Freehand Bent Dublin (Two Snail) Tobacco Pipe

Much as a single brush stroke from a Shihan (a nationally acclaimed master of calligraphy) can draw gasps from an appreciative audience, master carver Hiroyuki Tokutomi can communicate more beauty and poignancy within a single curve than any pipe carver on the planet. The most amazing thing about this composition, to my mind, is that While a great deal of complexity is in play, the inka (transmission or impression, in this case) of the overarching composition is deceptively simple under quiet gaze.

Tokutomi's famous sense of subtly liquid organicism is undeniably present. The nuanced curvature and rounding imparts such a profound sense of "soft" that you almost have to shake your head to remind yourself that structure is ridged. While the bowl and shank share roughly the same degree of curvature, indeed, they even share a right to left bias from the smoker's perspective, the attitude of the two elements are markedly different. The unification becomes complete, when the two elements become wrapped in an almost supernaturally uniform swept straight grain.

--Bear Graves