ギルド名鑑No.217 小倉城武将隊 代表 大神 拓哉さんの想像を超えた創造の物語

(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、Creative Guildの北九州のパートナーである一般社団法人まちはチームだの仲間で、小倉城武将隊代表を務める大神 拓哉さん。誰かの生き様が、別の誰かの勇気へと変わるきっかけになるような“ワクワク”する物語を、想像を超えて創造し続けています。

北九州の旦過市場近くにある菅原神社の神主を務める大神さんは、18歳でパントマイマーとして北九州芸術劇場のこけら落としに出演。その後上京し、養成所を経て企画演劇集団ボクラ団義を旗揚げするほか、NHK大河ドラマ『真田丸』では黒田長政役を務め、一人芝居『Vivid Cafe』を展開するなど、演劇人としてのキャリアを積み上げてきました。その後、新型コロナウイルス禍を機に北九州へ戻り、2022年に、戦国武将やその家臣に扮する地域エンターテインメント集団・小倉城武将隊を創設。現在は代表として脚本・演出・出演を担いながら、小倉の歴史を背景とした“ワクワク”できる物語を描き続けています。

そんな大神さんがいつも心がけているのは、自分自身の想像を超えていく創造を実践することです。それは、自分だけでなく、周囲の人たちとも心からのワクワクを分かち合える状態でもあります。同時に、地域に息づく一人ひとりの人生、すなわち「生き様」に丁寧に向き合うことも大切にしています。なぜなら、生き様には、その人にしかない価値が表れているからです。そうした生き様を物語として紡ぐことで、ある人の歩みを、別の誰かが未来へ踏み出す勇気へと変えていける。そして、多様な人との対話や、歴史・地域との出会いから、自分一人では思い描けなかった物語が立ち上がる。つまり、誰かの生き様に触れ、その価値を物語として誰かへ手渡していくプロセスそのものが、大神さんにとっての「想像を超えた創造」の実践なのです。

私たちはどこかで、「やりたい」という心の声よりも、「失敗しないか」「儲かるのか」を先に考えるようになってはいないでしょうか。例えば、地域の文化や歴史も、短期的な集客や分かりやすさばかりを優先すれば、そこに生きた人々の葛藤や熱を失い、表面的な物語へと変わってしまいます。一度きりの人生を自分のものとして歩み、大切な人の生き方も尊重していくために、私たちは何にワクワクし、誰とどんな一歩を踏み出せばよいのでしょうか。いま必要なのは、そんな“そもそも”に立ち返り、まずは自分自身の生き様を見つめ直すことなのかもしれません。

大神さんの取り組みは、地域の歴史を保存するだけでなく、そこに生きた人々の葛藤や勇気を、生の温度を宿した物語として現代によみがえらせるものです。小倉城武将隊を起点に、表現者、地域の人々、企業、子どもたちとの共創が広がれば、小倉は新しい物語が生まれ続ける大きな舞台となり、その実践はやがて他地域や海外へも広がっていくでしょう。そんな場に触れ、誰かの生き様から勇気を受け取ることで、私たちもまた、自分自身の生き様にワクワクする一歩から、想像を超えた創造へ向かっていきたいですね。

One Person’s Way of Life, Another’s Courage for the Future
Takuya Ooga, Leader of the Kokura Castle Samurai Team, and His Story of Creativity Beyond Imagination

Back to the Japanese version.

Creative Guild is a community of people who work and live in many different places, with Minato City as a starting point, and who want to create joyful moments together. In this Guild Directory, we introduce unique individuals connected through the Creative Guild community. This time, we feature Takuya Ooga, leader of the Kokura Castle Samurai Team and a member of Machi wa Team da, Creative Guild’s partner organization in Kitakyushu. He continues to create stories that go beyond the limits of imagination and can transform one person’s way of life into a source of courage for someone else.

Ooga also serves as a Shinto priest at Sugawara Shrine near Tanga Market in Kitakyushu. At the age of 18, he appeared as a mime performer in the inaugural production at the Kitakyushu Performing Arts Center. He later moved to Tokyo, trained at an acting school, and helped establish the theater company Bokura Dangi. Over the years, he built an extensive career as a theater artist, portraying Kuroda Nagamasa in the NHK historical drama Sanada Maru and creating the solo performance series Vivid Cafe, among many other projects. Prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic, he returned to Kitakyushu and, in 2022, founded the Kokura Castle Samurai Team—a regional entertainment troupe whose members portray warlords and retainers from Japan’s Warring States period. Today, as its leader, playwright, director, and performer, he continues to create exciting stories rooted in the history of Kokura.

What Ooga continually strives for is a form of creativity that carries him beyond the limits of his own imagination. For him, this also means creating a state in which both he and the people around him can share a genuine sense of excitement. At the same time, he places great importance on carefully engaging with the lives of the individuals who have lived in and shaped the region—their ikizama, or ways of living. Each person’s way of life reveals a value that belongs to that individual alone. By weaving those lives into stories, one person’s journey can become the courage another person needs to step into the future. Through dialogue with diverse people and encounters with history and place, stories emerge that Ooga could never have imagined on his own. In other words, the process of encountering another person’s way of life, discovering its value, and passing it on through story is Ooga’s practice of creating beyond imagination.

Somewhere along the way, have we begun to ask, “Will it fail?” or “Will it make money?” before listening to the inner voice that says, “I want to do this”? The same can be said of local culture and history. When short-term visitor numbers and easy-to-understand narratives take priority, the struggles and passion of the people who once lived there can disappear, leaving behind only a superficial story. To live our one and only lives as our own, while also respecting the lives of those we care about, what truly excites us—and with whom should we take our next step? Perhaps what we need now is to return to those fundamental questions and begin by looking again at how we ourselves are choosing to live.

Ooga’s work does more than preserve local history. It brings the struggles and courage of those who came before back into the present through stories alive with the heat and immediacy of live performance. As co-creation among performers, local residents, businesses, and children expands from the Kokura Castle Samurai Team, Kokura itself may become a vast stage where new stories continue to emerge—and this practice may eventually spread to other regions and countries. By stepping into such a space and receiving courage from another person’s way of life, perhaps we too can begin by feeling excited about the lives we are creating for ourselves—and move toward forms of creativity that exceed anything we could imagine alone.

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