Tsuge Ikebana: Sandblasted Long Shank Reverse Calabash Heart (Ohi) (H) (290) (2014) Tobacco Pipe

In Japanese ikebana means "living flowers" and refers to the highest form of artistic flower arrangement in Japan. Fitting to that name, Tsuge Ikebana pipes are among the most premium and sought after smoking instruments from Japan, and the world at large. They're all fashioned individually by the workshop's three artisan pipe makers, each caring their own distinctive pieces but united under the Ikebana name. Yoshirou Ohi is one of those three carvers, and here he's fashioned a striking Heart shape fitted to a long shank and featuring reverse Calabash engineering.

Resembling the Acorn design, this bowl of this pipe expands upward in profile from a pointed heel spur, but its rounded rim and creased flanks realistically evoke a handsome heart shape. When viewed from above, though, the bowl tilts slightly leftward, accenting the form with a touch of asymmetry and emphasizing the rim's bulbous fore and aft sections. Balancing the bowl's robust curvature, the shank extends to dramatic length and expands heartily toward the end. Such stout dimensions enclose a reverse Calabash chamber within the shank, offering the same smoke-cooling nature as a traditional Calabash in a more standard pipe arrangement — i.e. without the Calabash's removable chamber cap.

Moreover, such a long shank offers more surface area on which to showcase the stummel's concise sandblast, revealing detailed striations of ring grain before the profile reduces suddenly to a demure saddle stem. Unlike traditional saddle stems, this pipe's mouthpiece doesn't reveal the base's shoulders in profile; instead, the entire base acts as the tenon, with only a subtle, domed aspect evident. Such a design cue further contrasts the stem's diminution and accentuates the robust proportions of the shank and bowl.