Yuki Tokutomi: Sandblasted Dublin Tobacco Pipe

Yuki Tokutomi, like her father, Hiroyuki, produces a very small quantity of pipes a year, making her pieces particularly rare and always a welcomed sight. The Japanese carver's personal style often caters to traditional designs, sometimes with organic accenting materials, like bamboo, and her portfolio favors compact, nosewarmer designs. One such diminutive piece is found here, free of alternative materials to better focus on the pipe's smooth shaping and robust proportions. It's reminiscent of a Pot we previously received from Yuki, and this Dublin displays some of the artisan's oft-seen design cues: The stummel, while compact, is hearty and muscular, filling the palm and housing a chamber that belies the pipe's overall length. Though stout, the lines remain soft and supple through the transition, forgoing any sense of rigidity or hardness. In cross-grain orientation, the sandblasted grain reveals dimples of birdseye along the flanks with subtle texture, and the rim is left smooth for tasteful contrast. All dressed in a natural stain, this piece retains a traditional palette and will darken slightly as it's smoked, and the slight flare of the stem base adds just the right degree of accenting line work and is a stylistic motif often seen in Yuki's pipes.