ABOUT
Kyoto Research Institute is dedicated to the study of Japan’s rich natural resources and traditional techniques that craft what we call "heritage materials."
Our mission is to research, educate, and inspire practical utility of these materials in everyday living.
Our work is not about innovation. But rather about rediscovery and actionable application of heritage materials today.
Our approach to research and application begins in the field. Studying directly from hyper-local generational custodians of the land and traditional craftspeople, to not only learn of and document heritage materials, but also recording a comprehensive survey of the overall ecosystem from raw natural resources to the socio-political landscape around it. That holistic picture is taken into our lab where we archive materials, experiment with what we’ve gathered, and share with professionals who can leverage the knowledge we have cultivated through our fieldwork to transform heritage materials into new physical, experiential, and social possibilities.
WHAT ARE HERITAGE MATERIALS?
At Kyoto Research Institute, we define heritage materials as raw natural resources like rice, seaweed, hemp, tea, and bamboo, that through the hands of traditional technique, to transform into the materials that create our everyday living. Examples of heritage materials include washi paper, koji-fermented grains, and earthen walls.
In Japan, we call “to live” or “to create living”, 衣食住 i-shoku-jyu. Quite literally clothing-food-home. These are the three fundamental sectors that constitute the Japanese art of living. Our approach to fieldwork of heritage materials, is tuning in to the archipelago’s raw natural resources and how they have historically been used across each of these sectors.
However, we don’t stop at research.
Our mission is to then go on to explore, experiment, and ultimately execute how these heritage materials have functional, sustainable, and aesthetic value in our lives today.
