Tsuge Ikebana: Smooth Tomato (Kikuchi) (H) (014) (2024) Tobacco Pipe

Asami Kikuchi is the youngest of the three artisans working in the Tsuge Ikebana workshop. She became fascinated with pipes in her 20s when she utilized the Ikebana workshop's equipment for a school project. Artisan pipe making spoke to her almost immediately, and she asked to stay and learn more about the craft. Kazuhiro Fukuda, the workshop's supervisor and a former student of Sixten Ivarsson, took Kikuchi on as an apprentice, and in 2013, she became an artisan for the workshop.

This Tomato by Kikuchi features a broad, squat bowl with supple walls that taper upward from an ample heel to a comparatively taut rim. A low-set transition pairs the aforementioned bowl to a sweeping, ovoid shank that continues the shape's undercurve and flares outward to a steeply curved saddle stem, which is posed for comfortable smoking. Though fairly abbreviated in terms of length, measuring just a touch over five inches from bowl to bit, this piece boasts a muscular build and a reassuring in-hand heft that's balanced by the shape's consistent curvature. Dressed in a gorgeous smooth finish, the stummel here offers tight licks of flame grain across the bowl and shank alike.