Tsuge Ikebana (by Fukuda) Smooth Surfing Volcano Estate Briar Pipe, Unsmoked

Description

Tsuge is Japan’s largest and most internationally renowned pipe company, having been founded in 1936 by Kyoichiro Tsuge. In 1977, however, Tsuge was so impressed by the pipes coming out of Denmark, that he sent two of Tsuge’s own master pipe-makers, Kazuhiro Fukuda and Smio Satou, to hone their craft under the likes of Sixten Ivarsson and Jørgen Larsen. Upon their return, the Tsuge Ikebana workshop was established so that Fukuda, Satou, and their apprentices would have the means to create high-grade Japanese pipes to rival even those being made in Europe’s pipe-making capitals of the time. Today, Tsuge Ikebana remains one of the most revered pipe workshops in the world, and has in turn influenced generations of artisans in its wake.

In Japan, tobacco pipes—especially handmade tobacco pipes—are a luxury item, which is why, if you’ve ever stumbled upon a Japanese pipe seller on some marketplace or another, you’ll likely be surprised at the prices commanded for much the same items in most other countries. On the other hand, in Japan and in every other part of the world, the luxury of a Tsuge Ikebana pipe is far more in accord. Part of this has to do with the workshop’s traditionalism, operating under a strict master/apprentice system that has aspirants spend lengthy periods simply observing their teacher and even preparing the latter’s work station before even touching a block of briar. Part of it also has to do with the workshop’s modernism, having been an epicenter for innovation in pipe design and manufacture for decades.

This particular pipe is very much a product of those intertwined commitments to discipline and discovery. The greats of Japanese pipe making, including those outside of Tsuge, such as Gotoh or Tokutomi, have earned a reputation for high-grade pipes that push the boundaries of what a pipe can be. This “surfing volcano,” as it has come to be known, is one of the Ikebana workshop’s contributions to that tendency. Conceived and crafted by Kazuhiro Fukuda himself, the pipe picks up threads from past masters, such as the volcano shapes of Sixten Ivarsson and the Ramses of Bo Nordh, and weaves them into a novel, captivating sitter—managing to do so while not only establishing a great plane of bird’s-eye on its base, but a consistent, straight grain patterning that “climbs” its way up the ledges and inclines of its bowl.

This pipe is completely unsmoked, with an original bowl coating. It comes with its original sleeve.

 

Details:

Length: 5.2″ / 132.0mm

Bowl Width: 0.73 / 18.54mm

Bowl Depth: 1.38″ / 35.05mm

Weight: 2.6oz / 74g