About Us

　

We are the only museum in the world that exhibits glassworks created by a technique known as lampworking. Our collection includes approximately 2,000 showpieces, including lampwork beads, or “Tombodama” in Japanese, from ancient times through the modern age of great variety: exquisitely artistic works and distinctively unique ones. The exhibition presents you with all the charm and fantastic potential of lampwork as an art form.
Our hands-on workshop provides you with an exciting opportunity to create your glass bead using the lampwork process. Previous experience is unnecessary. Also, discover memorable gifts at our museum shop.
This is a fun-filled museum where you can view, appreciate, create, and purchase glass artworks. We look forward to seeing you!

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  • Create

History of the Museum

January 1995
Miyamoto Kyonobu opens an arts and crafts shop to provide “compassion and enjoyment in daily life” on the site of his restaurant destroyed by the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake.
July 2005
During the same year as the 10th anniversary of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, Miyamoto opens the “Kobe lampwork glass museum” as a private art museum to express a wish for regeneration and creation by exhibiting glass artworks known as “lampwork.”
December 2005
Miyamoto holds “International Lampwork Festa 2005, 10 Years after the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake in KOBE.” (The 2nd Festa, in October 2007.)
April 2006
Miyamoto establishes the “Japan Lampwork Society” to further promote and develop lampwork.
October 2006
Miyamoto holds “Bead Art Show, KOBE 2016,” the first bead show in Japan, aiming to fuse lampwork and bead art and provide a place for new exchanges, encounters, and possibilities. (Since then, it has been held regularly in YOKOHAMA and NAGOYA.)
October 2007
The inaugural issue of LAMMAGA, a quarterly lampwork information magazine, is published.
December 2007
Getting the participation of people involved in beads for different purposes and from various standpoints, Miyamoto establishes the “Japan Beads Society” to broaden activities and expand exchanges.
March 2012
The inaugural issue of Bead Art, an information-filled magazine for enjoying beads as artworks, is published.