その小さな木造の教会は、奇跡のように、人知れず時代の移り変わりを静かに見守ってきた。竣工したのは今から59年前の1954年11月25日、日本が占領からの独立を果たした直後の時代である。当時、周囲には松林が点在し、関東ローム層のビロードのような赤茶色の畑がどこまでも続いていた。でも、その風景は、明治時代に入植した開墾移民たちが何世代にもわたる地道な努力によって良質な農地へと育て上げてきた辛苦の結晶だった。農地の一部は明治政府が買い上げて御料牧場となり、防風林として周囲に植えられた10万株の桜が咲き誇る名所ともなっていく。そんな中、信者からの浄財を元に自宅の敷地にこの教会を建設したのは、３代目の敬虔なキリスト教信者で、家業の農機具商を営みながら鉄材を使った彫刻家としても活躍した戸村一作（1909〜79年）である。彼は、かつて御料牧場の厩の世話役として雇われ、退職後に農機具の制作を家業にした祖父の丑之助が自宅を改造して作った1 0坪程の藁葺き屋根の教会を建て替えたのである。
それにしても、なぜその設計が、東京藝術大学助教授だった吉村順三（1908〜97年）に依頼されたのだろうか。残念ながら、詳しい経緯はわからない。戸村は、亡くなる直前に地元紙に記したエッセイで、こよなく愛した身近な農村風景を、あのミレーやコローが描いたフランスの小村になぞらえて「日本のバルビゾン」と呼び、賞賛していた。そして、この教会についても、吉村の名前を挙げて、「農家の納屋を想わせるような農村にふさわしい建築スタイルで、白亜の白壁に屋根には鐘楼のある教会堂である」と描写している。*
この言葉ほど、吉村の求めた建築の姿を正確に言い当てたものはないと思う。訪れると、露出した柱と梁、白壁と杉板の外壁、緩い勾配の屋根、そしてその上に小さな鐘楼が載る素朴な外観が、今も清新さを醸し出している。中に入ると、ぽっかりと天井の高い27畳の広さの礼拝堂が現れる。正面には、側面から間接光が注ぐ白壁に、柱と梁でさりげなく構成された十字架が浮かび上がっている。見上げると、丸太を半割にしたトラス梁がリズムを刻んで空間を引き締めている。それは、どこか吉村の師匠であるレーモンドが手がけ、吉村も慣れ親しんだ軽井沢の聖ポール教会（1933年）を思い起こさせる。やはり吉村がデザインした長椅子や講壇の慎ましい造形も含めて、そこには、凛とした簡素さの中に、人の気持を開いてくれる居心地の良い空気が流れている。
竣工から12年後の1966年7月4日、突如、この地・三里塚が国際空港の建設地に閣議決定されて、教会をめぐる環境は激変していく。戸村は、農地を守る闘いのリーダーとして亡くなる日まで尽力した。だが、御料牧場を含む広大な農地は空港のアスファルトの下に埋められ、桜の名所も美しい風景も消滅する。しかし、この三里塚教会は、間違いなく、美しい農村の風景と農民への敬意と共感をもって吉村が手がけたのだろう。その建築の魅力と戸村の身を挺した抵抗によって取り壊しを免れ、今も変わることなくそこにあり続けている。こうして、時代はめぐり、地と図は反転する。この小さな教会は、内包するその大きな世界によって、現代の私たちにこれからも語りかけるだろう。戦後の日本が失ったものとは何か、人々と共に生きる建築の真実とは何か、そして、ここにこそ未来が開かれていると…。
* 戸村一作「随想 羊と祖父の丑之助」『千葉日報』1979年２月４日〜３月26日全8回
Miraculously, and unbeknownst to anybody, this small wooden church has been quietly watching how time changes. It was on November 25 of 1954, 59 years back in time, during the era that immediately followed the liberation of Japan from U.S. occupation, that the construction of this church was completed. Back then, pine forests were scattered all over and a velvety and rusty field made of loamy layers of the Kanto Plain continued endlessly. The landscape was the embodiment of trials and tribulations by those who had settled there during the Meiji Era to reclaim the land, who, over many generations, kept developing it till it became quality farmland. A part of the farmland was bought back by the Meiji Government and became a royal ranch. It became a popular venue where 100,000 cherry trees planted around the ranch as the windbreaker blossomed in all their glory. It was Issaku Tomura (1909-1979), a 3rd generation pious Christian, who ran his family business of selling farm equipment while also actively sculpting steel materials as a sculptor, who had this church built on his own premises using the donations from the congregation. He worked as a stable keeper of the royal ranch, and after he left the job, he rebuilt the church with a thatched straw roof in a 10 tsubo or so lot that was originally built by his grandfather, Ushisonuke. Ushinosuke, who was running a business of building farm equipment, remodeled his own house to make it into a church.
Why was Junzo Yoshimura (1908-97), who was then an associate professor of the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music asked to design it? Unfortunately, we do not know all the circumstances in detail. Tomura, right before his death, referred to and praised the landscape of the farm village that was close to his heart as “Japan’s Barbizon,” likening it to small French villages depicted by Millet or Corot in his essay that appeared in a local paper. He described it as “a chapel with a chalk white wall with a bell tower on its rooftop, which somewhat reminds people of a barn in a farm house, having an architectural style that is suitable for a farm village,” and in the essay, he specifically mentioned Yoshimura’s name.*
There is nothing more than these words that could precisely portray the image of the architecture that Yoshimura pursued. When you visit there, you will see exposed pillars and beams, exterior walls made of white walls and cedar boards, the shelving roof and a small bell tower sitting on top of it – This rustic appearance still creates an aura of freshness and spiritedness even now. When you walk inside, a 27 tatami mat wide prayer room with high ceiling appears. On the front, where the white wall bathes in a borrowed light coming from the side, a cross, which was unceremoniously composed of a pillar and beam, is floating. When you look up, truss beams which are basically logs split in half spice up the space in such a manner that they beat out a rhythm. Somehow this reminded me of the St. Paul Church (1933) in Karuizawa, which was the work of Yoshimura’s teacher, Raymond, which Yoshimura himself also became familiar with. There flows a comfortable air that opens up people’s feelings in this dignified simplicity, including the benches and modest formative design of the rostrum designed by Yoshimura.
On July 4 of 1966, 12 years after it was completed, all of a sudden, the decision was made by the Cabinet that this place, Sanrizuka, would become the future site of an international airport. The environment around the church was forced to go through radical transformation. Tomura strived to protect the farmland as the leader of the movement till the day he died. Eventually, however, the vast farmland that included the royal ranch ended up getting buried under the airport, paved with asphalt. The popular cherry blossom spot and beautiful landscape altogether ceased to exist. I am convinced that Yoshimura had worked on this Sanrizuka Church with the respect and empathy for the landscape and the famers of this beautiful farm village. Thanks to its charm and Tomura, who risked his life to resist the decision to dismantle it, the church managed to escape demolition and is still very much with us without having gone through any changes. Time goes around, just like that. Figure and ground can get reversed. This small church will probably continue speaking to those of us who live in modern times with the big world it embraces in and of itself. What is that the post-war Japan has lost, what is the truth about the architecture that lives together with people, and this IS where the future starts to open up…
* “Essay: Sheep and My Grandfather, Ushinosuke” by Issaku Tomura, Chiba Nippo, A series of 8, from February 4 to March 26, 1979