Tsuge Ikebana: Smooth Acorn with Horn (I) (039) (2015) Tobacco Pipe

The Tsuge Ikebana workshop houses three artisan carvers that all hand-make their own individual pipes under the Ikebana name. This particular Acorn was fashioned by the workshop's supervisor and master pipe maker, Kazuhiro Fukuda. He helped found the workshop decades ago after spending time in Denmark in the 1960s and '70s, learning from renowned artisans there. Of those from whom he received instruction, Sixten Ivarsson stands out most notably, the pipe-making pioneer having developed techniques responsible for the artisan pipe-making movement. This Acorn honors a signature Ivarsson shape, the Peewit, here rendered by Fukuda as a commemorative piece.

The Peewit is a specific Acorn rendition that pairs an organic bowl on the end of a raised transition and curling shank-and-stem combination. Some of Sixten's versions featured a more straight shank and bent stem, but others resembled this Fukuda offering, with the stem's downward turn matched by the shank's gentle upturn. Many of Fukuda's pipes evoke a certain naturalistic organicism, and that design aesthetic is present in this piece: The bowl is voluptuous and rounded, as if growing on the end of a tree branch, and the concave rim is tilted slightly along its horizontal axis to offer a hint of accenting asymmetry.

Further honoring Sixten's memory, this piece bears a generous accent of genuine horn. Ivarsson is reputed for his handling of accent work, considering adorning materials as part of the pipe's artistic composition rather than simply practical extensions. Fukuda has followed in his mentor's footsteps, fashioning the horn with a gentle flare toward an end that's lightly domed in a manner that echoes the stem base's expansion ring and matches the rim's concave shaping but in opposite, convex design. The deep, creamy hues of the horn complement the honey-hued stummel, transitioning seamlessly, and the grain presents hints of flame grain across the bowl with intersecting growth rings evident beneath.