41｜The History of Glass: Japanese Glass Manufacturers and Handmade Glass Factories (Part 11)

Hello everyone 🎵

Did you enjoy Christmas? We have five children, four of whom are married and have their own households, and our youngest daughter, who lives with us, has a job and is enjoying both work and her private life ♪

About ten years ago, around this time of year and through the New Year's holidays, we used to go out to eat or gather around my wife's cooking, but for the past few years, my wife and I have been spending Christmas quietly together. It feels a little lonely, but since our eldest son was born the year we got married, we've had a busy, tumultuous (lol) 30 years, so my wife and I had very little time to ourselves.

Now, we enjoyed Christmas by leisurely and quietly reminiscing and talking about our children and grandchildren 🎵

It sounds old, but I guess it's appropriate for my age (lol).

We've talked about major Japanese glass manufacturers such as Ishizuka Glass, Sasaki Glass, Toyo Glass, and Toyo-Sasaki Glass. From now on, we will be discussing Soga Glass, a specialized press manufacturer.

Soga Glass was founded by Sakutaro Soga in Nagoya in 1907 (Meiji 40) as a glass manufacturing business. After the war, in 1950 (Showa 25), they began manufacturing pressed glass. They developed the Soga rotary press molding machine, and by 1960 (Showa 35), they established a mass production system through automated press molding. For domestic distribution, they organized 8 agencies and 300 affiliated stores nationwide to create a sales system.

Furthermore, they changed the conventional packaging of glass tableware from straw bags with ropes to cardboard cartons and decorative boxes, which is said to have sparked significant innovation and a revolution in packaging styles not only within their industry but also in other industries.

The majority of the glass market consists of drinking ware, such as cups and wine glasses. Small bowls, plates, vases, and ashtrays are not mainstream items, but they are essential glassware for daily life.

Soga Glass specialized in these non-mainstream pressed glass plates and bowls. Globally, there are few specialized press manufacturers, such as Walter in Germany (now part of the Riedel Group), Nachtmann in Germany, and a handful of small and medium-sized manufacturers in Germany and parts of the Czech Republic. In recent years, many manufacturers in China with large automatic molding machines have entered the market, and as a result, most factories other than Nachtmann have gone out of business.

This is the last blog post for 2023. The next one will be on January 15, 2024. Thank you for your support this past year. We look forward to working with you again next year.

Have a happy new year.