History of value chain seen in the classification of agarwood in Japan's art of incense and its challenges

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25550103
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Environmental policy and social systems
• Research Institution: Shinshu University
• Principal Investigator: KANAZAWA Kentaro 信州大学, 学術研究院総合人間科学系, 准教授 (70340924)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 沈香 / バリューチェーン / 社会学 / 経済史 / 林学

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This study focuses on agarwood (Jinkoh, 沈香), a tropical rainforest product with both deep ties to Asian culture and society and high market value, and explores how the value chain has been established. There is history which has handled one by one piece agarwood carefully by Koh-doh, or the art of incense which is unique to Japan’s artistic culture. In addition, it is possible to understand the interest to the traceability for the tradition of rikkoku gomi, or “Six States, Five Tastes”, which is derived from the six shipping countries where agarwood originates, and the classification into five different tastes. It is not appropriate to handle a place of origin by the unit as the country today from the field survey results, and the traceability based on stricter and detailed information of the place of origin was found to be sought.

Free Research Field

環境社会学