はじめのひとこと
お客様がいま立っているこの赤門を、1877年にスケッチした、とされる人がいます。
東京の大学に、動物学の教授として招かれたモースです。
ただ、モース本人は、この門を「赤門」とは呼ばず、加賀屋敷の正門と書いています。
This Red Gate, where you are standing, is said to appear in a sketch made in 1877.
The man who drew it was Morse, invited to a university in Tokyo as professor of zoology.
Morse himself, though, never called it the Red Gate. He wrote of it as the main gateway of Kaga Yashiki.
モースは、腕足類という海の生き物を調べに日本へ来た、と書いています。
江ノ島の小さな研究所にいたとき、文部省から、東京の大学の動物学の教授に招かれました。
大学の外国人の先生の多くは、高い塀に囲まれた広い屋敷の中に住んでいました。
その屋敷は加賀屋敷と呼ばれ、封建の時代には加賀の大名がいた、とモースは書いています。
モースは、その5番の家に落ち着きました。
市内には外国人のための一画があり、外国人は役人でなければ、その外には住めなかった。
けれども大学の教師は政府の役人とみなされ、市内のどこにでも住めた、と書いています。
ある朝、モースは加賀屋敷の正門をスケッチしました。
木の部分は暗い赤に塗られ、鉄の金具は黒い、と書いています。
ふだん、その正門は使わず、住まいに近い小さな門を使っていました。
それでも、毎朝前を通るたびに、よく眺めていた、と。
そのスケッチは、モースの本に図279として載っています。
松田陽の講演は、この図279に赤門が描かれている、と述べています。
赤門は、徳川家斉の娘の溶姫が前田家に嫁ぐときに建った門だ、とも述べています。
そして1871年に前田家の手を離れた、と。
Morse writes that he came to Japan to study brachiopods, creatures of the sea.
While he was working at a little laboratory on Enoshima, the Ministry of Education invited him to be professor of zoology at the university in Tokyo.
Most of the university's foreign professors lived inside a large enclosure surrounded by high walls.
The estate was called Kaga Yashiki, and in feudal times the lord of Kaga had lived there, Morse writes.
Morse settled into House Number 5.
There was a small part of the city set apart for foreigners, and no foreigner could live outside it unless he was a government officer.
But the university's teachers were regarded as government officers and could live anywhere in the city, he writes.
One morning, Morse made a sketch of the main gateway of Kaga Yashiki.
The woodwork, he writes, was painted dark red, and the iron fittings were black.
He did not use that main gateway himself, but a smaller gate nearer to where he lived.
Even so, he took a good look at it every morning as he passed.
The sketch appears in his book as Figure 279.
In a lecture, Matsuda says the Red Gate is drawn in this Figure 279.
He also says the Red Gate was built when Yasuhime, a daughter of Tokugawa Ienari, married into the Maeda family.
And in 1871, he says, it passed out of the Maeda family's hands.
記録の言葉
この話のもとになった記録の言葉です。ページは、その本に刷られたものです。
Edward S. Morse『Japan Day by Day, 1877, 1878-79, 1882-83』Vol. I（Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1917）一次史料
The foreign University professors live in houses built in our style, most of them in a large enclosure surrounded by high walls with gateways at intervals, some permanently closed and others always closed at night. … The yashiki to which we were going was known as Kaga Yashiki, the Daimyo of the Province of Kaga occupying it in feudal times.
I am fairly settled now at No. 5, Kaga Yashiki. Figure 198 is a rough sketch of the house I live in; built by the Japanese and supposed to be in foreign style.
The Kaga Yashiki, where we live, has an imposing gateway which I have never seen open, and some distance from it a little entrance, closed at night, with a gate-keeper close by in a little room, who, knowing the people living within, would let us in late at night.
There is a small portion of the city set apart for foreigners, and no foreigner can have a residence outside this limit unless he is a Government officer; as the Imperial University is sustained by the Government the instructors are regarded as Government officers and are privileged to reside in any part of the city. In the Kaga Yashiki, four miles or more from the foreign concession, we are in the midst of Japanese life pure and simple.
The other morning I made a sketch of the main gateway of Kaga Yashiki (fig. 279). … The woodwork is painted dark red, while the iron facings, bolts, etc., are black.
We do not use it in going to our houses within the walls, but use a smaller gate nearer to where we live.
It is a picturesque sight, and I always take a good look at it when I pass, as I do every morning.
Farewell dinners are in order, as I return to America for my winter lectures.
It is difficult to realize that less than ten years ago the Shogun was in power, … No foreigner was allowed to live in Yedo, nor could he ever visit it unless he was a high official of some foreign Government, and here we are roaming round the city unguarded and unmolested.
I first visited Japan solely for the purpose of studying various species of Brachiopods in the Japanese seas. While pursuing my work in a little laboratory established at Enoshima, I was invited by the Educational Department to take the chair of Zoölogy in the Imperial University in Tokyo. During my residence in Japan of nearly four years I kept a daily journal to avoid the duplication of home letters.
The other morning I made a sketch of the main gateway of Kaga Yashiki (fig. 279).／Fig. 279
松田陽「赤門周辺の歴史的環境 200年の軌跡と奇跡」（東京大学広報室「赤門とは何か――歴史と建築の視点から」、東京大学ウェブサイト、2025年）
1877年には東大が創立されます。同年にお雇い外国人のモースが残したスケッチ（Morse, E.S. 1917. Japan Day by Day, vol.1, Fig.279）…に赤門が描かれています。
いまから約200年前、徳川家斉の娘の溶姫が前田家に輿入れする際に赤門が建ちました。
しばらく前田家の門として機能した赤門ですが、1871年になると前田家の手を離れ、東京府、その後は文部省の敷地に入りました。