Smooth Bent Dublin with Bamboo (Kikuchi) (F) (026) (2021) Tobacco Pipe

Asami Kikuchi is a talented artisan and sculptor, one of only three pipe makers at Tsuge's Ikebana workshop. She joined the workshop in 2013, having participated in a rather formal apprenticeship to the workshop's presiding master, Kazuhiro Fukuda. This lithe, softly-defined bent Dublin shows both the skill she learned from Fukuda and a healthy dose of her own artistic style, with a gestural bowl, softly rounded and undulating rim, and pencil-thin shank and stem.

It's an incredibly lightweight piece, with the bowl perching as if by magic at the end of the slight S-curve of shank and stem. There is no mystery about the grain however, as it rises in dense, uniform flame striations all about the bowl with a warm stain and smooth finish ensuring it is unmissable. The shank pinches in a tight curve, then expands in a line that flows smoothly into the first of two pale knuckles of bamboo. The stem base echoes the same bamboo curvature, with an indentation on the side perfectly matching the organic medium. For anyone who likes Kikuchi's elegant artistry and is looking for a lightweight pipe, this is may be the perfect find.