Sandblasted Freehand (Ohi) (E) (068) Tobacco Pipe

Tsuge Ikebana's newest carver, Yoshirou Ohi, excels at merging styles and forms — drawing heavily from the Japanese tradition, with some Danish influence and a touch more modern sense of line. It's out of this stylistic marriage that we receive pieces like this compact, asymmetrical, and extraordinarily dynamic Freehand — a design defined by crisp lines and ridges with a strong sense of movement in profile. From the diagonally oriented, oval rim and crisp panels, to the sharp spur at the heel and the swift, upward sweeping shank, it's an extremely complex form — a design one must view from all angles and hold in one's hand to feel the momentum of line, to witness the harmony between transition, shank, and stem, to truly understand. It's this type of complex beauty that truly sets Ohi's pieces apart.

- Andrew Wike