Edo Kiriko glass

Edo Kiriko glasswork is said to have its origins in the late Edo Period when a merchant by the name of Kagaya Kyubei, who ran a glassware shop in the Odenmacho area of Edo (modern Tokyo), made cuts into some glassware. Later, the Edo Kiriko craft grew in leaps and bounds, driven by the influx of western technologies during the modernization of Japan in the Meiji Period. Edo Kiriko is characterized by the glittering rainbow of colors emitted from the intricate patterns cut meticulously into clear, colorless glass. The beauty and delicacy of this glasswork led to the word giyaman (from the Dutch word for “diamond”, which were used to cut glass) being used colloquially to mean “beautiful woman”.

(source: Tokyo Artisan – http://puzzle-inc.tokyo/artisan/artisan/edokiriko.html)