My grandfather ran a sake brewery, and my father operated a liquor store. As a child, my father would often take me to the brewery. I still remember the strong aroma of sake being brewed in large wooden barrels—the scent alone would make my face flush and leave me feeling light-headed.
Those fond memories with my father came back to me later in life, inspiring a desire to document the art of sake-making through photography. With the generous cooperation of Okuhida Sake Brewery in Hida-Kanayama—a prestigious brewery with over 300 years of history and numerous awards both in Japan and abroad—I was able to capture the intricate process of sake production.
As I researched the brewery’s background and the region itself, I discovered that Hida-Kanayama once flourished as Kanayama-juku, a post town along the historic Hida Kaido trade route during the Edo period. The town is known for its distinctive urban layout: a dense network of narrow alleyways called sujigane that weave through the area like a spider’s web.
I was deeply moved by the quiet presence of these alleys—by the subtle traces of human life etched into their walls and stones, and by the timeless atmosphere they preserve. This emotional connection led me to photograph the sujigane as well, alongside the sake-making process.
These photos were taken in 2023 (Reiwa 5).
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かつて私の祖父は酒蔵を、父は酒屋を営んでおりました。子供の頃、父に連れられてよく酒蔵に行ったものです。
当時は木桶で酒造りをしていたので、酒蔵の中にいるとお酒の匂いだけで、顔が真っ赤になって頭がぼうっとしたことを覚えています。
幼い頃の父との懐かしい思い出が甦り「酒造り」を写真に残したいと思い、飛騨金山にある300年以上の歴史を誇り、国内外のアワードを数多く受賞している「奥飛騨酒造」さんのご協力のもと、酒造りの工程を撮影しました。
撮影にあたって酒蔵の歴史や土地柄を調べるうちに、飛騨金山は「飛騨街道 金山宿」として江戸時代から栄え「筋骨」と呼ばれる細い道が網の目のように張り巡らされた特異な街づくりがなされていると知りました。
狭い路地裏に連綿と刻まれた人の往来の気配と、その超然たる佇まいに大変心惹かれ、酒造りと併せて筋骨を撮影することにしました。
この写真は2023年(令和5年)の記録です。
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岐阜 故郷巡礼 / 酒蔵と筋骨めぐり 飛騨金山 by Nobutsugu Sugiyama is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Based on a work at https://nsp-jp.com