9月1日。防災の日。
少しずつ朝夕涼しくなり秋の気配も感じます。
栗のシーズンですね！あ～楽しみ！
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明治初めに米欧を訪れた岩倉使節団は、西洋文化の一つとして公園にも注目した。
Public parks in Europe and the United States were places of special cultural interest to the Iwakura Mission of the early Meiji Era.
公式記録『米欧回覧実記』に「西洋人は外に出て人々と交際することが好きであり、それだからこそ小さな町にも必ず公園が設けられている」と記した
The delegation's official log, noted to the effect that in the West, there always are parks even in small towns because Westerners like to socialize outdoors.
一方で東洋人は自宅でくつろぐのを好むから、庭をつくるとも述べている。
The log went on to observe that Asians prefer relaxing at home, they build private gardens.
文化比較の当否はともかく、公園は近代都市には欠かせないと明治国家の担い手たちは考えたようだ
Questions of this cultural observation's accuracy aside, it does appear that statemen and scholars who would shape Japan in that era were of the belief that public parks were indespensable to modern cities.
東京・日比谷などにできた初期の公園は、鹿鳴館などと同じく欧化政策の一つだったのだろう。
Parks that were built early in Hibiya district were probably meant only as a symbols of the governmant's Westernization policy, just as a controversial construction of Rokumeikan guesthouse was.
しかし１９２３年９月１日の関東大震災で、別の有用性に気づかされる。
But when the Great Kanto Earthquake struck on Sep1 in 1923, the park's practical usefulness became all to apparent.
公園の多くが避難所として、地震の引き起こした火災から人々の命を守った
They saved many lives by serving as places of refuge from the great fires triggered by the temblor.