I have a letter.
At the Graduate School of Science at Kyoto University, he has been studying orautans in Borneo for a long time and has also been a book, but he has already passed away.
Kyoto University is really famous. Research on chimpanzees, monkeys, and orautans. That's why I was in Borneo. At that time, you went to Borneo for research all the time.
Until then, I've been researching orautans in a world where there is no one but myself and Orautan, so when I return home, I must have heard that there are Japanese people because the relay point is Bali. So I came to the inn where I was staying because I wanted to meet Japanese people. He said he had been talking to a monkey until then, so he wanted to speak Japanese. When I wasn't there, he wrote it down at the inn, so I visited him. Then, under the lamp, I sat alone in a daze and said, "Are you my new wife?" When I said that, I suddenly realized and said, "Oh, it's Japanese!" That.
What's wrong? When I said that, he said, "I've been talking to Orautan all the time."
He's the best person! I really get along with people like that. And in Bali.
Isn't that kind of contact great?
But it's the same, Jack (Mayol), Hawaiian Tiger Esperi, and Carold Castaneda go to such a spiritual world, but I don't think I'm wrong.
He was an amazing person.
Now I can look up everything on the Internet and go anywhere, but those people cut out the jungle on their own and go by themselves.
It was about 45 years ago. I was 30 years old.
At that time, there were few Japanese people in Kuta except for acquaintances who came to ride the waves. I also missed Japanese people for 2 or 3 months after extending my visa, and I think we both missed Japanese people. I don't remember how many times I met him, but the memory of that night was very strong, and the conversation never stopped. I think we had a common language that we could understand each other somewhere deep.
Taisuke and Mr.Niizuma when They are in his early 30s
When Taisuke first heard about Niizuma, who is studying primates, whom he met in Bali for the first time,
I imagined that the young Taisuke met an older man who was a scholar. He is a person who has been researching for many years and has only talked to Orautan. But the one there was a young man who was still the same age as Taisuke. How wonderful it is that such a young man went into the jungle and continued his research. What did he think, and what was his life like after that? I can't help but think.
It was a coincidence and inevitable that we both missed Japan and met in his land.
"The joy of being fascinated by the wonders of nature", "Sense of Wonder" and "Spiritual joy"
Encounters with people you can relate to.
But didn't you contact each other after that? In response to the question, Taisuke says.
I remember him with distant eyes that I have received letters several times.
"I have a letter."
At the beginning of this story, Taisuke muttered,
Talk about something about a person called Niizuma.
After that, there was no interaction,
That day in my early 30s,
It may be only for a moment in life, but
What I talked about all night
How deep it has been.
Now that I know Niizuma's life after that, what do you think?
Akio Niizuma
Born in Sapporo in 1949. From the Hokuto University Glybea Research Group. Graduated from the Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University. Doctor of Science. Majors are zoology, natural history, etc. He served as a professor at Eizumi Jogakuen University and the director of the University's Horticultural Culture Research Institute. He passed away on November 9, 2010. His books include "Asking for the Origin of Species" (Winner of the 51st Mainichi Publishing Culture Award, Asahi Shimbun, 1997), "Research on Darwin's Earthworms" (Illure = Hiromi Sugita, Gospel House Bookstore, 2000), etc. The translations include A.R. Wallace's "The Malay Islands" (Chikuma Gakugei Bunko, 1993), "Tropical Nature" (co-translation, Hirakawa Publishing, 1987), A.C. Blackman's "The Man Erased by Darwin" (co-translated, Asahi Shimbun, 1984), S. J. Gould's "Flamingo's Smile" top and bottom (Hayakawa Shobo, 1989), the same "Can God and science coexist?" ( Co-translation, Nikkei BP, 2007), E. Maia "Evolution and Biological Philosophy" (co-translation, Tokyo Chemical Doujin, 1994), G. White "Celborne's Museum" (Shogakukan Earthman Library, 1997), R. Mash "New Edition Dinosaur Owner I will teach you" (co-translated, Heibonsha, 2009), etc. <From Misuzu Shobo HP>
As a result, when I was searching for Niizuma, I found a sentence that conveyed her personality, so I will quote it here.
A ceremony speech in memory of Mr. Akio Niizuma
"Spiritual naturalist"
Akio Niizuma
I try to call my colleagues who work at Keisen with "~san". Even so, I am often called back with "teacher", but my new wife, who is also next to each other in the laboratory, was one of the few colleagues who called me "Kawashima-san". ( Omitted)
It was published three years ago in 2007, by Stephen Gould, one of the representatives of modern evolutionary biology, co-translated with Mr. Furuya, who was a colleague in the Department of Human Environment of Keisen, the book "Can God and science coexist?" It is a sentence sent to. It is positioned like a commentary attached to a translation, but it is nearly 50 pages long, and it is very interesting, including the content of Niizuma's own confession of faith beyond the scope of the commentary. He leaves the following words that are deeply comforting to Christians like me. "Maybe because I was born in Hokkaido, I grew up feeling more familiar with Christianity than traditional Japanese religions. I am currently working at a Christian women's university, and I know some of my "good Christians" colleagues and students without multiplying. He went on to say, "I have a habit of wandering around the world since I was young, and I have met people who believe in various religions," and a heartwarming experience with people who live a religious daily life in North Africa, Afghanistan, Indonesia, etc. I'm introducing. And although I have liked to read three scholars representing modern evolutionary biology, namely the behavioral ecologist Dawkins, the paleontologist Gould, and the social biologist Wilson, the reason is that "the wonders of nature He says that he wanted to get the joy of being fascinated, "Sense of Wonder" and "Spiritual joy" by reading. If you call such a new wife a "spiritual naturalist", Mr.Niizuma will probably be denied, saying, "It's not that grandious." However, if you are a "naturalist or naturalist who never excludes spiritual things", I think you will accept it. ( Later)
While remembering the conversation with him, it became my mission to find photos of Bali at that time. The stock of my past photos, which I have been taking pictures for more than 40 years, is a dizzying amount. I've been looking for it all day at work, but I can't find it. I'm sure it's somewhere, so this time I'll dig up the warehouse and look for it all day. And finally, I found a few sleeves of monochrome nega at that time. One by one, I peeked at them with a loupe with a nostalgic feeling, and while scanning several of them, I suddenly gasped at the face that suddenly appeared. " Isn't this Niizuma ?
The memory of taking a picture of him has become a distant memory of his face, but as a photographer, it is my job to recognize people's faces.
I saw Akio Niizuma the other day in the leaflet of the remembance meeting, and when I compared it with the face of the same age as me now, I thought it was him without mistake. He has a nice face. He was a cool person at that time. He has a face that is connected to a single axis.
A picture of me at that time also came out. The beginning of the 30s. I feel nostalgic for the local photos that are completely different from the current Bali.
