Album1

樹氷のある風景

「やっと山頂に着いた。振り返ると向こうの山頂から私が歩いて来たスキーの跡が雲間の光の中にあった」


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標高1600m程の岩手県の八幡平や青森県の八甲田山は山頂部周辺に冬になると、積雪、低温、湿度や風の影響でアオモリトド松の原生林がすっぽりと雪に覆われて大きな樹氷を作り上げる。その樹氷をテーマに、この地で撮影を始めたのは今から30年前で、一面が樹氷に囲まれ超自然的な風景に大きな感動を覚えた。
樹氷が出来る厳冬期は殆ど晴れる事がなく撮影は長期戦になった。
最初に樹氷を撮影した時は2月の厳冬期で山頂近くにある無人小屋に食料や寝袋を運び込んで30日間滞在しなければならなかったし、深い雪の中、重量100キロ近いの機材や食料を運び終えるまで3日間も費やした。
それでも晴れたのは2回だけで、毎日、無人小屋で晴れが来るのをただ待つ日々であった。
私が写真家になったのはこの樹氷群をモノクロで撮影した作品が個展を通じて、新聞や雑誌に掲載されて、大きな評価を得たのがきっかけである。現在、年の半分は中国暮らしで中国の自然風景を撮り続けているが、当時の樹氷撮影の強烈な印象は忘れられず、八幡平山麓にある安比高原に撮影スタジオを構え、現在も樹氷の撮影を続けている。


My memories of taking pictures 40 years ago held up in a shelter atop Mount Hachimantai in the middle of winter waiting for the weather to clear up are as clear to me as if it all happened yesterday. The pictures were taken in Iwate Prefecture and Aomori Prefecture.
In the middle of winter, strong winds and blizzards so strong they seemed to lift the shelter off the ground continued for day on end. Just as I was getting fed up with the blizzard, which had lasted for two weeks, the eastern sky became colored deep red with the morning sun. It was the most moving thing I have ever experienced. Also, the memory of my elation at seeing the yellow color of the stripe in the middle of the road after descending for the nearly pure white world I had been in for a month is still vividly in my mind. The shapes of the rime-covered trees extending far off into the distance of the mountain top and the morning moon sparkling above the greenish, rime-covered trees gave a romantic, dream-like impression – as though I were on another planet.
Rime ice can only be seen in certain places in Japan. It only forms on Aomori white fir trees amidst the delicate relationship between snow, low temperatures and the damp, north-westerly, seasonal winds blowing from the Sea of Japan in winter. Perhaps due to climate changes, it is now difficult to view large, photogenic examples of rime-covered trees, but even now, I head off toward the mountain top through the deep snow with a heavy pack on my back, and my only desire is to feel those emotions from 40 years ago in the middle of a blizzard.


Hisashi Mochizuki







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