A stained glass manufacture in Hiroshima city, Baroque announced that they have finished restoring stained glasses for the World Peace Memorial Church, which is designated as an Important Cultural Property in Japan. The CEO of the Baroque, Usui said, We seldom work for cultural heritage. It was a huge amount of work and we had to be very meticulous.
He has learned the technology of stained glasses in the U.S. when he was young, then in 1975, he founded his company at his age of 20s. Baroque has been conducted more than hundred manufacturing jobs a year, so they have enough experience and fine technique. That is why they were selected as a contractor of this restoration work.
The stained glass of the church was made from a combination of 888 pieces of glass, which includes various sizes and colors. It was gifted from foreign countries such as Germany and Austria, those which wished for world's peace and it had built in 1962.
The reinforcement against earthquakes has started in 2016, so the restoration of the stained glass became one of that work. The stained glass was exposed to bad weather more than 5o years. Some part of that was broken or removed its paint. In total, 328 pieces were needed to restore.
It was necessary not to change materials from original one to keep its historical value. The wires which joint pieces of glass were very thin and rusted for the most part. They removed the rust by knife, soldered and worked very carefully to not damage the wire. New glasses were intentionally made to look dirty so that the glasses can match with the other old glasses.
At the end of March, Usui has compared from the completed stained glass with pictures of the church when it was originally built to check them. They are planning to start to attach it to the church at the end of this month. Restored stained glass are going to shown visitors on 17th, with an explanation of the restoration work by Usui.

Translated by itako999 from a Japanese news article

http://www.tokyo-np.co.jp/article/national/list/201806/CK201806070200027...