Tsuge Tokyo 503 Smooth Egg w/ Bamboo Estate Briar Pipe, Unsmoked

Tsuge is Japan’s largest and most internationally renowned pipe company, having been founded in 1936 by Kyoichiro Tsuge. In the 1970s, however, Tsuge himself 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. Alongside the Ikebana workshop, Tsuge expanded its range of standard models to reflect the company’s new Scandi-Japanese style, including designs by Danish icons such as Jorn Micke and Geert Holbek.

Of all of the designs that Japan’s Tsuge company produces, the Tokyo is arguably the clearest representation of its first, founding debt to Scandinavian artisan pipe making. Typically long and slender, yet lightweight and easy on the jaw, and each being accented by a bamboo shank extension, they do well to capture the styles of the early Scandinavian masters, with Sixten Ivarsson being the most obvious point of reference. The Tokyo line’s “503,” for example, was a rather tall egg rendition, with a dash of hallmark Scandi plumpness and a live plateaux rim. I say “was,” because I think the Tokyo series has been cut down a little recently, with the “503” having unfortunately been cut from the roster.

This pipe is completely unsmoked, with an original bowl coating. Some slight handling marks.

Details:

Length: 7.4″ / 187.9mm

Bowl Width: 0.86″ / 21.84mm

Bowl Depth: 1.62″ / 41.14mm

Weight: 1.5oz / 44g