Ryukyu glass and the Ryukyu Glass Village

Glass reached the Ryukyus early through trade with Asia, and glassmaking had started in Okinawa by the middle of the Meiji era. The glass people now call Ryukyu glass is a postwar craft. With materials scarce, workshops melted down empty cola and beer bottles discarded at the US bases, and the mixed glass came out thick and coloured red or green, with tiny bubbles caught inside. As refrigerators spread, people began to drink awamori on the rocks from wide glass tumblers, and visitors took to the cool, handmade look.

Today many makers melt fresh glass as well as waste bottles, and some craftspeople have been named contemporary master craftsmen by the national government. Okinawa Prefecture lists Ryukyu glass as a traditional craft. In 2007 Japan's Fair Trade Commission ordered a cooperative and two other sellers to stop labelling glass made in Vietnam in ways that suggested Okinawan origin, so it is worth checking where a piece was made.

The Ryukyu Glass Village stands in Fukuchi, Itoman, near the southern tip of the main island. Its RGC Factory is the largest Ryukyu glass workshop in Okinawa, and you can watch the glassblowers for free. The shop carries more than 2,000 designs, and the village also runs a gallery and a café that serves drinks in Ryukyu glass. The group set up its own workshop in Hanoi in April 1995, and its labels say which pieces come from Itoman and Nago and which from Vietnam.