This study examines the unique practice of making and playing a string instrument and explicates the cosmopolitan educational implications of the practice of arts and crafts. Education through arts and crafts has been said to be one of the main purposes of STEAM education in this globalised world (Khine 2019). At the same time, education with arts and crafts can be regarded as well suited to postmodern society and offers the key to building a sociocultural community (Mason 2005). Moreover, such education may contribute to ecological and sustainable development during global crises (Hall 2023). We take up the last contemporary feature of the education through the arts and crafts and extend it from the perspective of cosmopolitan education. Cosmopolitanism and cosmopolitan education were first conceptualised by the ancient Greek philosopher Diogenes and have been also discussed by Kant, Dewey, Derrida, and Nussbaum (Vertovec and Cohen 2002; Held 2010). Cosmopolitanism suggests that we live in the same world regardless of various attributes. In the present era of exclusively nationalistic trends, cosmopolitan education must play a much more significant role (cf. Mignolo 2000; Werbner 2008; Braidotti et al. 2013; Vinokur 2018). However, cosmopolitan education has been strongly criticised because it seems to be based on abstract universalism. One reason cosmopolitan education is regarded as empty is that it does not comprise meaningful educational practices. To overcome such criticism, we consider art-based practice, that is, making and playing string instruments, as a robust practice of cosmopolitan education. The research question of this study is formulated as follows: what are the meanings and implications of making and playing a string instrument for cosmopolitan education, and how can we situate such educational practices in the education through the arts and crafts?

We adopted the theoretical frameworks of art education by Rudolf Steiner (Waldorf education) and cosmopolitan geography education by Immanuel Kant. Steiner criticises Kant’s dualistic understanding of the world (intelligible and sensual), but they share cosmopolitan and geographical education in the sense that children can understand the Other from a geographical perspective (Hirose 2020). Therefore, our study is based on their understanding of art and cosmopolitan education.

In this study, we discuss the practice of creating and playing a string instrument in a Japanese kindergarten in Hiroshima and a community program for children and parents in the city centre in Kyoto. This string instrument, called the Bandhula, was originally invented by a Japanese elementary school teacher, based on similar instruments in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. It has four strings with a body that children and parents can design using their own imagination. Therefore, each instrument has its own original sound because of its unique form of the body. The instrument is made from Japanese regional wood, such as Hiba arborvitae and Japanese cypress. It takes 30 hours to complete the instrument using a wild board.

By making a string instrument together with other families, children and parents can incorporate regional elements, so they can associate themselves with nature and their neighbours. Moreover, after its creation, they play the instrument together with others, enjoying a sound that transcends the need for language and is thus universal. This practice encourages them to simultaneously have local, regional, and universal access. In addition, a string has a profound influence on human beings (Steiner 1977) and carpentering plays a fundamental role in human formation (Kant 2007). We demonstrate the substance of practice for human formation (Bildung). Based on qualitative interviews with children and parents, we show the enormous potential of this practice of arts and crafts for a holistic cosmopolitan education.

We adopted a semi-structured qualitative interview research both with children and parents (15 subjects) in the practice of making and playing a string instrument, theoretically based on Steiner and Kant’s art and cosmopolitan educational philosophy.

The originality of this practice of creating and playing a string instrument lies in the integration of many (commonly) separated elements. Generally, we play instruments that were bought or borrowed; not those made by ourselves. However, the aforementioned method allows us to combine the making and playing of an instrument. Moreover, children will create instruments not alone but with others, especially with the people closest to them, such as parents and other participants. These characteristics encourage children and their parents to expand their world more so that they can associate an artistic activity with making something, connecting with nature, and communicating with others, which guarantees experiencing the interconnected world we live in. The qualitative interviews suggest that children not only learned how to make the instrument but also acquired important experiences of enjoying artistic activities as well as collaborating with others (nature, other children, parents, and friends), which is essentially a cosmopolitan experience. Moreover, parents indicated that this practice could make families unite and communicate well, which is also one of the fundamental elements of cosmopolitanism (i.e., comprehensive community). Steiner strongly emphasises artistic activities in order to cultivate harmonious feelings and the will to be free as human beings, while Kant stresses physical geography as a significant educational practice for basic cosmopolitan education. This practice of making and playing a string instrument combines crucial components of cosmopolitan human formation. This study may also contribute to extending the huge potential of art-based education and realising cosmopolitan education in informal educational practices. We can also introduce this challenging practice into future school curricula worldwide.

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