🏍️ K’s COLUMN 059 : 大名行列
かれこれ約50年近く前、母方の祖父が亡くなった頃の話だ。
明治生まれの祖父は身体が丈夫ではなく、赤紙さえも来なかった。
つまり戦争へは一度も行っていないのだ。
あまりにも弱くて、寝込むことも多かった。
そして扁桃腺が悪化し高熱を発してから、起き上がることも容易ではなかった。
痰を喉に詰まらせて吐き出すこともできないので、痰を取り出す機械まで買った。
母の兄妹がかわるがわる痰を取る作業をしていた。
しかし遂に帰らぬ人となった。
亡くなってからは慌しかった。
そして葬儀の日を迎えた。
葬儀場には多数の花輪があった。
〇〇会社社長、〇〇議員、〇〇銀行、そして数多くの弔電。
祖父がそんなに交友関係が広かったとは驚いた。
葬式が終わり、火葬場へ行くための準備が始まった。
私は霊柩車の後部座席に乗車した。
霊柩車に乗ったのは父、母の兄そして母の弟。
そして火葬場へ出発する時になり、私は驚くべき光景を目にした。
白バイ隊員が5人、霊柩車に敬礼し、３台の白バイが霊柩車を先導するような形で走り出した。
残り２台は霊柩車の後続だ。
白バイはまるで霊柩車を護衛するかのようだった。
外では物珍しさにわざわざ沿道に出てくる人さえいた。
そして、霊柩車を指差している。
まるで著名人の誰かが亡くなったかのようだ。
火葬も済み、葬儀場へ戻った。
そこには精進料理が用意されていた。
葬儀の席なのにもかかわらず、母や親戚などは大笑いしていた。
それは、白バイに見送られた霊柩車のことだった。
ちなみに当時の白バイの隊長だったのは、母の妹の亭主であったので、部下に命じて葬儀場へ駆けつけたのだと言っていた。
まさに職権濫用である。
しかもこの豪華な葬式は、当時父の会社の景気がよかったので、会社関係の取引先の面々がよこした花輪や弔電だった。
そして私はその後、身内の葬式で、そのような光景を見ることが一切なかったのである。
🇬🇧 English version below
🏍️ K’s COLUMN 059 : Daimyo Procession
This happened nearly fifty years ago, around the time my maternal grandfather passed away.
My grandfather was born in the Meiji era. He was not physically strong, and he was never even called up for military service. In other words, he never went to war.
He was so frail that he was often bedridden.
Then his tonsils became severely inflamed and he developed a high fever. After that, even getting out of bed became difficult.
He could not cough up the phlegm that became stuck in his throat, so the family even bought a machine for removing it. My mother and her siblings took turns using it to remove the phlegm.
But eventually, he passed away.
After his death, everything became hectic.
Then the day of the funeral arrived.
There were numerous funeral flower stands at the funeral hall.
The president of this company. A certain politician. A certain bank. And numerous condolence telegrams.
I was surprised to see that my grandfather apparently had such a wide circle of acquaintances.
After the funeral ceremony was over, preparations began for taking him to the crematorium.
I sat in the back seat of the hearse.
In the hearse were my father, my mother’s older brother, and my mother’s younger brother.
Then, just as we were about to leave for the crematorium, I witnessed an astonishing sight.
Five motorcycle police officers saluted the hearse, and three police motorcycles set off ahead of it, leading the way.
The remaining two followed behind the hearse.
The motorcycles looked as though they were escorting the hearse.
People even came out to the roadside simply because they were curious about what was happening.
They pointed at the hearse.
It looked as though some famous person had died.
After the cremation was over, we returned to the funeral hall.
A vegetarian funeral meal had been prepared.
Even though it was a funeral gathering, my mother and the other relatives were laughing loudly.
They were laughing about the hearse that had been escorted by five police motorcycles.
Incidentally, the police motorcycle unit commander at the time was my mother’s younger sister’s husband. He said that he had ordered his subordinates to rush over to the funeral.
Talk about an abuse of authority.
As for the lavish funeral itself, my father’s company was doing very well at the time, so the many funeral flower stands and condolence telegrams had been sent by people from companies that did business with my father’s company.
And after that, I never once saw anything like it at another funeral for one of my relatives.