Glass musical instruments

Creation of the world's first glass violin, the Hario Violin, required our most sophisticated glass craftsmanship technology. We conceived the idea in collaboration with violinist Ikuko Kawai and produced the violin at our Koga Factory in Ibaraki Prefecture. We molded twenty violins during the prototype stage and completed the last two, which weigh about 1,380g each (versus around 800g for a wooden violin). One Hario Violin is kept by Ikuko Kawai for musical performances, while the other is kept at the HARIO Head Office. The Hario Violin has a distinctive tone that differs from wooden violins, depending on the pitch, due to differences in resonance.

After making the glass violin, we considered other combinations of technology and art and decided to leverage our best technology to complete the world's first glass cello. The basic production process was the same as for the violin, but the much larger size made the cello more of a challenge. Through trial and error, we molded over 40 bodies before finally completing a single glass cello. Made of heatproof glass, the Hario Glass Cello weighs around 11kg (versus approx. 3kg for a wooden cello).
With completion of the cello, violin and later viola, a string quartet could play all-glass instruments and explore new sound possibilities.

The world’s first glass koto is also the world's largest manually handblown glass instrument. It took 20 staff members to create this basic 21-string koto (guzheng) from heatproof glass made of 100% natural, earth-friendly material. A skilled glassblower shaped the body of the instrument from furnace-melted glass at the end of a stainless-steel blowpipe using breath control. Reproducing the soft curves of the instrument from thin uniform glass was a challenge even for a master craftsman and required much trial and error.

We created a glass shakuhachi with the goal of honing and passing on our finest glass craftsmanship. This crystallization of quality workmanship was handmade by eleven skilled artisans over a period of three months using traditional techniques. Made of heatproof glass, the glass shakuhachi is lighter than a wooden shakuhachi and maintains a stable pitch regardless of temperature. Craftsmen under the supervision of a player also carefully adjusted the shape of the cylinder, size of the finger holes and angle of the mouthpiece. The glass creates a unique sound, but we made sure it reproduces the depth of sound of a wooden shakuhachi.

We created a “Harion” glass cone speaker system with the goal of honing and passing on our finest glass craftsmanship. It features the world's first heatproof, hand-blown glass speaker cones (patent pending). We conceived the idea while creating glass musical instruments and hoped it would produce sound extremely faithful to the original recording.

This glass guitar was created to commemorate recovery from the March 11, 2011 earthquake in Japan. It’s the world's first performance-ready glass classical guitar and was created by 10 skilled craftsmen at a total production cost of around 10 million yen. While based on a European model from the 19th century, the body is somewhat smaller. Glass thickness ranges from 2.5 to 3.0mm and total weight is around 3.7kg. Hand-painted decoration and a delicate design bring out the beauty of the glass. We began molding the glass in September 2011 and then spent about a year adjusting the acrylic neck and sound before achieving success in October 2012. Tuning was supervised by popular guitarist Kaori Muraji to achieve a new, enjoyable sound that is different from wooden guitars.

We created a Glass Sho (mouth organ) with the goal of honing and passing on our finest glass molding and processing technology. This ancient traditional court musical instrument, a forerunner of pipe organs, was chosen because HARIO is a Japanese company that strives to deliver Japanese quality and hospitality to the world.
Production of the glass sho involved 40 people and was supervised by Hideki Togi, a renowned Japanese classical musician. The instrument is the same size as a traditional bamboo sho, but creates a somewhat different sound due to its glass construction. An LED was added to express the concept of light coming from heaven.