Tsuge Tokyo 503 Smooth Egg with Bamboo (Estate)

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 produced, the Tokyo series was 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.

While the Tokyo series is still in production today, it has changed somewhat over the years. Most of its core aesthetic has remained, though the range of Tokyo shapes available has been cut down significantly, with just a small number of sitter designs remaining. This particular pipe comes from the older Tokyo series, and is an example of the now-discontinued shape “503,” which was a plump Scandinavian apple with a live plateau edge rim.

The condition is very good. Minor inner rim darkening and minor handling marks.

Details:

Length: 7.5″ / 190.5mm

Bowl Width: 0.75 / 19.05mm

Bowl Depth: 1.89″ / 48.00mm

Weight: 1.9oz / 56g