Guild名鑑 No.204　クンチョウ酒造 冨安大二郎さん

地域文化の“根っこ”をつなぐ
クンチョウ酒造 冨安大二郎さんの“ひと”の縁で育てる循環する未来
(The English version follows the Japanese text.)

港区を起点にいろんなところで働く・暮らす、楽しい時間を創りたい人たちによるコミュニティCreative Guild。このギルド名鑑ではそんなCreative Guildでつながったユニークな方々をご紹介しています。今回ご紹介するのは、大分県日田市・豆田町の蔵元、クンチョウ酒造の蔵人・冨安大二郎さん。地域に関わる“ひと”の縁を大切にしながら、酒蔵を起点に地域文化の“根っこ”をつなぎ、未来へ向けた循環づくりに取り組んでいます。

クンチョウ酒造のルーツは江戸時代にまで遡り、現在も元禄15年（1702年）建造の蔵がそのままの姿で残っています。代表は冨安さんのお父さん。冨安さん自身は大学卒業後、東京の食品卸会社を経て2017年からクンチョウ酒造に戻ってきました。現在は酒造りと事業運営に携わりながら、社員を巻き込んだ酒造りや外部人材の受け入れなどを推進。酒蔵を、酒造りの場としてだけでなく、地域文化の結節点として捉え、その価値を世代や分野を超えて届けています。

そんな冨安さんが大事にしているのは、「“ひと”の縁」です。それは単なる人脈ではなく、人間的につながり、わかりあうこと。世代や地域、文化を超えて互いの背景に触れ、その奥にある想いが紡がれた時に、それは地域文化の“根っこ”になっていきます。そして、そこから芽生える小さな可能性を急がず、丁寧に育み、熟成させていく。冨安さんは、酒造りと同じように、人の縁から生まれる価値もまた時間をかけて醸されるものだと捉えているのです。

現在、とくに地方部では、地域文化の保全が重要な課題となっています。それは歴史ある町並みや自然環境だけではありません。その地域を支える伝統産業・伝統技術、そしてそれらと共にある暮らしもまた、未来へつなぐべき大切な文化です。しかし文化は、ただ守るだけでは続きません。時代の変化に適応しながら、関わる“ひと”の縁を紡ぎ直すことが必要です。けれども今、その縁が十分につながらず、地域文化の“根っこ”が崩れつつある場所は少なくありません。

詰まるところ、冨安さんは蔵人としてお酒を造ることを通じて、お金だけではない価値の循環を地域社会につくっているのです。それは私たちに、目の前のものごとだけに囚われず、それを支える見えないつながりと、時代や地域を超えた大きな流れに目を向ける大切さを教えてくれています。ぜひこのあたりの深いお話を、クンチョウ酒造さんのお酒をいただきながら冨安さんに伺いたいですね。そして新しく紡がれる“ひと”の縁が、新しい“楽しい”から始まる未来づくりにつながっていきそうです。

Connecting the “Roots” of Regional Culture
Daijiro Tomiyasu of Kuncho Sake Brewery and the Circulating Future Nurtured Through Human Connections

Creative Guild is a community of people who live and work across many places, starting from Minato City, and who seek to create joyful moments together. In this Guild Directory, we introduce unique individuals connected through Creative Guild. This time, we feature Daijiro Tomiyasu, a kurabito — sake brewer — at Kuncho Sake Brewery in Mameda-machi, Hita City, Oita Prefecture. By cherishing the human connections that shape a region, he is working to connect the roots of regional culture through the sake brewery and to nurture a future of meaningful circulation.

The roots of Kuncho Sake Brewery go back to the Edo period, and its brewery building, constructed in Genroku 15, or 1702, still remains in its original form. The current representative is Daijiro’s father. After graduating from university, Daijiro worked for a food wholesaling company in Tokyo before returning to Kuncho Sake Brewery in 2017. Today, he is involved in both sake brewing and business operations, while promoting initiatives such as involving employees more deeply in the brewing process and welcoming people from outside the brewery. He sees the brewery not only as a place for making sake, but also as a connecting point for regional culture, sharing its value across generations and fields.

What Daijiro values most is “human connection.” For him, this does not simply mean networking. It means connecting with others as human beings and coming to understand one another. When people cross generations, regions, and cultures, touch each other’s backgrounds, and weave together the feelings that lie beneath them, those connections become the roots of regional culture. From there, small possibilities begin to sprout. Daijiro believes that these possibilities should not be rushed, but carefully nurtured and allowed to mature. Just like sake brewing, he sees the value born from human connection as something that is slowly and patiently cultivated over time.

Today, especially in rural areas, preserving regional culture has become an important challenge. This does not only mean protecting historic townscapes or natural environments. Traditional industries, inherited techniques, and the everyday lives that exist alongside them are also essential parts of culture that must be carried into the future. Yet culture cannot continue by simply being preserved. It must adapt to the times, while the human connections around it are rewoven. In many places, however, those connections have weakened, and the roots of regional culture are beginning to erode.

Ultimately, through his work as a sake brewer, Daijiro is creating a circulation of value in the local community that cannot be measured by money alone. His work reminds us of the importance of looking beyond what is immediately in front of us, and turning our attention to the invisible connections that support it, as well as the larger flow that extends across time and place. We would love to hear more of these deeper stories from Daijiro while enjoying Kuncho Sake Brewery’s sake. And the new human connections that emerge from such moments seem certain to lead toward a new future that begins with fun.