Walnuts” are indescribable for their gentle color and warmth when held in the hand. They have a delicious flavor and are good for beauty. Just their presence alone is enough to make one’s heart warm. Glass Studio Orange” produces glass that embodies the charm of walnuts. We asked them about the secret to their warm and inviting creations.

A glass studio nestled in the quaint scenery of an inn town

Tomi City is located in the eastern part of Nagano Prefecture. This small city with a population of about 30,000 people boasts the largest production of walnuts in Japan. It is walnuts. Currently, 99% of the walnuts distributed in Japan are from foreign countries, so domestically produced walnuts are extremely valuable and expensive. The market distribution volume has decreased due to price competition with walnuts imported from overseas. However, the city of Tomi City is proud to be the largest producer of walnuts in Japan, and is working hard to expand production and further brand the walnuts produced in Tomi City. In this town, there is a glass studio that uses walnuts, a local specialty, to make products unique to the city of Tomi, called “Glass Studio Orange,” which opened in the city in 1999. The head of the studio, Masaki Teranishi, is from Maruko Town (now Ueda City), a neighboring city of Tomi City.

Mr. Teranishi has always loved making things. Since he was a high school student, he has tried his hand at making various kinds of things, including pottery. Among them, glass was the one that interested him the most. The more he learned about the process of making glass, the more interesting it became, and the more he learned, the more he wanted to pursue this career.

Mr. Teranishi learned glass-making techniques by assisting glass artists in their studios. He chose a glass manufacturing company in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, as his place of employment. He was so absorbed in glass that it was a natural progression for him to leave his job, return to his hometown, and set up his own studio. More than 20 years after opening the kiln, he says with a laugh, “I still feel the same way I did then, and I find myself continuing to make glass without stopping. He says with a laugh.

Unnojuku, where Teranishi’s studio is located, once prospered as a post town on the Kitakuni Highway, and even today, the landscape is an important preservation area for groups of traditional buildings, with water running through the center of the road and beautiful houses lined up on both sides with lattice doors.

Orange is a renovated workshop in a row-house gate that blends in with this atmospheric scenery. A gallery and café have been added so that visitors can pick up the products and even purchase them here. The warmth of the shop name comes from the color of the flames inside the kiln where the glass is heated, and is also meant to symbolize the hope that the glass will continue to be used for generations to come.

Walnut glass is a pale, beautiful natural color

As mentioned above, Walnut Glass®, made from walnuts, a local specialty, is a registered trademark of this studio. By mixing the ashes of burned walnut shells with sand, the raw material for the glass, a unique light greenish color is produced. The greenish color is not too strong, but rather a gentle hue, a color that can only be expressed by natural materials.

However, walnut glass cannot be mass-produced due to its limited materials, and only a small percentage of the glass products made at the studio are produced. In order to run a glass studio, one must not only produce tableware such as vessels and glasses, but also zodiac signs, glasswork, and other products that meet the wishes of the customers to whom they deliver.

Of course, he has his own ideal style from his long career as a craftsman, but his motto is to create the most suitable form for the scene of use, from delicate and sharp to chunky and warm, and even ornaments intended to be displayed, and within that category, he adds his “character I will add “character” within that category. If I could, I would make only walnut glass, transparent glass, and tableware. We are like a manufacturer, so we make whatever our clients want. Teranishi says. A handmade order process chart using a calendar hung in the workshop was filled with the status of orders.

Updates that continue even after nearly 20 years

Teranishi’s workshop is also home to a gallery, so everything from production to purchase is done under his own watchful eye. This allows him to listen to the reactions of buyers, see how they react to his products, and use the discoveries to update and improve his products. In addition, over the years, we have gained a better understanding of production. In particular, if the size is wrong, it takes a lot of time and effort to correct it, so it can be said that setup is vital in glass production. Gradually, he became able to think logically about the process. The accumulation of such efforts has raised the technical system, and now adjustments through secondary processing are almost no longer necessary.

From “Interesting” to “Rewarding” and “Life’s Purpose

Incidentally, Mr. Teranishi’s studio mainly makes glass using the air-blown method. Although he does use some casting techniques, such as stretching heated glass, he basically uses the air-blown method. The reason why Mr. Teranishi insists on air-blowing is purely because it is an interesting process. The dynamism of the work, which is completed in a matter of seconds, and the satisfaction he gets from each step of the process, make it the perfect style for him.

