Traditional Japanese tableware Edo-kiriko cut glasses

Edo-kiriko is a flashed glass with a various type of the patterns. The glassware is one of the Japanese traditional crafts. But it needs some conditions to be certified as real Edo-kiriko.

Glassware
Manual procedures
Mainly using rolling tools
Produced in designated area (centering on Koto-ku and Sumida-ku, Tokyo Prefecture)

Though there are the classic patterns of Edo-kiriko including yarai, shippo, and sasa-no-ha, we can also see the modern patterns.Of course, the patterns delight our eyes. Furthermore, you touch the patterns when you drink with the cut glass. You feel the bumpy surface.

The designs and colors of Edo-kiriko are timeless. So I recommend the traditional glassware as a gift too.

What is an Edo-kiriko?

“Kiriko” means the Japanese cut glass. Most of the today’s Edo-kiriko is a flashed glass and have some kind of colors including blue, red, and purple. But it had no color in Edo Period (1603-1868).

It is said that the glass shop owner Kagaya Kyubei is the first person to make the Edo-kiriko in 1834. He engraved the patterns in the glasses with an emery.

Furthermore, Shinagawa Industrial Glass Factory was founded and the project to set up the glass industry got its start in 1873. After eight years, Japan government invited British engineer Emanuel Houptman and he taught the technique of cut glass to the dozen Japanese.

They established the technique of Edo-kiriko. Then the cutting way and materials were improved through the 20th century.

In 2004, the government designated Edo-kiriko as the Traditional Crafts. Still today, the craftsmen pursue the beauty and quality of the traditional glassware. They inherit the elegant and frank mind “iki” of the people in Edo.