ふみくら:早稲田大学図書館報No.28(1991.2.1) p.4

ゲーリッツ氏を招いて




 当館では1990年10月1日〜11月30日の2ヶ月間にわたりオランダの古書籍商(今は新刊本も、主に図書館を対象に扱っている書店、A.Gerits&Sonsの店主)で、書誌学上にも多くの業績のある、アントン・ゲーリッツ氏を招聘しました。これは、当館が4月の新館開館を記念して購入した"フランス経済・社会・思想文庫(通称コルヴェア文庫)"の整理を指導してもらうためで、洋書係では有賀ビルの一室を用意して主に文庫の中の小パンフレット類の整理と、4月の新館オープニング記念展示の準備にあたっていただきました。コルヴェア文庫は現在JCCの倉庫に預けてあり、作業場の有賀ビルにも、その一部しか取り寄せられないという悪条件のもとて仕事をしていただくことになりましたが、ゲーリッツ氏はこの文庫が早稲田大学へもたらされたことに深く関与された方でもあり、有益な指導をしていただきました。特にこのコレクションの形成に大きく関与した、フランスの著名な書誌学者で古書籍商である、ミシェル・ベルンシュタイン氏と長年の親交のある方であることから、コレクションの由来等に重要な情報を得ることができています。
 コルヴェア文庫の詳細については、4月のオープニング展示用に作成する予定のパンフレットでご紹介したいと思いますので、以下に、日本で1ヶ月半を過ごされた時点でのゲーリッツ氏の感想を、書いていただいた英文のまま、掲載したいと思います。

Living in Tokyo for alonger period of time has appeared to be quite pleasant indeed.To our understanding the city is very well organized in spite of being clearly overcrowded and in spite of the heavy traffic.The subway system is,in our opinion,very good and people behave very disciplined,which
makes trave11ing in the trains,although they are extremely overcrowded during rush hours,very easy.
In the streets of Shinjuku you can rarely walk quickly.You have to slow down constantly,to step sidewards,to make place for other people.Walking here is often more shambling,which we felt very tiring,especially in the beginning.Now we are getting accustomed to it already.
The Japanese style of life appears to us as being rather formal.Formal in behaviour as well as in the way people dress themselves.People are very friendly and always prepared to help a foreigner finding his way.The result is that life in this overcrowded city remains bearable.
In Europe life-style is less formal,sometimes maybe too informal,which has caused quite a few unpleasant side effects.Real freedom means also that you can leave your be1ongings unguarded in the street for a moment,without risking them to be taken away.
Freedom is also to be able to travel in clean public transport and even when trains or buses are overcrwoded not to risk that pickpockets take their chance.Freedom is also to be able to move in clean streets among clean buildings.As soon as these elements of daily life are disappearing,one starts to realize how important they are.We hope that the people of Tokyo will understand this and will cherish this precious freedom which they,to a large extent,still enjoy.In Europe freedom is sometimes understood as"we may do as we like",which is a serious error,leading to lack of real freedom and to chaos.Too formal a life-style may lead to lack of possibilities to develop one's capabilities.
Too informal a life-style may lead to chaos and damage the quality of life.The'middle way'seems to be the most desirable way.What has struck also our attention is that in the subway,in restaurants,in parks,you see many groups.Groups of men,groups of women,groups of often uniformed children,groups of pilgrims.In Eruope you see much more individuals.
Family washing and getting married is mostly dono during the weekends,we have noticed,and spectacles are not made for Japanese faces.Many people wearing glasses have them half-way their noses! Do they prefer to look through the upper half of the glasses? Or even over the glasses?
Japanese food we like in general very much,although from time to time we slipped into a French restaurant to enjoy a chateaubriand,pommes gratins and a glass of French burgundy!
In our business contacts we were surprised to notice that some Japanese people seem not to approve foreign competition,whereas in our country we are faced daily with very heavy Japanese competition.Within the famous Dutch company of Phihps our country is losing at the moment some 45,0000 jobs,partly because of Japanese competition.Although it is generally much regretted,it is accepted as part of business life.
A Dutch tradition is to be always in favour of free trade and open markets.Remember the famous book by Hugo Grotius"De mare libero"(On the free seas),the first edition of which appeared in l618 in Leiden.
Since Holland is a very small country(1 hour and a half by car east of Amsterdam is the German border,l hour and a half to the south is Belgium and Paris is only 4 hours away.To the north and west it is a little distance to the sea).Such a small country with no important resources of its own,is very dependent on foreign trade.That is why we learn many languages and are trained to give good services.Maybe that is the reason why Dutch companies have throughout the ages served as major intermediaries between Europe and other continents.Also in the trade with Japan we have a long tradition.The work I am doing at Waseda University Library is very stimulating.I have a chance to explain to young librarians some special aspects of European books and their bindings.I try to explain what is the best way to treat them,how to pack them for transport even over short distances.This is very important for old European bindings since these are quite vulnerable and repairs are difficult to execute and cost much money.I enjoy sharing some of my knowledge and experiences with people seriously interested.Here I owe much to the good and diligent cooperation of Chieko Yamamoto san.Although we have to communicate in English―a foreign language for both of us―we get a1ong quite well.
We feel also very grateful to Mr.Takayasu Okushima and Mr.Yoji Noguchi,who have assured good working conditions and such good living conditions for me and my wife.The accomodation in the Someya International House is excellent,we11 situated not far from the library and in a nice quite street.We would like to thank all the people who have worked with us,especially also Mr.Honma,who organized our meetings with his staff and showed so much interest in our work.
We really look forward to similar chances of working for some time in Japan!
We have used the opportunity to look around during the weekends.We have made beautiful long walks to Jimmu Temple and Mount Takatori;along the Sagami Bay,along Cape Tsurugi;we visited Sendai and from there Kakuda and Marumori,and of course Matushima,where we made a nice boat trip in the Sendai Bay among the many small islands.We visited the Zuiganji Temple and Entsu-in.We appreciated the beautiful temples,rock gardens and interesting parks.We also enjoyed very much a long walk among the rice fields and small farmhouses,where we could see how the Japanese rice we like so much,is harvested.But after each outing it was a good thing to return to the books and so it will also make us happy to return to our daily work in Amsterdam in December,where we certainly will cherish many good memories of a happy time spent among kind people at Waseda University.Also on behalf of Paula,my wife,I say to you all:dewa mata!
Anton Gerits


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