The legendary Michel Henry Museum
I think I first heard about the Michel Henry Museum at the end of the 20th century. Michel Henry was born in Langres in the northwest of France, and the museum was going to be built in his hometown.
The mayor at the time was a staunch supporter of Chirac and a close friend of Michel Henry. He purchased an old building for the museum, with a site of about 1,650 to 3,300 square meters and a floor area of about 750 to 1000 square meters. However, it turned out that it would cost 500 million yen just to repair the roof, and if the interior work was also included, the total amount would be enormous. After all, this was a small city with a population of just under 20,000. The mayor's term ended before he could secure a budget, and he lost the next election.
Japanese and French people have a lot in common, but they are also polar opposites. Japanese people are weak against authority, while French people love freedom and think authority is crap. Another crucial difference is that once the Japanese have decided on a direction, they run full speed towards their goal. French people have a developed sense of balance and don't like extreme things. It's interesting to see this manifest as a phenomenon in the world of politics. In France, when the center moves to the right, the local governments always move to the left. This is the French sense of balance. In other words, while Mitterrand of the Socialist Party was president, local governments were beautifully colored by conservatives, and after Chirac became president, local governments gradually became Socialist. In Japan, the tendency is generally the opposite, and everyone wants to ride the winning horse. In other words, as the Chirac administration dragged on, the conservative mayor of Langres, Michel Henry's hometown, lost the election and a Socialist mayor was born. It's obvious, but the Socialist Party is generous with welfare, and doesn't spend money on culture or luxury such as museums. Despite this, Mitterrand also expelled the Ministry of Finance from the Louvre and completely renovated it. The transparent pyramid in the garden of the Louvre was built at that time. The Socialist Party also made efforts to protect the arts. After all, France is a country of culture and art.
So, what happened to the museum? The building was left untouched after that, and the city-run Michel Henry Museum was shelved. Then a savior appeared, Mr. Legros and the law for the protection of cultural properties. The French government enacted a law that provides significant tax benefits to those who purchase old buildings with high cultural value and use them for cultural purposes. Around 2003, Mr. Legros, a businessman from Langres, bought a 16th century building with a floor area of 100 tsubo and a land area of about 300 tsubo, and planned to create a private Michel Henry Museum. Michel Henry was forced to make a decision. Should he wait patiently for the city-run museum, which he did not know when it would be completed, or should he accept Mr. Legros' proposal and be content with a small museum? Michel Henry was already 75 years old. After discussing it together, they decided to accept Mr. Legros' proposal.
Mr. Legros quickly finished the restoration of the roof of the building, and started the interior work, and rushed ahead with the plan to open the museum one year later. Mr. Legros also faced many obstacles. First of all, there was the fussy Ministry of Culture. This was the first job for the official in charge of reviewing the restoration of this building, and he was very enthusiastic. In other words, they complained about even the smallest details and made many changes to the blueprint. Even the completed parts had to be redone many times. As a result, the construction was significantly delayed and the expenses were much higher than expected. To make matters worse, while the construction period was extended, there was a unified local election, and the cantonal governor, a Chirac supporter who was on good terms with Michel Henry, was unexpectedly defeated. This person had planned to provide 2 million euros (about 300 million yen) as a state subsidy for the restoration of the museum. In other words, Mr. Legros did not receive the subsidy and ended up crying over the unexpected expenses. Nevertheless, his main business seemed to be going well, and he somehow managed to raise funds, and the renovation of the museum was completed in 2006.
Several years passed without the museum opening, but Mr. Legros' business went bankrupt and the museum closed before it could even open. Why did the idea of building a Michel Henry museum in Langres come up? The mayor of Langres and Mr. Legros did not want to build a museum just for fun or to commemorate the great local painter Michel Henry. In fact, Langres is a tourist destination. Langres is a fortified city built by the ancient Romans. It is surrounded by a wall that is about 2 kilometers in circumference and 10 meters high. The ancient Romans built two cities, Langres to manage the undeveloped lands of Gaul (present-day France and Belgium), and Cologne in Germany to manage the undeveloped lands of the Germanic countries. These two cities flourished as satellite cities of ancient Rome. Cologne is still called Cologne by the beautiful Latin word "Colonia" by locals.
Let me also explain the scenery of Langres. The city walls, which are currently about 10 meters high, were only about 3 meters high in ancient Roman times. At one point, the town was attacked by foreign enemies and was completely ravaged and destroyed. When the survivors rebuilt the town, they chose to build a new one rather than repair it. In other words, they filled the entire town with earth and built a new town on top of it. As a result, the city walls became twice as high, about 6 meters. Just when they thought they were safe with the walls so high, they were attacked again by foreign enemies in the Middle Ages and the town was completely destroyed. However, the people of Langres did not give up. They filled the town again and built a third town on top of it. Naturally, the city walls became higher, and the town took on its current appearance. Even in the building of the Michel Henry Museum, the buildings of the previous town can be seen in the semi-basement. As expected, the buildings from the Roman era are completely buried and no trace or shape can be seen. The view from the city walls is magnificent. It's something you should see at least once. It's burned into my memory. I have never seen such a medieval rural landscape anywhere else. The deep green of the land, like a velvet carpet, continues, with flocks of sheep and cows grazing here and there. It feels like I have wandered into ancient or medieval Europe.
