Tsuge Ikebana: Smooth Bent Brandy (Kikuchi) (H) (013) (2024) Tobacco Pipe

After graduating from one of Japan's most premier art and design universities, Asami Kikuchi focused her artistic endeavors on crafting small, wooden sculptures, and via a connection through one of her old professors, Tsuge allowed her to use the tools and machines in their Ikebana workshop after hours. Through this introduction, Kikuchi became fascinated with pipes and apprenticed under workshop supervisor Kazuhiro Fukuda to learn artisan pipe making, merging her prior studies with her desire to create practical objects that engaged visual and tactile senses. With over a decade of pipe-making experience under her belt, Kikuchi is among Japan's most prolific pipe makers, renowned for its artistry and aesthetics, as well as its precision and craftsmanship.

Kikuchi's pipes generally fall into two camps: one of robust proportions and chubby curves, and the other of sleek and slender dimensions. This bent Brandy is one of the few designs in her portfolio that comprise both of those stylistic elements, creating a composition focused on contrast and juxtaposition. The bowl is remarkably robust and muscular, but it's supported by a reduced shank and stem, as if Kikuchi intentionally shaped the block to see how dramatically distinct she could carve the bowl from the shank and stem. The juxtaposition is striking, yet the two elements harmonize through their shared gentle lines and soft curves — the overall aesthetic calling to mind vintage Danish pieces from W.Ø. Larsen, whose signature aesthetic often presents robust bowls on the end of lithe shanks. It's a beautiful homage to Danish pipe making as seen through Kikuchi's own creative lens, and it further impresses with an array of flame grain that matches perfectly with the Japanese artisan's shaping.