僕が敬愛する江戸時代中期の古学派儒者・奥貫友山の歌に
「道を聞く　夕べに死すも可なりとの　言葉にすがる　老いの日暮らし」
とある。何とも耳が痛い。
まさか若朽に堕したつもりはない。それでも現実には心に身体が追いついていかない。何とも哀しい。
「不摂生のつけだ」と家人は言う。たしかにそうかもしれない。
まだ残したい仕事がある。たくさんの喜びをたくさんの本が僕に与えてくれた。そのお礼をしなくちゃならない。百恩一報。老いの足掻きではない・・でないと思う。

相変わらず目の前に特殊慰安施設協会RAAが立ち上がっている。姿を変えながら銀座に巣食ったままのRAAの戦後40年。それを英語で書け書け・調べろ調べろと、満田千鶴子がゲンが、松田義一が芳子が、辻譲が僕を木霊のように急く。間に合わないぞと・・

地下に進駐軍用のキャバレー・オアシスが有った松坂屋は消えた。GINZASIXにある能楽堂を見つめながら、僕はそのアイロニーに苦笑する。社史で松坂屋は、その存在に一言も触れていない。
銀座ライオンの隣、中華幸楽のビルも消えた。それでもRAAが暫く居を構えた博品館が入っている7丁目のビルは、いまでもちゃんとある。相変わらず、そこはかとなく如何わしい。これも早晩消えるのかもしれない。
すべてが・・泡のように消える前に、デジタルな記録として少しでも残したい。・・そう思っ。
In a song by Okunuki Yuzan, an Edo period scholar whom I admire very mucha.He singing,
"道を聞く　夕べに死すも可なりとの　言葉にすがる　老いの日暮らし"."If I can hear and realize the important path of man in the morning, if I die that night, I will not regret it, and I will live to be an old man, clinging to the words"it is. What an earache.
I don't think I'm getting old. Still, in reality, my body can't catch up with my mind. It's so sad.
My wife says, "It's the result of inactivity. That may be true.
There is still work to be done. So many books have given me so much joy, and I have to give back to them. I can't thank them enough. It's not the old man's trudge...or is it?

The "Recreation and Amusement Association/RAA" is still standing in front of me. It has been 40 years since the end of the war, with the RAA still living in Ginza, changing its appearance. Chizuko , Gen, Yoshikazu Matsuda, Yoshiko and Yuzuru Tsuji hurried me around like a ghost of a tree, urging me to write about it in English and to do research. Say fast, fast.They said we wouldn't be able to make it.

Matsuzakaya, with its basement cabaret oasis for the Occupation Forces, has disappeared, and I chuckle at the irony as I stare at the Noh theater in GINZASIX. In the history of the company, Matsuzakaya is never mentioned in the history of the company.
The building next to the Ginza Lion, where the Chinese restaurant Koraku was located, has also disappeared. Nevertheless, the building on 7th Street that housed Hakuhinkan, where the RAA office was located for a while, is still standing. This too may disappear sooner or later.
I want to leave it as a digital record before everything disappears like a bubble... I want to keep it as a digital record before everything disappears like foam.