The mayor of Langres and Mr. Legros came up with the idea of building the Michel Henry Museum as a tourist attraction in Langres. In other words, it has great economic value. The 18th century thinker and Encyclopedist Diderot and the 20th century painter Michel Henry are famous people born in this town. When the museum was finally ready to open, Mr. Legros appealed to the mayor to have the city cover the annual maintenance costs of the museum. It is clear that the museum cannot be maintained with admission fees alone. Since it is a tourist resource in a tourist city, Mr. Legros' argument makes sense. However, the mayor is completely ignorant. Mr. Legros intended to oust the current mayor in the next mayoral election and support a mayor who would be cooperative with the museum. However, Mr. Legros went bankrupt before the mayor stepped down. The battle was lost.
The story now moves to Japan. There is a town called Omu-cho, located further north along the coast of Monbetsu, which faces the Sea of Okhotsk at the northern edge of Hokkaido. This town discovered hot springs at the end of the 20th century and built a hot spring hotel. The mayor of this town was a very smart man, and decorated the hotel with paintings and prints by Michel Henry. He even created a space called the Michel Henry Gallery. He thought that one day he would build a Michel Henry Museum and make it a tourist attraction for the town.
When I mentioned this to the late Kinashi Yoshikazu, former president of Sapporo Cultural Broadcasting and honorary consul of France in Sapporo, he proposed that the two towns with the Michel Henry Museum become sister cities (in the future). Kinashi was a man of action and goodwill, and he quickly made various preparations and flew to France the following year during Golden Week at his own expense. I couldn't just ignore it, so I accompanied him as an interpreter. With Kinashi's arrangements, Mr. M, the consul of Alsace at the Japanese Consulate in Japan, also came to Langres. A welcoming party was held at Langres City Hall, and Consul M and Mr. Kinashi became honorary citizens of Langres. However, the talk of sister cities did not go well. Neither Japan nor France had the financial resources. We decided to start with communication over the Internet, which costs absolutely no money, and make an effort to become sister cities someday.
As an aside, this Kansai-accented Consul M is quite a smart guy, and his way of thinking is original and interesting. It would be a waste to make him a government official. Or should I say that it is reassuring that someone like him is a Japanese diplomat? He graduated from the elite school for French diplomats, the Institut Politique de France, and his wife is also French. At a dinner hosted by the mayor, he calmly criticized Japan's diplomatic policy of following the United States while drinking wine. I am not very good at dining with French people. Sitting at a table with a lot of talkative French people while drinking alcohol is almost like torture. It is not easy to concentrate on your ears and follow the conversation after eating and drinking alcohol in a relaxed mode. This Consul M is not a big deal, and he is actually leading the conversation, so he is impressive.
Mr. Michel Henry painted several very small gouache works and gave them to people who had helped him. He also gave one to Consul M. Consul M had Mr. Michel Henry write that it was dedicated to his beloved wife, Isabella. That night, someone was banging on my door. When staying at a hotel abroad, if someone knocks on the door in the middle of the night, it's creepy and no one opens it. I pretended not to notice and went to sleep. Then, about 10 minutes later, I got an internal call to my room. Mr. Michel Henry, who was Consul M, gave me a painting. It would be rude to refuse, so I accepted it for the time being, but I can't accept money or gifts from people for free due to my position. He said he wanted to pay for it. He liked the painting and wanted to give it to his wife, Isabella. He asked me to keep it until he paid. The painter couldn't give it to others for free and make Consul M pay for it. I can't sell something that the artist gave me for free either. I entrusted the painting to a French art dealer I know, explained the reason, and asked him to sell it to Consul M. I have not confirmed whether the painting was ever delivered to Consul M or not.
Kinashi passed away two years later. I heard later that when he took me to France, it had been a few months since he had had stomach surgery, so he went anyway despite the doctor's considerable worries. I also went to Sapporo for the funeral on a cold, snowy day in November. It was a company funeral for Sapporo Cultural Broadcasting, and the French ambassador came to give a speech. He was posthumously awarded the Legion of Honor by the French government. I think such a fine person should be given an award.
After Mr. Kinashi passed away, while I was busy with other work, the Michel Henry Museum in Langres was closed and the sister city relationship between the city of Langres and the town of Omu was also lost.