今日の「天職人」は、岐阜県付知町の「飴職人」。
母に頼まれ 届け物 隣近所を 一巡り 幼い妹 連れ立てば 両手に余る 駄賃飴 白黒紅に ニッキ飴 大人の味の ハッカ糖 夕陽を浴びて キラキララ 両手の中の 小宇宙
岐阜県付知町の勝野製菓へ二代目の勝野観(かん)さんを訪ねた。
掃き清められた土間に、ハッカの匂いが漂う。思わず大きく息を吸い込んだ。鼻の奥の方に、忘れかけていたあの頃を感じた。
「親指と人差し指の先っちょに、煮えとる飴を一寸付けて指を開くんやて。よう煮えとるとパリパリ言うで、飴炊きの温度もわかるんやて」。観さんがその仕草を真似た。
昭和5（1930）年、初代の故勝野良二は、この地方に古くから伝わるハッカ糖を主力商品とする店を開業。「昔はこの辺りでも、ようけ薄荷草（はっかそう）が採れて、それを絞っとったらしいわ」。
観さんは六人兄弟の次男として誕生。中学を上がると、北恵那鉄道（昭和53年廃止）を中津川で乗り換え、名古屋で日用雑貨品を扱う問屋へと住み込み奉公に上がった。高度経済成長時代の訪れで、石鹸や剃刀も飛ぶような売れ行きに。三年の奉公を終え、休養のつもりで郷里へと戻った。すると跡取りの兄から「俺の代わりに、お前が飴作れ」と。「まあどうせ一時のことだろうと思っとったら、何が何が。知らん取る間に、兄貴は他所へ勤めに行っちまって」。観さんは、子どもの頃手伝った記憶を頼りに、父とハッカ糖や生菓子作りを開始。このころの昭和30年代初頭。大手の製パン業者が付知の町にも大量の和菓子などを運び込んだ。
「まさに付知の菓子屋の戦国時代やて」。観さんも生き残りを賭け、あの手この手と知恵を絞り、キャンプ場や下呂温泉へと新商品の販路を求め、ハッカ糖の灯を絶やすまいと守り抜いた。「生菓子は日持ちがせん。それに引き換え、飴は日持ちがええ」。やがて観さんの心は、先代が遺したハッカ糖一筋へ。
素朴な風味が魅力のハッカ糖は、砂糖と水飴の飴炊きに始まる。「何より火加減が肝心。飴のカリカリ感を出すには、二百度の高温と経験が頼りやて」。次にハッカの原液を加え、冷やして丸く固める。「柔らかすぎても、硬すぎてもあかん。時間との戦いや」。それを棒状に伸ばし、鋏で一粒大に切り分け袋詰め。「昔はみんな手作業やったで、肩が凝るとこれを首筋に擦り込んだるんやて。そうするとスーッとしてええ気持ちになるで。ちょっと塗ったろか？」。観さんはハッカの原液を掌に広げ、首筋に擦り込んだ。
さわやかなハッカの薫りが立ち込め、傍らで妻の恵美子さんがにっこり。
「深山裏木曽（みやまうらきそ）ハッカ糖 仲睦まじき飴職人」
このブログのコメント欄には、皆様に開示しても良いコメントをドンドンご掲示いただき、またその他のメッセージにつきましては、minoruokadahitoristudio@gmail.comへメールをいただければ幸いです。
おはようございます｡
・飴職人さんのお話ですね｡
・親指と人差し指の先っちょに飴を､一寸付けて指を開けたら飴の状態が､分かるなんてすごいですね｡
・勝野さん一時のお手伝いだと思ったらお兄さんが他の所に勤務に行ったので後を継いだのですね｡子供の時お父さんのお手伝いを､しておいて良かったですね｡
・(飴作り)硬すぎても柔らかすぎても駄目時間との戦い 中間が､良いの丁度良いのですね｡ 飴が硬くなるからですね｡
・私は､最近手作りのﾊｯｶ飴買って食べた事有りませんね｡(写真のﾊｯｶ飴)個包装になっているので良いですね｡
・ﾊｯｶ飴 独特な味(大人の味)なので､食べていません｡
・私は､ｽｰとする飴(ﾒﾝﾄｰﾙが強い飴)は､苦手です｡
果物系の飴か龍角散の飴(ｼｰｸﾜｰｻｰ味,ｶｼｽ&ﾌﾞﾙｰﾍﾞﾘｰ味),蜂蜜と生姜の飴は､好きです｡食べれます｡
ニッキはちょっと辛くて、ハッカはスゥスゥスゥスゥ、どちらの飴もだぁい好き⤴️
心が熱いんですよ、わたし…。
イヤ、暑苦しいの間違いかな（笑）
ぼくの子供の頃は、ニッキもハッカも苦手でなりませんでしたぁ！
でもオッサンになると、これが堪りませんねぇ！
ハッカ飴
現在も販売されてるけど なんだか懐かしい気がします。
ハッカやミント 香りやあの鼻の奥がスースーする感じは好きなんだけど ハッカ飴やミントアイスなどは苦手なんですよね。
アロマ加湿器でハッカ油を少量使うと 部屋中爽やかな香りに包まれますよ( ◠‿◠ )
あらぁ！アロマの加湿器なんて最高ですよね！
あったあった⤴ひし形のはっか糖！
懐かしいなぁ～！
皆さんが言われるように、スゥースゥー⤴
ガキんちょには、少し刺激が・・・
遠～～い！昔の事
でも、「おかしひろば」に置いてあっても手が出ない
それと、みかんの缶詰、リンゴの缶詰
極め付けは、サクランボの缶詰
もぉ～⤴子供の頃食べ過ぎて、見るのも「イヤ」
でも、缶詰は苦手だけど、生果物いいよねぇ～！
因みに「桜餅」の葉っぱ食べる派ですぅ～
ああっ、桜餅の葉はぼくも大好きです！
桜餅の葉は子供の頃は食べれなかったけれども今は美味しく感じます。
美味しい和菓子屋さんも見つけてしまったので
困った困ったこまどり姉妹です。
桜餅の塩漬けの桜の葉っぱは、風味がよくって大人味ですよねぇ。
I don’t know whether it’s just me or if everybody else experiencing problems with your blog.
