Tsuge Ikebana: Smooth Volcano (Fukuda) (R) (117) (2021) Tobacco Pipe

Kazuhiro Fukuda supervises the Tsuge Ikebana workshop which comprises two other artisans: Asami Kikuchi and Yoshirou Ohi. While all three carvers fashion their own handmade pipes individually, they're all united under the Ikebana name, meaning "living flowers" in Japanese and referring to Japan's highest form of artistic flower arrangements. As an artisan pipe maker, Fukuda's career dates to before Ikebana's founding: One of Tsuge's early artisans, Fukuda was sent to Denmark in the late 1960s and early '70s to learn from iconic Danish pipe makers like Sixten Ivarsson. He returned to Japan with honed skills and artisan pipe-making knowledge and helped establish the Ikebana workshop, showcasing Tsuge's prestigious, handmade pipes.

This particular Volcano rendition from the revered Japanese master resembles other examples we've seen from him, most notably in the differentiation of the stummel's base. Instead of only carving a single ridgeline to separate the pipe's underside, Fukuda has rendered a sweeping panel that wraps the entire form before curling upward and flaring in height toward the stem. Such a design cue visually separates and accentuates the bowl: It rises upward from the broad base with concave walls, calling to mind a locomotive smoke stack. For further individuality, Fukuda oriented the briar so that the entire underside is covered in craggy plateau from which emanates fine tendrils of flame grain all across the stummel — the trajectory of which is followed by the shaping of the base's panel. The stunning grain is highlighted in a honey-blonde finish for a vibrant aesthetic, and the entire composition combines to earn the workshop's prestigious R grade.