In 1970s Japan, skyscrapers started emerging in Shinjuku and working in glass caught the interest of a modernising nation. Hakaru Mizuguchi was one of the artists selected in 1981 for one of Japan’s first glasswork exhibitions, called “Contemporary Glass – Australia, Canada, U.S.A. & Japan”. In 1983, he went on to found “The Glass Studio in Hakodate”, which has become an integral part of the tourist experience among the red-brick warehouses by the bay in Motomachi. He specialises in free-blown glassworks that express a personal warmth not achievable with machines. His decorations of the WMDF Tree have become a regular WMDF feature since 005. More worlds that meet.