didn't take too long before U.S. realized that Hatoyama was not supported by his own people and U.S. was satisfied to see that construction of "democratic slavery system" has been completed. U.S. heeded no attention to Japan soon after this incident. They simply made fun of Hatoyama's bad fashion taste in columns. Nobuhiko Kobayashi had lamented that this is the first time that the major newspapers had become so conservative and he was so indignant that he declared he would no longer read any of them.  (Weekly Bunshun) To me, this trend seems more like "dementia" rather than conservatism. The World Cup and high school baseball are far more newsworthy to them. If you want to know more about our happy relationship with U.S., which was completed through all these incidents, pleasesee photos of "Yokota Friendship Day" by Mr. Shinichiro Tojimbara.

"Kagoshima" by Mr. Atsushi Fujiwara is a continuation from the last issue. Photo of his grandfather, Tohmon Fujiwara, can be seen in this issue. I mentioned that he was a poet and also a school teacher for a long time in the last issue. There is a tanka that he talked about education issues, so I would like to share this one to you.
"Without parents or property, there they goaway from selection, smart students with nowhere to go"
This is a tanka deploring the disadvantage of students with single parent or students from poor family at the time of employment test. While this trend stands true even today, it was more explicit before the War. You can sense that he was an enthusiastic teacher from this piece.

Last, but not least, Ms. Nozomi Iijima was born in1979 in Saitama-Prefecture. She has graduated from Kyoritsu Women Junior College. She is the first female artist featured on Asphalt. She has written about it, too, but her parents were livestock breeders. The photos included in this issue belong to the "Pig" series and they have not been publicized before, however, she had the "Pig" series exhibition at Nikon Salon, so many of you may already have heard about it. Her talent is not limited to piggies, she has an extraordinary talent in scenery photos as well. She is definitely one of the most attention worthy photographers of today. We are looking forward to seeing her future work.

AkiraHasegawa