Ryuku Glass decanter and cup

Ryuku Glass is one of Japan's newer glass producers, established in 1985, but it is based on a very long history of glass work.

Ryuku is established on the southern Japanese island of Okinawa, an island with a very long history of glass blowing. Okinawa's main industry has been fishing, and since the Portugese taught the locals glass blowing centuries ago, they have had an industry blowing glass floats.

All of this industry was destroyed in WW2, but after the war apparently locals scavenged empty Coca Cola and other bottles discarded by the large American fleet, and recycled these bottles to make new floats and other objects.

Ryuku still uses mostly recycled glass in their products. This decanter and cup have been made from recycled glass, with intense bubbles in the pale green glass, incalmo technique to join the decanter and neck, and a lovely ground stopper. Ryuku glass generally does not have a ground base and retains a noticeable pontil break.

I actually like the fact the neck is a bit wonky. It adds to the rustic feel of this work, and shows active hands on labor.

The decanter is 25cm to the top of the stopper
The sake cup is a cute 5.5cm