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Kei'Ichi Gotoh Pipes: A Careful And Deliberate Process
A few days ago, Ryota Shimizu, Smokingpipes.com's representative in Japan, and I visited Kei Gotoh at his workshop in northwestern Tokyo. Gotoh makes only a few pipes a year, a pattern he's maintained since 1987, the year he stopped making Ikebana pipes for Tsuge. His process is intensely deliberate, combining an engineer's meticulousness with an artist's vision to create some of the most iconic, influential shapes of the last two decades. Gotoh takes his time making pipes. He also works as a designer and model-maker for various consumer goods companies in Japan, making prototypes for things like car stereo fronts. Having two successful simultaneous careers has given him the freedom to relentlessly perfect shape ideas, yielding completely novel results, such as the Sio-Yaki — results which have gone on to inspire other pipe makers and, in turn, become an integral part of the modern pipe making lexicon. During this visit, we enjoyed a glimpse into that process with two shapes.
Shape 1
The first, as of yet unnamed, began as a sketch in January of 2015. The idea was further refined in two sketches from mid-2015, and Gotoh committed the idea to a trio of briar blocks at the end of 2015 and the beginning of 2016. He has yet to complete any of them. Likely only one will be completed (presented in the pictures), though the shape will certainly change again before he finishes it.
Shape 2
The second, an unusual take on a bent ball, was completed and sold in early 2016. Gotoh first sketched the idea for the shape in November, 2015. He made additional sketches and rough shapes for variants of the shape in early January, 2016. He completed one of these in February, the one presented finished in the photographs.
These are but two examples of a process Gotoh has held to for almost thirty years. A new shape from Gotoh — which happens but a few times a year — is the result of a months, or years, long process of sketching, designing, playing in briar, and refining, with each step bringing him closer to the final, carefully thought out result. His shapes, novel as they are, do not spring fully formed from his hands at the sanding disk. Each represents hundreds of hours of careful work, study, and consideration.
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