気配を写し、残す。 Transferring and Recording Presences

色とりどりに咲き誇る花は、見ているだけで心が華やぎ、幸せな気分に包まれる。花屋の店先で、このように満開の美しい花々が見られるのは、携わる人々がそれだけの手間をかけて大切に育てているからこそ。しかし、一定の時を過ぎると、盛りを過ぎた花に残された命は一気に短くなってしまう。

「私のような小さな花屋ですら、ブーケのバランスを整えるためや、成長を促すために余分な花を切り落としてしまいます。気になって、卸業者の人にどのようにしているかと聞けば、月に何トンもの端材が出て、廃棄していると言う。周りが自然に囲まれている環境ならば、そのまま土に還したいけれど、アスファルトに囲まれた都心ではそう簡単にもいきません」

日々花の生き様を目の当たりにしていたTHE LITTLE SHOP OF FLOWERS代表の壱岐ゆかりさんは、WONDERFULL LIFEの大脇千加子と出会ったとこで、花をボタニカルダイの染料として新たな命を宿すプロジェクトを新しくスタートさせた。

Seeing colourful flowers makes people’s spirits brighten and they become happy. But we only find opened blooms at a florist’s shop because people involved have put in time and effort. Within a few moments, flowers’ allotted lifetime will come close to running out.

‘Even a small florist like mine has to discard surplus flowers in order to make more balanced bouquets, and to encourage growth in the remaining stems. I often wonder about this, but one day asked my wholesalers. They said they disposed of tons of flowers each month, for the same reasons as I do. If we only lived in nature, we could return these wastages to the soil. But in our urban environment where everything is covered in asphalt, it’s hardly an option.’

Yukari Iki, President of The Little Shop of Flowers, confronts life and death in plants on a daily basis. After she met Chikako Owaki of Wonder Full Life, they launched a project to offer flowers a new lease of life in the form of botanical dyes.

専門知識も経験もないにもかかわらず、突然思い立ち3週間後には花屋をオープンしていたという壱岐ゆかりさんは、これまでも大胆な発想の転換と驚くべき行動力で、人生を自ら切り開いてきた。

「子どもの頃から人前に出るのは苦手で。自由を手にするために勉学に励み、抑えるべき点数は優等生並みにこなす。そんな子でした」
中学３年生のとき、父のアメリカ赴任が決定。環境を大きく変えたいと、自身も留学を決めた。
「アメリカでは、自由の度合いが一気に振り切れましたね。言葉がわからないため、手を動かしていれば済む、陶芸や木工の授業を履修。「何をやっても良いし、何でもできる」。そんな気持ちがどんどん強く膨らんでいった。

大学で建築を専攻。帰国後は、イデーを経てフリーのPRとして海外デザイナーの国内窓口をしていた。人のために働くことは元から好きだったが、目まぐるしく時代が移り変わり、自身も育児に追われるなかで、PRの仕事の時間軸に限界を感じ始めていたとき、たまたま出合ったのが「花」だった。
「きっかけはニューヨークの街角にある洋服屋さんの片隅を曲がりしていた小さな花屋さん。営業時間もあいまいで、店員さんもいたりいなかったり。その気軽さがとても素敵に思えて、花は受け取る人や飾るシーンを思い描きながら買うものだし、その気持ちをうまく翻訳していけば良い。そう思ったら、急に自分も花屋をやりたくなってしまったんです」

Iki suddenly decided that she was going to open a florist’s shop, despite having no knowledge or experience. In only three weeks she found herself doing just that. Such is how she lives, developing all on her own, with a free mindset and a surprising ability to take direct action.

‘I’ve been poor at making public appearances ever since I was a child. I studied hard because I wanted to gain my freedom, and when it was necessary, I was able to get good grades.’
But then in her last year of junior high, it was decided her father would be transferred to the USA. She also wanted to change her environment too. She decided on further study abroad.
‘In the USA, I enjoyed freedom at its fullest extent.’ But Iki was not fluent in English, so took courses in pottery and woodworking, which she could do just with her hands. She says she had the feeling ‘I am allowed to do anything. I can do anything.’ This sensation grew over time.

At university she majored in architecture, then returned to Japan and joined the interior shop IDÉE, before working as a freelance PR agent for overseas designers. She enjoyed working with people, but found the time-pressure too much. She also sensed drastic and rapid social changes, added to which she was child-rearing. It was then that she had her encounter with flowers.
‘It was pure coincidence that on a trip to New York I came across a little street florist. It was contained within a clothing store, and was sometimes open and sometimes closed, without fixed hours. It was sometimes staffed, but not always. I found this relaxing and rather nice. Flowers are things you buy with the idea of giving them to someone as a present, or using them to decorate somewhere. I considered that such emotions should be transferred to the flowers themselves. That is why I determined to go into this line of business.’

THE LITTLE SHOP OF FLOWERSオープン当初は、専門的知識が足りず、困ることもあったが、知人や友人に助けてもらいつつ、ゆっくりと成長を重ねていった。そして、開業から10年が経った2020年。新型コロナによって再び大きく時代が揺れた。

世界がフリーズし、店も休業を強いられるなかでも、花の成長は止まらない。思うように花を贈り届けられない日々が続くなかで、以前から気になっていた廃棄される花の問題と向き合う良いタイミングとなった。

「花の命は限られていて、いつかは枯れてしまうもの。でも、その輝きに満ちていた瞬間、生きた“気配”を別のかたちに写せば、人が花に寄せる思いも更新され、また新たな関係が生まれていくような気がしています」

いまはとても小さな動きかもしれない。それでも、この気づきが少しずつ伝播し、30年後、50年後に、もっと豊かで健やかな環境が生まれるかもしれない。そんな期待を抱きつつ、壱岐さんは今日も花と向き合っている。

The Little Shop of Flowers matured thank to the assistance of friends, but at the beginning it had all kinds of trouble due to lack of expertise. In 2020, after 10 years the pandemic brought radical change.

The world stopped using such businesses, and Iki was forced to suspend everything. Yet the flowers kept on growing. She could no longer provide blooms for her customers as she wished, but such days, she found, were valuable for confronting the issue of discarded flowers. This had been on Iki’s mind for some time.

‘The lifespan of flowers is short, and they soon wither. But I believe we can renew our affection for them by transferring the momentary sparkle of their vitality into another form. Through this, new relationships will be born.’

For now, it is still a small movement, but I think the realisation may spread. It will make for healthier and richer environments, perhaps in 30 years or only 50 years’ time. With this expectation in her mind Iki confronts flowers every single day.