Bringing Innovation to the Family Trade

“I swore I’d never take over the family business,” says Takayuki Shiina, the CEO of Shiina Kiriko (GLASS-LAB), reflecting on his grandfather’s and father’s glass-cutting trade. After graduating from university, Shiina worked in sales for a real estate company and later joined a startup in the IT sector, where he managed a real estate portal site.

Eventually, he decided to start his own business. While searching for what to do, he discovered a unique strength within himself. The turning point came when he gifted a custom-made glass, crafted by his family, to his boss upon his resignation. His boss was moved to the point of saying “I won’t use this until I’ve succeeded in life.” It was a moment that brought home how much joy Shiina’s family trade could bring to others.

“My father, Yasuo, and my younger brother, Yasuyuki, are both exceptionally skilled,” Shiina explains. “My father is a master of hirakiri, a traditional Edo Kiriko technique and recognized form of Japanese craftsmanship that only about ten artisans in Japan can still perform today. My brother is a world-class specialist in sandblasting, a method of carving patterns into glass. But up to that point, we mostly worked directly with businesses and never made our own products, so we hadn’t realized just how impressive our skills were.”

Recognizing the value of his family’s craft from an outsider’s perspective, Shiina decided to combine his IT and sales experience with the family’s glass-cutting expertise. In 2014, he founded GLASS-LAB, aiming to bring fresh ideas into the glass industry. The result of this collaboration among three family members was the birth of a new kind of Edo Kiriko: Suna Kiriko.

In Suna Kiriko, the sides of the glass are flat-faceted, crafted using the hirakiri technique, while intricate patterns are sandblasted onto the base. When liquid is poured into the glass, the base’s design reflects onto the sides, creating a kaleidoscopic effect. The visual result is so stunning it often elicits an audible reaction.

“After several years of trial and error, in our third year we released ‘Sakura Saku,’ a glass inspired by cherry blossoms. It was a big hit. My father and brother, who had never before created products for direct sale, finally felt the satisfaction of seeing something they had made generate real sales—something that also gave them a new sense of fulfillment as artisans.”

Today, GLASS-LAB, in collaboration with Shiina Glass, the company founded by Shiina’s grandfather Mitsuo and now led by his younger brother Yasuyuki, continues to develop and market Suna Kiriko products. Their techniques of hirakiri and sandblasting are so advanced that they have no direct competitors with expertise in both fields. With that in mind, they named their creations “Shiina Kiriko,” hoping to showcase the uniqueness of their work and expand sales channels.

In addition to planning products, Shiina handles website creation, advertising, and sales for GLASS-LAB. Recently, he has been able to engage in full-scale sales efforts, something that was previously difficult due to the production limitations inherent to having only two artisans. However, a former colleague has now joined the business to assist with hirakiri, and Yasuyuki’s eldest son, Rikuto, 24, has also debuted as an artisan. With this expanded team, they can now significantly increase production and fulfill more orders.

“I want to modernize traditional techniques in the same way we combined my father’s and brother’s skills. We plan to launch a brand that applies our glass-cutting techniques to upcycle used glass bottles into accessories. It’s my hope that people will recognize that, as a glass company, we too are committed to the SDGs.”

Shiina’s decision to go independent set off a chain of events. By developing unique original products that only his family could create, they have found themselves widespread acceptance. This has not only given them a sense of pride as artisans but also contributed to the stability and growth of the family business, ultimately helping to preserve a rare form of craftsmanship and safeguard tradition.

Shiina, however, remains humble. “I’ve just been lucky,” he laughs, before adding, “But I believe we’re going to go on to do even greater things.” It may not be long before Shiina Kiriko, a one-of-a-kind brand combining each family member’s strengths, graces dining tables around the world.

＊Prices as of time of writing