Glass pens, first produced in Japan in Meiji 35 (1902), are said to have spread quickly all throughout the globe to countries such as Italy, Germany, France, and others. They went into decline after their initial boom in popularity, but thanks to the only artisan left based in Taito Ward, the only ones to have inherited the techniques for producing them from the original developers of the pens, the process for making them had by the first year of Heisei (1989) progressed to the point where the entirety of the pens could completely be integrated. In addition to their practicality in terms of ink retention and the smoothness of their writing, the pens themselves are works of art and have recently begun to grow in popularity as handicrafts in their own right.