Japan’s glass craft scene is on a roll today. Glass artists are pioneering one new style after another, creating works not quite like anything seen anywhere else in the world.
Until very recently, glassmaking was not a popular vocation in Japan, and was largely unrecognized in arts and crafts circles. Few places taught glassmaking techniques, and the market was far smaller than those for pottery or lacquerware. Over the past two decades, though, the number of artists working with glass has grown, with the last five or six years seeing an unprecedented burst of creative activity. Many glass artists have absorbed Western techniques and taken them in a markedly different direction, giving form to a distinctly Japanese sensibility.