The Fujiyama Glass is shaped in a truncated cone so that when beer is poured into the glass, the head or froth of the beer portrays the snowcap of Mount Fuji. A fun, simple, and instantly classic design, each of the beer glasses are hand blown by the craftsmen of Sugahara Glassworks Inc., a prestigious Japanese company established in 1932. The glass is packaged in a Paulownia box, a traditional Japanese packaging method designed by Manabu Mizuno of the Good Design Company.
Fujiyama Glass has gained popularity in and out of Japan over the years. The product has attracted attention from various media outlets such as NHK WORLD, where the product was featured in their 2013 documentary “Artisan & Designer”, and was listed in 2015 as a product of cultural relevance in “100 Tokyo”, a cultural guide to Tokyo created by the Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry (METI).
According to the designer’s concept, depending on the type of beer or liquid poured into the glass, the user can experience a miniature Mt. Fuji in a variety of sceneries – radiating gold with a Pale Ale, a gleaming sunrise with an Amber ale, or a silent mountain at midnight with a dark Lager.
The glass is priced at 3,776 JPY pretax, the same number as the height of Mt. Fuji (in meters) above sea level.
For those in the area, the Fujiyama Glass is being showcased at the Internationale Biennale Design Saint-Etienne 2015 in France in the “Beauty as Unfinished Business” section, curated by Sam Hecht and Kim Colin.
But no matter what part of the world you are in, as long as you have beer and the Fujiyama Glass you can briefly (keyword, briefly) experience Mt. Fuji before giving into the temptations of your refreshing beer.