Traditional and Indigenous Knowledge for a Sustainable Society
Traditional knowledge is not a catalogue of old techniques and materials. It is a knowledge system embedded in knowledge holders, histories, languages, livelihoods, values and relationships with nature.
The Kano Lab works primarily with Japanese traditional knowledge while learning from international discussions of Indigenous knowledge. We do not treat knowledge as a detachable resource. Our research asks whose knowledge is involved, who represents it, who decides how it is used, and how benefits and recognition are shared.
Kakishibu is a traditional Japanese material made by fermenting and ageing the juice of astringent persimmons. It has been applied to paper, textiles, wood, fishing tools and architecture. Its significance lies not only in water resistance, deodorising, antimicrobial or insect-repellent functions, but also in the relationships among local environments, seasons, production skills and users’ experience.
Our work connects:
Rather than simply “rediscovering” Kakishibu as a new material, we ask what is protected or transformed when traditional knowledge enters contemporary innovation—and who benefits.
Tea brings together botany, cultivation, processing, oxidation, extraction, aroma, astringency, colour, taste, utensils, social practices, trade and community memory. In our learning design, comparison is not a test with one correct answer. Learners express sensory differences through speech, sign, images and other forms, and use those differences to formulate questions.
The “Tea Workshop—Tastes, Traditions and Shared Intangible Cultural Heritage” involved high-school students and deaf and hard-of-hearing primary-school students. It connected language, biology, chemistry, history, geography and home economics, using tea to explore both diversity and shared cultural connections across East Asia. The project is featured in a UNESCO report and official story.
Work with Kyoto vegetables has connected crop diversity, cultivation, aroma, taste, food practices and regional history with scientific inquiry. The aim is not to explain a vegetable only through its components, but to ask why it has been cultivated in a particular place and how value has been sustained.
Wagashi brings together ingredients, heating, cooling, moisture, colour, form and seasonality. Respecting the knowledge of craftspeople, learners investigate what underpins their know-how and how they pass their skills from generation to generation.
The UNESCO Chair on STEAM Education for Braiding Traditional Cultural Resources with Science begins with Kakishibu and tea and extends to examples such as rice cultivation and sake brewing, and traditional architecture. Knowledge holders, schools, researchers and international partners co-design STEAM learning, teacher development, research and mobility related to climate action, water management and disaster resilience.
Research involving traditional or Indigenous knowledge should make the following explicit:
Kano, K., Raman, S., & Santos, D. (Eds.). (2026). Traditional Knowledge for Green Innovation with Japanese Persimmon Tannin, Kakishibu. Springer Singapore. Open-access book
Kano, K. (2026). Japanese views of nature: Relationships with science, technology, and innovation, and responsibility. In K. Kano, S. Raman, & D. Santos (Eds.), Traditional Knowledge for Green Innovation with Japanese Persimmon Tannin, Kakishibu (pp. 19–45). Springer Singapore. DOI / official page
Kano, K., & Walker, G. (2026). Effects of culturally relevant STEM education: Children’s eco-friendly invention ideas using Kakishibu in Japan and Australia. In K. Kano, S. Raman, & D. Santos (Eds.), Traditional Knowledge for Green Innovation with Japanese Persimmon Tannin, Kakishibu (pp. 187–209). Springer Singapore. DOI / official page
Raman, S., Wu, B., & Kano, K. (2026). Elements of a green innovation framework: A vision for Kakishibu in the plastic society and beyond. In K. Kano, S. Raman, & D. Santos (Eds.), Traditional Knowledge for Green Innovation with Japanese Persimmon Tannin, Kakishibu (pp. 213–229). Springer Singapore. DOI / official page
Kano, K. (May 2018). メロン香の無糖野菜が活きる場 [A place where an unsweetened vegetable with a melon aroma comes alive]. Kyoto Shimbun, “Contemporary Words.” researchmap MISC
Kano Lab. (December 2022). 日本の伝統STEAM教育シリーズ第2弾「茶レンジ！のみくらべ」 [Japanese traditional STEAM education series 2: Tea Challenge—Compare the Tastes]. researchmap activities
Kano, K. (June 2018). お菓子の不思議の科学 [The science of the mysteries of sweets]. Kyoto Shimbun, “Contemporary Words.” researchmap MISC
UNESCO. (2026). Living heritage in the classroom: A teachers’ companion. UNESCO. UNESCO Digital Library
UNESCO Regional Office for East Asia. (2025, November 17). UNESCO’s initiative brings East Asia’s living heritage into classrooms for peace and sustainable futures. UNESCO official story
Shiga University. (2025, November 26). Professor Kei Kano participates in a UNESCO education workshop [Japanese]. University story
2021 Award of Excellence, Youth Division Award System, National Federation of Confectionery Industry Associations Shiga University × Kyoto Confectionery Industry Association Youth Division, Science of Sweets Project
We welcome proposals from traditional-material studies, local culture, sustainability education, science and technology studies, design, materials, food studies, agriculture and environmental policy. Proposals should include plans for relationships with knowledge holders, research ethics and the sharing of outcomes.
