14 | History of Glass: Japanese Glass Manufacturing Part 7

Hello everyone!

Last Saturday and Sunday was the Torigoe Shrine festival, located in the hometown of Kimoto Glass. For three years, it was canceled, suspended, or scaled down due to the pandemic, but this year, for the first time in four years, everyone enthusiastically carried what is said to be the largest mikoshi (portable shrine) in Tokyo, the "Senkan Mikoshi," and the festival was a huge success.

The sound of the festival music flowing through the town, the lively shouts of the mikoshi bearers, and the Torigoe Ipponjime (single clap finale) brought energy back to the town and to Kimoto Glass.

 In 1873, Sanshi-no-suke Murai, a vassal of Grand Minister Sanetomi Sanjo, along with his steward Masatsune Niwa, established "Kogyosha," a glass manufacturing company, on the banks of the Meguro River in Shinagawa, Tokyo. This was Japan's first Western-style glass manufacturing factory (almost the same type as current manufacturing methods and factories). Key materials, including machinery, equipment, crucible clay, and firebricks for furnace construction, were all imported from England. Thomas Walton was invited from England as a technical instructor, and the process began with crucible making. Glass artisans from Tokyo and Osaka were hired at high salaries. While awaiting the completion of the crucibles, plate glass manufacturing was planned, but they did not reach the point of producing complete products.

 From the Edo period to the Meiji era, the nation focused on enriching the country and strengthening its military, and promoting industrial development to advance Japan. In April 1876, the government acquired the struggling Kogyosha and established it as the government-owned "Shinagawa Glass Manufacturing Plant." The following year, in 1877, it was renamed "Shinagawa Kōsakubunkyoku" (Shinagawa Engineering Branch) due to an organizational reform, and operations began in November.

The first product was red glass for navigation lights, manufactured by Tanehiro Fujiyama, who came from a glass factory in the Saga Domain. In April 1879, they began manufacturing tableware and other daily-use glass items. In December, a chemical laboratory was established, and they started producing crystal glass from red lead and potassium carbonate, which went on sale the following May. In May 1882, British engineer Emmanuel Hauptmann was employed, and British cut glass techniques were introduced to Japan.

 Early Meiji Edo Kiriko (unknown)