Common Grave
古いビルは使命を終え取り壊され、跡地に新しい高層ビルが建つようになった。いずれ取り壊される運命に寂しさを感じながらも、それらが輪廻転生、人の営みと同じように思え将来への希望を感じる。
威容を誇り輝いている高層ビルを眺めていると、使命を終えた古い高層ビルの姿が浮かんでくる。それはまるで美しい共同墓地のように見えとても愛おしく思う。
I was born in 1965, right in the middle of the post-war economic growth. When I was little, my family and I went up Tokyo Tower and I remember being moved by the view from the observation deck. It was then that I fell in love with high-rise buildings. My astonishment at the towering heights of the Kasumigaseki Building and the International Trade Center Building didn't last long, as the view in the late afternoon sun of a group of skyscrapers in Nishi Shinjuku where a water treatment plant used to be made quite an impression on me. When Sunshine 60 was completed, I couldn't wait for class to get out, and when it did my friends and I raced over on our bikes. I searched for my house from the observation deck but unfortunately I couldn't find it as it was hidden behind buildings. With the 90s came the construction of beautiful and functional high-rises. Meanwhile, those old high-rises that I loved as a child had outgrown their usefulness and were demolished without a trace, as new high-rises took their place. The fate of those buildings that were eventually demolished and only live on in video footage makes me feel sad but at the same time, like the cycle of life is a product of people's hard work and so gives me hope for the future. Looking at the majestic high-rises, I can sometimes see those buildings that are gone but have fulfilled their destinies. It looks to me like a beautiful cemetery and I have a real love for it.