It has been about 20 years since he set up his workshop, but he says that even so, he has never made exactly the same piece of work. That is the beauty of handmade work, and sometimes he is able to create something that is far beyond his imagination and that he is proud of, which makes it worthwhile and makes him want to keep doing it. For Mr. Teranishi, this job has become a way of life. As the name of the company suggests, he is working hard every day to ensure that the workshop will continue to exist for generations to come.

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Only 20% of the rice harvest can be called Ten-ei rice

Ten-ei-mura, Iwase-gun, in the central part of Fukushima Prefecture, is known as a rice-growing area. Ten years ago, a group of volunteer rice farmers got together to form the Ten-ei Rice Cultivation Study Group. Aiming to improve the taste and quality of rice, they have been working to cultivate rice using special cultivation and organic cultivation. The group boasts a record of being the only one in Japan to win the gold medal for nine consecutive years at the “International Rice and Taste Analysis Competition*,” a competition for rice taste.
(*) This is a taste evaluation contest for new rice sponsored by the Association of Rice and Taste Analysts, which has been held since 2000. Since the 10th contest, it has become an international competition and is highly acclaimed both in Japan and abroad.

In early autumn, Hidetoshi Nakata visited Ten-ei Village, which was in the midst of its harvest season. Yoshio Madarame, chairman of the Ten-ei Rice Cultivation Research Association, took him on a tour of the village’s prized rice fields. Is this Koshihikari rice? What is the yield? We continue our questioning, hearing that the market price in this area is 8 to 10 bales per hectare. Mr. Nakata smiled at Mr. Ikarume, who rolled his eyes and said, “You know a lot about rice. I’ve always loved rice, and I’ve learned so much about it that I’m now a “rice listener. The members of the study group’s members’ voices instantly softened the mood of the room. The Ten-ei Rice Cultivation Study Group was established in 2008. Mr. Ikarame reveals that the deregulation of rice distribution was the initial impetus for the group’s establishment.

Since then, the group has been engaged in special cultivation and organic rice cultivation through trial and error. Among their signature rice products, “Kampo Environmental Farming Ten-ei Rice” uses Kampo as an organic fertilizer and paper mulch rice transplanters as a weed control measure. Mr. Ikarume proudly states, “We do not use any pesticides, chemical fertilizers, or herbicides, and we take our time and care to cultivate our rice. Growing rice without pesticides requires more than twice as much work. The harvest is only about 60% of what it used to be. Even so, when you eat the rice, the difference is obvious. I believe it is worth the effort.

Representing the rice farmers of Fukushima, the team won the gold award for the first time in two years.

On the other hand, in order for the value of the rice to be widely recognized, it is necessary to have it evaluated by a third party. With this in mind, the research group has continued to enter its rice in the world’s largest rice competition, the International Rice Evaluation and Taste Analysis Competition. The result was a gold medal for the ninth consecutive year. This record is the reason why Ten-ei rice is known as the best rice in the world.

After the Great East Japan Earthquake, he suffered from harmful rumors and almost gave up farming. Still, they did everything they could to decontaminate the soil using zeolite and purify the water. Their efforts bore fruit, and the rice harvested in the fall was undetectable for radioactive materials. The rice harvested in the fall was found to be radiation-free, extending the record of consecutive gold medals at the contest. However, last year, when the gold medal was on the line for the 10th consecutive year, the lack of sunshine due to the long rains had an adverse effect on the rice. The team fell just short of the gold medal and received the Special Excellence Award.

Although the record of consecutive years has been broken, this year they hope to win the Gold Award for the 10th time no matter what it takes. The people of Ten-ei Village are cheering for the people of Fukushima Prefecture to improve the image of their agricultural products. Mr. Nakata is also focusing on ideas to support the people of Ten-ei Village, who are looking forward to the future.
If we win the 10th gold medal, why don’t we change the packaging to a design with stars in a row?
The results of the competition will be announced at the end of November. The date of the contest will be announced at the end of November, and the time is getting closer every second.

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