川崎先生の思い出（どこかに書き残したかったこと）　Memories of Dr. Tomisaku Kawasaki

川崎病にはじめて関わりをもてたのは，今から20年前の1982年の秋だった．その春，大学を卒業したばかりの私は，当時東京にあった国立公衆衛生院の学生だったが，研究は柳川先生のところで進めていた．夕方，医局（といえるかどうかわからないが，今でも“医局長代行心得”といった役職が非公式に存在している）で，特にやることもなく暇をつぶしていた私に，柳川先生は，その当時はじめて公開された感染症サーベイランスのデータをもってこられ，川崎病全国調査における発生動向との比較，という課題を与えた．

学生時代は，講義にはほとんど出ない不真面白な医学生だった．したがって，当然のことながら，この不勉強学生に毛が生え，まぐれで医師国家試験に合格した駆け出し研究者もどきは，現在の一般の人と同様，感染症の発生頻度は他の疾患の発生頻度と同様，自明のものと思っていた．そこで “何で，今更こんな研究を行うのだろう”と不思議に思いつつ，結果をまとめ，翌年1月の研究班会議で報告した．班会議終了後，柳川先生の鞄持ちで，はじめて川崎先生と上野の駅前の焼鳥屋（銀座の高級レストランではないところに，川崎先生のお人柄が現れている）で一緒にお酒を頂いた．

その焼鳥屋で，大先生と一緒で緊張する私に川崎先生は“ 中村先生は独身ですか？”と尋ねられた．“実は，秋には結婚しようと思っており，相手は先生の病院（日赤医療センター）に勤めています” と自白した．そのご縁で，柳川先生ご夫妻に媒酌をお願いした1983年9月25日の結婚式には，川崎先生に主賓としてお越し頂くことができた．

結婚式は四谷駅近くの弘済会館．別に鉄道マニアだから選んだ，というわけではなく，家内が安いところを見つけてきただけのことであった．ところが，この “安いところ” というのが大ヒットだった．川崎先生は主賓の挨拶で，“最近よく，医師の結婚式に招待されるが， どれも高級ホテルばかり．医師が金を目標にしている．それに比べてお金に目もくれないこのような（ “貧乏くさい会場で式を挙げる” とは仰らなかったが）医師もいる”と仰って， 落涙された．その後，私の友人たちが高級ホテルで結婚式を挙げるたびに，“川崎先生の嫌いそうな会場”という評価が周囲から出たことはいうまでもない．

どこかに書き残しておきたかった，川崎病研究における自分史である．

以上の文章は2002年4月刊行の「川崎病の疫学：30年間の総括」（診断と治療社刊行）の編集後記である。少々マイナーな書籍であまり目に触れる機会がないこと、にもかかわらず、川崎先生のお人柄が充分ににじみ出ていること、の2点により、ここに再掲させて頂いた。川崎病との関わりから上述の文章まで20年、この文章から現在まで約20年、にもかかわらず川崎先生が常に気にされておられた「原因の究明」が出来ていないことに、忸怩たる思いを感じる。

It was in autumn in 1982, 20 years ago, when I first concerned with Kawasaki disease. I was a graduate student of the National Institute of Public Health in Tokyo after graduating from Jijchi Medical University in the spring of the year, and I progressed my research under Dr. Hiroshi Yanagawa at Jichi Medical School. On a evening, when I had nothing to do and idled away my time in the medical office of the department, Dr. Yanagawa brought data of the infectious disease surveillance, which started just before the time, and gave me the research question, comparison of the Kawasaki disease occurrence and these data.

When I was a lazy medical student, I was absent from many lectures. The beginner researcher who was a little bit higher than a lazy student, and passed the national license examination for physician by chance, therefore believed that the occurrences and chronological changes of infectious diseases should be obvious as well as other diseases, like as a nonprofessional. Wondering why I conducted such a research, I completed the results, and presented them in the research meeting on the next January conducted in the Japan Red Cross Medical Center in Tokyo. Following Dr. Yanagawa, I went to a roast chicken restaurant (yakitori-ya) in front of the Ueno Station with Dr. Kawasaki, (I believe that “not in a high class restaurant in Ginza” shows Dr. Kawasaki’s personal characteristics.) and drank with him.

At that restaurant, Dr. Kawasaki asked the young researcher with tense whether he was a single. I answered, “I have a plan to marriage in coming autumn, and the fianc?e is a midwife on your hospital!” According to the chance, Dr. Kawasaki was the guest of the honor of our marriage party on September 25, 1993, of which matchmakers were Dr. and Mrs. Yanagawa.

The venue was “Kosai Kaikan (an organization related to the railway service)” close to Yotsuya Station in Tokyo. We selected this place not because I am interested in railways, but just only my wife selected non-expensive one. However, this “non-expensive venue” was a success. In the speech of the main guest Dr. Kawasaki said, “Recently I was frequently invited to marriage ceremonies of physicians, but many of the venues are high quality (=expensive) hotels. I’m sorry for physicians to set a goal with money. On the other hand, some physicians, like as today’s bridegroom, never mind money. (He did not say “marriage ceremony in a cheap venue like this.”) with tears. It need scarcely be said that “the venue which Dr. Kawasaki does not like” was said whenever my classmates on the university had a marriage ceremony in an expensive hotel.

This is my history about Kawasaki disease which should be recorded somewhere.

The prose above is an editorial postscript of “Epidemiology of Kawasaki Disease: A 30-Year Achievement” issued from Shindan-to-Chiryosha Co., Ltd on April 2002 (Japanese version). (1) It is a minor book so that it is not so common in general, and (2) however, Dr. Kawasaki’s characteristics are enough presented; There two reasons make me the poesy put here again. I am sincerely sorry that the etiology of the disease, in which Dr. Kawasaki has been deeply interested, is still unclear because of the long time, 20 years from the start of my Kawasaki disease research in epidemiology through the prose, and another approximate 20 years from the prose through now.