2025-08-28 Japan as a Leading Marble-Producing Nation : An Industrial History Behind Its Modernization

[shiroaiko]

An article about my research was published in The Nikkei, Japan's leading newspaper specializing in business, economics and industry. While The Nikkei is best known fo financial and corporate news, its final page is devoted to cultural topics. My article appeared in this culture section. Below is the English version for the forum. 

===================================================================================

The Nikkei, 28 Aug. 2025

Japan as a Leading Marble Producing Nation : An Industrial History Behind Its Modernization

Research uncovers the origins - and the creators - of the once-mysterious "nishiki" marbles

 

The sparkle of a ramune marble and the gentle clinking sound it makes inside a glass bottle are familiar to many people in Japan. While ramune originated as a Western carbonated drink, it came to be defined less by its contents than by its distinctive marble-stopper bottle. These marbles also represent the starting point of the country’s glass marble industry.

From the late Taisho period (1912–1926) through the postwar years, large quantities of glass marbles were exported. However, this history is not widely recognized today. The origins of this industry can be traced to Meiji 25 (1892), when glass manufacturer Tamakichi Tokunaga succeeded in the domestic production of marble-stopper bottles. This achievement marked the beginning of glass marble production.

In the early years, marbles were made entirely by hand. As demand increased, production gradually became mechanized, particularly among manufacturers in Osaka, where glass-related industries were already well established. Before the war, the Japan Glass Marble Industry Association consisted of seventeen member companies. After the war, production expanded rapidly, with annual output exceeding 8,500 tons. These marbles were exported worldwide and contributed to the industrial recovery during the postwar period.

I have been collecting glass marbles for nearly thirty years, and I share my research with collectors through international online forums. My interest in glass marbles also has a personal background. I was born in 1973 and was drawn from early childhood to transparent and reflective objects. At that time, children sometimes played with marbles, with flat marbles more common among girls and spherical glass marbles more often associated with boys. I was shy and never brought myself to ask the boys to show me their marbles. Glass marbles, smoother and rounder than flat marbles, left a strong impression on me.

Later, I trained as a glass artist and worked for approximately twenty years as a lampworked bead maker in Sendai. Alongside this work, I began collecting glass marbles in the summer of 1998. In the late 1990s, marbles reappeared in toy stores through games such as B-Daman, and brightly colored marbles imported from Mexico became available. As I visited antique markets and curio shops, I encountered older marbles with unfamiliar patterns. Compared to contemporary products, these marbles carried a distinct presence shaped by time. This led me to become increasingly interested in their manufacturing methods and historical contexts.

Among the marbles I encountered, those known among overseas collectors as “Stripeys” attracted particular attention. These marbles do not have a specific name in Japan and are generally understood as a type of nishiki or cat’s-eye marbles. Within clear glass, blended colored vanes create distinctive internal patterns. Because many examples had been reported in Canada and Europe, overseas collectors came to believe that these marbles originated there. However, the same type is also frequently found within the country. As a major producing country, domestic demand could be met without relying on imports from countries with stronger currencies, making Western-made marbles rare within the country. This raised questions about the commonly accepted assumptions regarding the origins of these marbles.

In the course of my research, I examined archival documents and visited locations where marble factories had once operated, speaking with individuals connected to those areas. This process highlighted the significance of Naoyuki Seike, founder of Nippon Special Glass Ball Mfg. Co., Ltd., which was the largest marble producer in the country before the war. In 1924, Seike obtained Japan’s first patent for a marble-forming machine and operated a factory in Hanaten, Osaka.

Through this research, I had the opportunity to speak with Seike’s daughter-in-law, who is still living. According to her account, when Seike passed away in 1963, he left a bucket filled with glass marbles to each of his five children. I was entrusted with a portion of these keepsakes, which included an example of the marble later referred to overseas as Stripeys.

For Japanese makers and consumers, transparency was an essential aesthetic quality of glass, and this sensibility is clearly reflected in nishiki marbles. In contrast, marbles favored in Western cultures tended to feature rich, opaque colors rather than transparency. In 1938, Tatsukichi Isogami, chairman of the Marble Association, filed a utility model application related to nishiki marbles. By the following year, Seike had developed a related variant of this design, which later came to be known among overseas collectors as Stripeys.

I self-published these research findings as The History of Japanese Glass Marbles (2024). At present, Matsuno Industry Co., Ltd. in Osaka is the only company continuing the manufacture of glass marbles in the country. Few people remain who have direct knowledge of the former industry, but I hope to continue uncovering this history and bringing it to light.

By Aiko Suzuki