Iso District, Kagoshima City, Satsuma kiriko cut glass

The production of scarlet glass using gold or copper to produce the scarlet colour was first successfully created in Japan in Satsuma. The scarlet glass created successfully after endless trials and errors was the result of the greatest techniques developed by the modern factories operated by the Shimazu family. The Satsuma scarlet cut glass became much treasured as a gift item from the Shimazu family to court nobles and daimyos.Despite its glorious efforescence, Satsuma Kiriko vanished like a dream less than 30 years after it was first created due to the untimely death of Shimazu Nariakira and the turmoils of the Meiji Restoration in 1868, becoming a “ghost handicraft” of the past.