Product copy uses a small set of words over and over: overlay, facet, rim, prism, rocks, tumbler, kiriko. They are useful when they stay plain. They become fog when they are asked to sound like a craft certificate. This glossary is the house list at EDO 1834. It is for the buyer at a screen, not for a workshop floor.
We define what you can see. We leave unnamed any maker, tool, or award we cannot verify. Japanese cut glass is the category. Series names are editorial rooms. Historical craft terms stay historical.
Form: rocks, tumbler, and sake glass
- Whiskey glass. In this house, a short, wide vessel for Japanese whisky and a drink on ice. Also called a rocks glass when the silhouette is low and open. It is not a tall highball and it is not a sake cup. Shop the form in Whiskey Glasses.
- Rocks glass. The same short family as the whiskey glass. The name points to ice and a mixed drink as much as to a neat pour. Interior width matters more than a listed ounce count. See What Size Whiskey Glass Do You Need.
- Tumbler. A taller cylinder for water, soda, or a long pour. Use it when the drink needs height. Do not treat every tumbler as a whiskey glass. The catalog already split those rooms. Start in Tumblers.
- Sake glass. A small cup for a short pour of sake. Glass shows color and keeps a clean rim. It is a different object from a rocks glass, even when the cut looks related.
- The First Pour. An editorial room, not a motif. It is the opening edit for a first table. Browse The First Pour when you want one considered place to begin.
Still deciding the silhouette? Read Rocks, Tumbler, or Sake Glass: Which Form First.
Surface: cut, facet, overlay, and tint
- Cut glass. Glass whose surface has been worked into lines and planes. The phrase names what you see. It does not name a city, a hand, or a protected designation.
- Japanese cut glass. Our category name for cut drinking glass sold for the table. It is not a substitute for Edo Kiriko. It is not a promise of origin. Read What Is Japanese Cut Glass for the longer category story.
- Facet. A single plane in the cut field. A facet catches light and throws it back as a highlight or a small prism. A field of facets is a pattern. One facet is a face. How Facets Catch the Light is the visual lesson.
- Overlay. A layer of colored glass over a clear body. When the surface is cut, the color opens and a clear window appears. The meeting of color and clear is the color line. See Overlay Glass and the Color Line.
- Tint. Color that sits through the wall, rather than as a skin that can be opened. A tinted glass colors the drink even where no cut has removed a layer. The comparison lives in Overlay vs Tinted Glass.
- Color line. The sharp border where overlay color stops and clear glass begins. It is the detail to look for in a close photograph.
Grid, prism, facet, and overlay also appear as series names in our catalog. Those names are rooms. They describe an editorial mood. They are not traditional motif titles unless a listing says so.
Light: prism, line, and rim
- Prism. The way a cut breaks white light into a small flare of color, or throws a bright mark onto the table. We use the word as an optical fact, not as decoration.
- Line. The edge of a cut as your eye reads it. A clean line is easy to follow around the bowl. A soft line may be pressed, worn, or simply a different method. We do not guess which.
- Rim. The circle that meets the mouth. Thickness here changes how whisky or sake arrives. It is a buying factor you feel and rarely see named. Why the Rim Matters is the full note.
- Caustic. The bright pattern a glass throws onto the table when light passes through water or whisky. It is a result, not a product feature.
Light is the reason we cut the wall at all. The house line is simple: the object is still; the light is doing the moving. If a photograph asks the glass to perform, the photograph is wrong.
Kiriko as a craft term
Kiriko is a Japanese word used for cut glass. Edo Kiriko is a historical craft that public sources place in Edo in 1834, with later traditions such as Satsuma Kiriko beside it. Those names belong to craft history. They are not badges we print on an EDO 1834 product.
When you see kiriko on a page elsewhere, ask whether the seller is naming a protected designation, a style, or a mood. We will not use the historical name as a stand-in for Japanese cut glass. The history essay, when you want it, is What Is Edo Kiriko: A Short History. This glossary stops at the distinction.
Keep this page open while you read the rest of the Journal. When the words are settled, the next decision is the object. That decision lives in the collections, not in the glossary.