It seems like some of the text within your posts are running off the screen.
Can somebody else please provide feedback and let
me know if this is happening to them too? This may be a issue with my browser because I’ve had this happen previously.
Thank you
I know this website presents quality dependent articles or reviews and
additional material, is there any other website which provides such stuff in quality?
Hi, i believe that i saw you visited my site thus i came to go back
the prefer?.I am trying to in finding things to improve my website!I suppose its adequate to make use of some of your ideas!!
Good post. I learn something totally new and challenging
on sites I stumbleupon on a daily basis. It will always be helpful to read articles from other authors and practice
something from their sites.
Hey I know this is off topic but I was wondering if you knew of any widgets I could add
to my blog that automatically tweet my newest twitter updates.
I’ve been looking for a plug-in like this for quite some time
and was hoping maybe you would have some experience
with something like this. Please let me know if you run into anything.
I truly enjoy reading your blog and I look forward to your new
updates.
Hello to every one, the contents present at this
web page are truly remarkable for people knowledge, well, keep up the nice work fellows.
It’s actually a nice and helpful piece of information.
I am glad that you just shared this useful information with us.
Please stay us up to date like this. Thank you for sharing.
This paragraph gives clear idea for the new visitors of blogging, that
actually how to do blogging.
Hi! Would you mind if I share your blog with my myspace group?
There’s a lot of people that I think would really appreciate your content.
Please let me know. Thanks
I love it whenever people get together and share ideas. Great site, continue
the good work!
I visited various sites except the audio feature for audio songs existing at this site is truly wonderful.
Everything is very open with a very clear explanation of the challenges.
It was definitely informative. Your website is very helpful.
Thanks for sharing!
Asking questions are genuinely nice thing if you are
not understanding anything fully, but this paragraph provides good understanding even.
whoah this blog is great i love reading your articles. Keep up the great work!
You know, a lot of individuals are looking round for this info,
you can help them greatly.
I for all time emailed this web site post page to all
my contacts, since if like to read it afterward my links will too.
Spot on with this write-up, I truly believe this site
needs much more attention. I’ll probably be
returning to see more, thanks for the info!
Wow, awesome blog layout! How long have you been blogging for?
you make blogging look easy. The overall look of your web site
is excellent, as well as the content!
Spot on with this write-up, I seriously believe that this
site needs a lot more attention. I’ll probably be returning to read more, thanks
for the info!
you’re really a just right webmaster. The site loading speed is incredible.
It kind of feels that you are doing any distinctive trick.
Also, The contents are masterwork. you have done a magnificent job on this matter!
I all the time used to read post in news papers but now as I am
a user of net therefore from now I am using net for articles, thanks to web.
An outstanding share! I have just forwarded this onto a co-worker who was doing a little homework
on this. And he actually ordered me breakfast because I found it for him…
lol. So allow me to reword this…. Thanks for the meal!!
But yeah, thanks for spending the time to discuss this issue
here on your blog.
Hi, the whole thing is going sound here and ofcourse every one is sharing
data, that’s in fact good, keep up writing.
Thank you for visiting us.
Please feel free to drop by again.
I’m not that much of a internet reader to be honest but your sites really
nice, keep it up! I’ll go ahead and bookmark your site to
come back later on. Many thanks
These are genuinely fantastic ideas in on the topic of blogging.
You have touched some pleasant things here. Any way keep up wrinting.
Thank you for visiting us.
Please feel free to drop by again.
Asking questions are truly pleasant thing if you are not
understanding anything totally, but this article provides pleasant understanding even.
Excellent blog! Do you have any tips for aspiring writers?
I’m planning to start my own site soon but I’m a little lost on everything.
Would you recommend starting with a free platform
like WordPress or go for a paid option? There are so many options out there that
I’m completely confused .. Any tips? Bless you!
What’s up, this weekend is fastidious designed for me, for the reason that this point in time
i am reading this enormous informative paragraph here at my home.
I’ll right away seize your rss as I can not in finding your email subscription link or newsletter service.
Do you have any? Please allow me understand in order that I may just subscribe.
Thanks.
This info is worth everyone’s attention. Where can I find out more?