Tsuge Ikebana: Sandblasted Acorn (Ohi) (E) (251) (2014) Tobacco Pipe

Yoshirou Ohi works alongside Kazuhiro Fukuda and Asami Kikutchi in the Tsuge Ikebana workshop. Each carver crafts pipes individually and then stamps their work with their own name, but even without the nomenclature, this bent Acorn would be easily recognizable as the work of Ohi. His aptitude for both finishing and shaping are on full display with this piece, not to mention his appreciation for organic aesthetics.

While the bowl features the form's characteristic flared rim and steady taper to the heel, it's rendered with an extra stockiness and heft. The flared rim raises at its fore and aft points, bringing to mind the opened maw of an animal or a Venus flytrap, but instead of death, a respectable chamber capacity awaits inside. The sweeping heel carries momentum into the upturned shank and arcing saddle stem, and a clear, consistent undercurve can be traced following the same trajectory. This results in a fluid curvature that gradually unfurls from the peaks of the rim through the bit of the mouthpiece. An inky black sandblast dresses the stummel and coaxes out subtle stacks of growth rings across the flanks of the bowl, while the innermost rim is smoothly polished and stained a lighter color for visual contrast.