KAGOSHIMA (Kyodo) A group of artisans in the city of Kagoshima has been toiling away on a commemorative piece of Satsuma kiriko glassware to honor the bicentennial of its creator's birth.
Shimazu Nariakira (1809-1858), the 11th lord of the Satsuma domain in present-day Kagoshima Prefecture, is credited with creating Satsuma kiriko glassware by improving glass-cutting techniques through Western science at a time when Japan had isolated itself from the world.
The "kiriko" style of colored engraved glass became famous in Edo, or present-day Tokyo, toward the end of the Edo Period (1603-1867). But the one developed in Satsuma is known for a technique of color gradation called "bokashi," or blurring.