Tsuge Ikebana: Smooth Bent Dublin (Kikuchi) (H) (022) (2022) Tobacco Pipe

Meaning "living flowers" and named in reference to Japan's lauded flower-arrangement art form, Tsuge's Ikebana workshop comprises three artisans who individually carve pipes under the Ikebana name. A similar, organic aesthetic often unites the workshop's pipes, regularly showcasing distinctively Japanese interpretations of Danish shapes, yet each carver retains their own personal design style, with this bent Dublin having been fashioned by Asami Kikuchi.

This piece features a sweeping, fluid, sense of motion, displaying a broad, flared bowl that rests on a subdued heel at the fore of a seamless transition to a robust round shank. Said bowl is rendered with an organic asymmetry in its supple walls, capped with an undulating rim of rugged plateau, with a smooth inner rim to assist with filling the capacious chamber. Out back, the subtly domed and flared shank face joins a sleek saddle stem of black vulcanite, comfortably bent for easy clenching. Dressed in a rich auburn finish, the stummel boasts impeccable flame grain around the bowl, with swirls of birdseye at the rim and heel.