琉球ガラス (Ryūkyū Garasu)
Ryukyu glass (琉球ガラス) is Okinawa's hand-blown glass, made by free-blowing (chūbuki) and mold-blowing (katabuki). It began in the mid-Meiji era, when glassmakers from Nagasaki and Osaka came to Naha and made lamp chimneys and jars from discarded bottles. The workshops were destroyed in the air raid of 10 October 1944. In the post-war shortage glassmakers melted what the occupation threw away: beer, Coca-Cola and 7-Up bottles, awamori bottles, jam and butter jars from US bases. Bottle origin became color: brown from beer and awamori, green from 7-Up and shikuwasa juice, clear from jam and butter jars. The bubbles and thick walls left by imperfectly cleaned cullet would have been rejects elsewhere, but American soldiers and their families, ordering from the late 1950s, took them as rustic charm. Inamine Seikichi later made the defect deliberate as 'bubble glass' (awa-garasu). Recycled glass is now about 30% of production. The craft became an Okinawa Prefecture traditional craft in 1998.
Risk level: Stable · Not inscribed. Okinawa Prefecture traditional craft (1998). Not a METI Traditional Craft Product
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