Japanese Glass Fishing Floats - My Collection

I promised to show you more of my collection so today is the day!  This one was my first score.  I lived on a houseboat and the people next door had a couple big ones on their deck and I admired them.  I went to a marine supply store on Hayden Island and lo and behold.. sitting on the floor was this big awesome vintage specimen and I had to have it.  :-)  The rope netting had separated so I found some similar sisal rope, old rope, and went about repairing it and to my delight, I can hardly see where I fixed it.  :-)

Not only is it the quintessential aqua color but it has a "kanji"  symbol mark near the pontil.  Can anyone tell me what this says?  I knew at one time but have forgotten.

Early floats, including most Japanese glass fishing floats, were handmade by a glassblower. Recycled glass, especially old sake bottles, was typically used and air bubbles in the glass are a result of the rapid recycling process. After being blown, floats were removed from the blowpipe and sealed with a "button" of melted glass before being placed in a cooling oven. While floats were still hot and soft, marks were often embossed on or near the sealing button to identify the float for trademark. These marks sometimes included 'kanji' symbols.

This one is cool as you can see it's been wrapped and repaired and has obviously been used in the fishing industry.

These were the original recyclers as they melted down old used bottles to make these and that is why they are all different colors and each is unique.

Don't you love how this was wrapped and repaired with whatever they could find?

This is the biggest one and I love the olive green color.

One of the ones from Kristi's grandfather's collection.

I wish I had a better place to display them all, the big ones "live" under our baby grand piano.  :-)

This one from Kristi is FABULOUS.. it's a great color with a very nice stamped mark on it.

I'd love to know what it says.  Betsy, can you ask your son to translate it, please?  :-)

I bought some heavy rope and twined it together to make a stand for this one.  

The whole lot minus a couple I didn't put out there.  Tell me.. which one is your favorite?

A closeup of one of the barnacles.

See the barnacles on this one?  I love them.

I thought this was a fun photo of the inside of my fave old one.

Well.. I hope you enjoyed learning something about these wonderful historic items.  You can learn more of the history of these by googling.  Thanks for visiting!!
((hugs)), Teresa :-)