Ryukyu Glass

Image: Wikimedia Commons

Ryukyu Glass is blown-glass craftware made in Okinawa Prefecture. Glassmaking in Okinawa is said to have begun around 1900, when glassblowers who had come from Kagoshima, Nagasaki, and Osaka set up workshops in Nishimachi, Naha City, producing everyday items such as medicine bottles and lamp chimneys. Much of the industry and its raw materials were lost during World War II, but after the war, artisans turned to empty beer and cola bottles discarded by the occupying US military bases, melting them down to bring glassmaking back to life. Because these discarded bottles contained impurities such as label residue, the finished pieces often contained countless tiny bubbles - a trait that came to be prized as the distinctive texture known as 'awa-garasu' (bubble glass), and together with the soft, muted colors derived from recycled bottles, became one of the defining charms of Ryukyu Glass. In the 1950s, orders from US military personnel increased, and colorful Western-style glass tableware spread as the industry's mainstay product. Today, workshops are scattered around Itoman City, Tomigusuku City, and Nago City, and in 1998 Ryukyu Glass was designated a Traditional Craft of Okinawa Prefecture.