Daranisuke Research Lab is an art project exploring daranisuke gan—a traditional Japanese herbal medicine with a 1,300-year history, produced and sold in Dorogawa, a remote mountain village in Nara Prefecture. Through research and oral history interviews conducted with local producers, the project investigates the mysteries surrounding this medicine: its distinctive packaging designs, the story behind its tiny 3mm black pills, and the knowledge passed down through generations.

Initially presented as a site-specific spatial installation developed in collaboration with an architect at the Mind Trail art festival in 2020, the work was reconfigured as a permanent exhibition at the Tenkawa Village Museum in 2021. The project was made possible through close collaboration with the daranisuke producers of Dorogawa.

With much of Dorogawa's historical records lost in two postwar fires, this project exists because of the oral traditions generously shared by the people who continue this craft today.