OFFICE HOURS
Visit Kyoto Research Institute’s Materials Archive and Test Kitchen.
Sharing what we’ve collected in the field, with the purpose of supporting professionals and semi-professionals achieve socially, culturally, and environmentally viable ways to incorporate Japanese heritage materials, and the techniques around them, into the creation of their work.
PURPOSE
DISCOVER ancestral knowledge and local terroir that birth all of the foraged or farmed natural resources to create our heritage Japanese materials and techniques
EXPERIENCE first-hand the feeling, aroma, taste, and sounds of the theory and methodologies behind the work of farmers, restorers, and craftspeople
CONTRIBUTE to our field research by sharing actionable ideas to pursue physical, experiential, and social possibilities
APPLY learnings to professional practices or more sustainable living solutions, particularly toward physical or experiential products that can be used, worn, savored in-real-life today
HOW TO BOOK
Office Hours are private tours intended as a curated deep dive into specific sectors, materials, techniques of your interest to support research and development targets, responsible product creation and design strategy, and academic or artistic research. Office Hours was designed for richer engagement with those who are truly fans of heritage Japanese materials. While we receive these requests all the time, we aren’t interested in simply having a meeting to talk. You must first see, touch, smell, taste, and experience the materials that create the Japanese art of living.
Available by advance booking only, From 30,000 JPY〜. Mondays - Fridays. The content of Office Hours is curated to your interests.
To book, please email us via the button below, with number of people and full names, organization’s name, intention of your visit, and several date options.
We are opening the doors to our fieldwork so that you too can participate in the discovery, experience, contribution, and application of heritage materials in our lives today.
Explore the Japanese art of living, and the heritage materials and techniques that inspire sustainable, functional, and aesthetic solutions worldwide.
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.
LOCATION
FAQs
Please do not wear any fragrances to Kyoto Research Institute to ensure that scents do not interfere with on-site research.
Please note that you will be taking off your shoes, so do wear your favorite socks.
If you are coming by train, the nearest station is Miyake Hachiman on the Eizan Railway. We are located by 5 mins walk.
If you are coming by car, please inquire at info@kyotoresearchinstitute.com regarding car parking options.
