二笑亭奇譚

I received a book from Mr. Igarashi. Around the time of the Great Kanto Earthquake, a man built his own house in the way he wanted to and died of mental illness, and that mysterious house was also destroyed. Nishotei Kitan” (1937), which was written by Shikiba Ryuzaburo, a writer and a mentally ill doctor who examined the owner of the mysterious house, was re-released with illustrations by Kimura Sohachi. This book is the one to which Taniguchi Yoshiro’s writings and actual survey drawings from the original text and new essays by Igarashi Taro have been added. It must be interesting to see such sincere and unidentifiable architecture not looked at by the architectural world.

五十嵐さんから本をいただいた。関東大震災の頃自らの家を自らの好きなように作り、精神の病にかかり亡くなり、その不思議な家も壊された。その家を二笑亭と呼びその不思議な家の主人を診察した精神病の医者にして文筆家の式場隆三郎が綴った『二笑亭奇譚』（1937）が木村宗八の挿絵とともに再販された。元々の本にあった谷口吉郎の文章と実測図、五十嵐太郎の新たな文章が付加された本である。こんな建築界に見向きもされず、しかし得体の知れない真摯な建築はちょっと興味深い。