25 | The History of Glass: Kimoto Glass's Challenge and the Story of Glass Manufacturing 8

We received a comment that the topic and content were too far removed from glasses, suggesting a slight discrepancy.

While we will also share information on the history and manufacturing methods of glasses, we believe the environment surrounding glasses is also important. From manufacturing to distribution and consumption, it's a single continuous process.

Regarding changes in distribution, I will write a bit more about what I actually experienced through business, rather than just textbook knowledge, so please bear with me.

As the retail landscape shifted from department stores to mass retailers and shopping malls, a significant impact on the glass industry came from the emergence of a new category: home fashion.

Nowadays, "home fashion" or "home furnishings" might immediately bring Nitori or Muji's respective sections to mind, but when it first appeared, the concept was unclear.

Home fashion is a concept that originated in Europe and America in the 1990s. It involves coordinating items used in the home, such as furniture, interiors, curtains, interior decorations, lighting, and home appliances (white goods), in the same way as clothing fashion.

Previously, tableware sections were separated into Japanese pottery, Western pottery, glass, cutlery, chopsticks, and lacquerware, and similarly, kitchen sections and interior sections were divided by material or purpose. Home fashion, however, introduced a display style that coordinated all household items under a single theme, preferred color, or design aesthetic, much like coordinating an outfit. This can be described as a lifestyle-提案型 approach.

This trend also affected glass, and around 2000, Aeon stores had an enormous selection of 500 different types of glasses, categorized by color, style, and more. Until then, a typical glass selection had been around 50 types at most, so this was a huge increase. The sales floor area for tableware also expanded to over 100 tsubo (approximately 330 square meters), an unimaginable space and item count compared to today's 10 tsubo (approximately 33 square meters) sections.

This trend presented a significant opportunity for Kimoto Glass, which deals exclusively in glass.

Kimoto Glass is a small company with only a few employees, but it has specialized in glass for three generations. We have dealt not only with domestic factories, manufacturers, and artisans but also with products from European manufacturers. From around 1990, we began visiting international exhibitions in Frankfurt, Paris, and Milan to source products, and we directly negotiated with manufacturers.

Leveraging this expertise, we proposed 500 different items categorized by style and created sales floors that coordinated them with pottery and other materials. This experience became a turning point, transforming Kimoto Glass from a wholesaler into a producer.

We were able to handle products from various manufacturers, have artisans add value to them, and develop items in line with coordination and design trends. This led to an accumulation of know-how in glass manufacturing, processing, and procurement, and the cultivation of trust with our partners, backed by our sales.

This is one of the many things we learned from our collaboration with Aeon.

Thank you very much!