Ryukyu Glass Village

This guide to Ryukyu Glass Village traces how postwar necessity became a craft: after the Battle of Okinawa flattened every glass workshop in 1944, local glassblowers began melting down bottles scavenged from American bases, Coca-Cola green, beer brown, streaks of blue from Perrier and awamori bottles. It follows how servicemen touring the factories turned scrap into souvenirs, and how the ware was rebranded Ryukyu Glass by 1962 for the gift trade. You'll hear what the workshop buys from a local auto recycler today. Look closely at the bubbles in any piece; they're not decoration.