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Essay

Keeping the local color

By Tony Laszlo


郷土色を大切に守る

沖縄県の竹富島を訪れたラズロさん。初めて体験する水牛車の御者を つとめていたのは、大阪出身の女性でした。彼女は水牛車につきもの の沖縄の歌も上手、観光案内も冗談を交えた楽しいものなのですが、 何となく違和感を覚えてしまいます。なぜなら、その状況が、竹富島 ならではの味わいを欠くことに気付いたからでした。

Taketomi, an island in Okinawa's Yaeyama island group, has preserved its historical appearance — houses with red-tiled roofs dot the landscape, each separated from its neighbor by fences made from coral. Water buffalo-drawn wagons are popular among tourists. These seat a half a dozen people or so and are skillfully guided up and down the narrow streets by coachmen who sing traditional local songs while play the sanshin and offering their passengers tidbits of information about points of note along the route.

The drivers are local men, as a rule. So, I got a big surprise when, having lined up for a ride, I ended up with a female driver — from Osaka, no less. It was my first time on a Taketomi water-buffalo wagon, so I can't really compare, but it seemed to me that the driver really had a handle on her work. Not only did she have the music part down, but her banter about the sights of Taketomi — delivered with a very pronounced Osakan lilt — was very entertaining. So, I should have enjoyed myself. And I did. Still, something didn't feel quite right.

The logical me realized that this woman should be applauded for her comedic talents and especially for the extraordinary efforts she made in learning to play the local music on par with the locals. But another me was saying, if I had wanted to hear Osakan humor I could have gone to Osaka. Being in that carefully preserved village in Okinawa, somehow I was expecting that the tour would be given by a local, or at least, by someone with some degree of local color.

While there is no place on Earth like Taketomi, there are tourist destinations that are surprisingly similar. For example, instead of the water-buffalo wagon Venice has the gondola. Gondoliers, the drivers of these vehicles, also entertain their passengers with a combination of information and humor, while skillfully navigating the route. When entering intersections they call out, "Look out, I'm turning left," and otherwise communicate with each other using only the local dialect. Like Taketomi, this is the realm of local men, as a rule. Unlike Taketomi, there have been no exceptions.

But that may change one day. A Venetian acquaintance told me that a talented and determined German woman is attempting to become a gondolier. Such candidates must pass a test to prove that, among other things, they have the strength and prowess needed to propel the gondola with its single oar, both forward and backwards along Venice's narrow and twisting canals. So far, the woman has failed the test twice

How would I feel if I got into a gondola one day and the person with the oar, striped shirt and hat was not a local male? I don't suppose I'd mind much (or even notice), if he or she looked the part. But no matter who is at the helm, the gondola is a symbol of Venice. If there are to be any canal jokes, I would prefer that they be somewhat Venetian.



Shukan ST: Oct. 6, 2006

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