屋久島で晴耕雨芸なんて言ってのうのうと暮らしているかと思ったら、聞くと世界中を飛び回り踊りまくっている友人、舞踏家の虫丸くんがたまたま上洛してうちの茶店の二階に泊まっている。

初めて出会った四半世紀前のチベット、ラサのジョカン前広場で、虫さんが白塗り半裸ダンスやらかして暴動寸前になり、宿屋に公安が踏み込んで来る始末。かっこええ！と思ったね。旅行制限地域に潜り込んでいた僕らは、取り調べをのらくらはぐらかす彼の受け答えに、身の危険を忘れて笑い転げたものだ。オマヌケな公安とイタチごっこゲームができる良い時代だった。（もっとも、チベット人にとってはその頃も今も暗黒時代なんだが、、、）

久しぶりの再会。お互い、好々爺のような顔つきになってきたが、虫さんの、どこかひょうひょう、でもどこかふてぶてしい話し方、立ち居振る舞いに昔のあのかっこよさがちらり見えた。初外遊の新疆・チベット以来２０数年彼が使っている「天然肉体詩人」の看板はまだまだ背中にかかっているな。。。

An old friend of mine came over from the Island of Yaku off Kyushu. A buto dancer who dubs himself “The Natural Physical Poet”, he has been dancing all over the world ever since his firt overseas performance tour in China’s Xinjang and Tibet, where we accidentally bumped into each other a quarter century ago.

I couldn’t imagine his marriage and becoming of a dad of three kids. He was a man of beautiful physique with daredevil spirit, and once danced among the Tibetan pilgrims swarming in the heart of Lhasa and provoked the police into the consequent raid on the inn where we stay illegally. Tibet then was closed to foreigners and we were not supposed be there. I was simply taken aback.

Time flies and both of us are close to mid 60s. Though slightly thinner than used to be, he still maintains dancable physicality and is actively hopping around not just inside Japan but abroad. Despite of his genial-good-old-man face, I am pretty much impressed by his youthfullness that reminds me of our days in Tibet.