CHICAGO PIPE SHOW - May 2006

THE IMAGINATIVE EVOLUTION OF HIROYUKI TOKOTOMI
Exhibit Page 6

CHICAGO 2006

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THE EXHIBIT:  Section by Section

3. Toku and Gotoh

New "Surfing" Pipes from Tokutomi and Gotoh:
An astonishing exchange in their creative dialogue

Chicago, May 2006

(MORE POST-CHICAGO PHOTOS BELOW THE COMMENTARY))

The fascinating interplay between Tokutomi and Gotoh reached a new level in the run-up to this year’s Chicago show, as Kei continued the development of the "Sio-Yaki" theme and produced one of his most amazing, sculptural compositions while Toku re-imagined Kei’s theme into another "Stone-like" Cavalier.

Kei’s new pipe contains a straight-forward compositional idea within its breath-taking mixture of planes, angles, long-lines, and brilliantly vivid grain. A couple of years ago, Kei developed an asymmetrical variation to his "Wagtail" bowl … and it is this "comma-like" form – slightly elongated – that Kei puts at the center of his composition.


Bowl of "Asymmetrical Wagtail"

The bowl appears to be surfing on a flat plane of briar (an idea that Teddy has long played around with, by the way). But given the Gotoh "Sio-Yaki" design, I think we can say that this plane represents an imaginative redesign of the bamboo spear.

(Aficionados of Japanese pipe-makers may also recognize the x-shape formed by the tail of the bowl and the front of the "surf board" as a structure used by Takeo Arita in some of his strikingly modern compositions. And, indeed, the general elongation of stem, shank, and bowl – suggesting a sense of forward speed – also occurs frequently in Takeo’s work.)

Toku also seems to have stretched out his familiar blowfish bowl slightly and made a narrow version of Kei’s original "Wagtail" bowl. In place of the "Sio-Yaki’s" spear, Toku uses (naturally enough) his reverse-curve Cavalier shank.

These "briar sculptures" are challenging and arresting and require more study to fully appreciate. But they certainly suggest that the creative interplay between these two great artisans holds enormous promise to surprise and delight us in the years to come.


ADDITIONAL NOTE:  Admirers of Tokutomi and Gotoh aren't the only folks who are surprised by their interplay:  the carvers themselves often amaze each other.

While I was setting up the exhibit at the convention center, I learned from Toku and Gotoh that they had not known before they landed in Chicago that they had been working on such similar pipes.  Uncharacteristically, they'd been out of touch for a few weeks and Toku and Kei saw their new pipes for the first time in their hotel rooms, shortly after their flight from Tokyo.  They stared at the two "Surfers" in disbelief.  At no time had they discussed this design with each other ... and yet here were two carvings obviously inspired by the same idea.  How had this happened?  They were as dumbfounded as everyone else.

This episode seems to confirm my idea that however different their finished work may appear, Toku and Kei share a deep imaginative bond that links their creativity and feeds their inspiration.

 

"DUELING SURFERS" -- FIRST PICTURES OF TWO EXTRAORDINARY CARVINGS

 

 

 

THE SURFERS WITH GOTOH'S ORIGINAL ASYMMETRICAL WAGTAIL

 


 

Tokutomi and Gotoh: the Romantic and the Metaphysical?

Kei Gotoh regards Tokutomi as his mentor, even though Kei is only a few year younger and has been making pipes for many years.  He started in the Tsuge factory and wound up carving many high-grade Ikebanas (some imprinted with his own name). Though Kei and Toku are good friends and share a puckish sense of humor and great personal modesty, they approach certain aspects of their pipe-making in diametrically opposite ways. Toku now works full-time at his craft and has been producing around 150 pipes a year. Kei can only devote a limited time to his pipes; in addition, he works much more slowly than Toku and so he makes only a handful of pipes every few months. Toku is the consummate "improvisor-at-the-shaping-wheel," and will carefully tune and adapt his forms to the particular briar block and to the composition that evolves in his mind (and fingers) as he works. Kei constructs detailed plans of his pipes before he touches a sander and applies himself carefully and methodically in the meticulous precision of his craft. He periodically reviews his work using a small battery-operated turntable so he can see his carving more easily from every angle.

The pipes that result from these different styles of work are imbued with entirely different personalities. Toku’s work overflows with freedom of line and spontaneous energy;  it seems to express the joy that Toku experiences in the act of creation. Kei’s pipes are extraordinarily original and beautiful compositions that, to my eye, shimmer with the quietly intense energy I associate with polished gem stones:  they gleam with an inner brilliance.  Kei’s briar carvings communicate a highly refined understanding of form and design.  Notwithstanding the distinctive and unusual elements in his pipes, Kei’s style often strikes me as quite economical and compressed:  a small detail can speak with the kind of eloquence usually found in the long line.

An analogy comes to my mind: If Toku’s pipes remind me of the imaginative lyricism that flows through the writings of English and American Romantics (the poems of Wordsworth, the essays of Thoreau), Kei’s work brings to my mind that artful luminescence found in the language of English Metaphyscial poets like John Dunne … or, even more aptly, that expressive intensity wound inside the lean lines of Japanese haiku.

 

CHICAGO 2006

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