最近に読んだ事ですが、日本人は「美」の感覚があるけど、そうじゃない（醜い？見苦しい）の感覚がないと。今、書いたら気付きましたけど、「美」の反対になる言葉は日本語にありますか？その言葉さえなければ感覚はある訳ないという事か？
とにかく、先日は長野市の方で運転したら、この看板を見ました。「川を守りましょう」と言う文章に雪をかぶっている素晴らしい山と自然な川の絵。まず思ったのは、その絵の様な自然な川を日本で見た事が無いと。全部が殆どコンクリートだらけ。
そして、「山」は遠く見える志賀高原の事として（まあ、絵ほど綺麗な山じゃないけどそれは別な問題・・・）、川はどこのの事か？下を見たら、まさかこの農水の溝？この元々自然じゃない川を守ってどうするの？
この看板と川の不釣合いでちょっと悲しくなりました。
狭い日本でこれだけな人口がいれば、洪水の損を防ぐ為に川をコンクリートだらけにしなっきゃと言われています。その中で、「美」の感覚が進んでいる日本は川の自然の美も守れば、どれだけ素敵な結果が出来るでしょう？
I recently read that Japan has a superb sense of beauty, but no sense of ugliness. In starting to write this topic, I realized while Japanese has a word for beauty (美 bi), there is no word for ugly. The closest expression is 見苦しい Migurushii, which means "difficult to look at". But that's an adjective, not a noun... I guess if you don't have a word for something, then it makes sense you don't have a sense of it either. (Or is it the other way around?)
Anyways, the reason for this topic is the other day while driving in Nagano City, I came across this sign. It says "Protect our Mountains and Rivers" along with an illustration of a majestic snow-capped mountain and a beautiful, natural river. My first reaction was, "Protect what natural rivers? They're all concreted over." Then, assuming the 'mountains' are the Shiga Heights peaks barely visible in the distance (and they aren't anywhere near as beautiful as the one in the illustration, but that's another issue...), what river is the sign referring too? Then I spotted the concrete irrigation ditch. That has to be the saddest excuse for a river.
Now, I understand that with so many people packed into such a narrow geography, you have to reinforce the river banks to avoid disasterous flood damage. However, can't a country that has such a superb sense of beauty consider protecting the natural beauty of rivers, too?
