Shizuo Arita, 73, is a retired corporate executive who has been making pipes for over thirty years, first as a hobby and now as an avocation. Shizuo’s quirky, distinctively-shaped pipes are extremely popular among a group of Japanese pipe-smokers and the briars sell almost as quickly as Arita-san can make them.

Takeo Arita, 37, worked as an architectural draftsman before he began pursuing his father’s hobby. Using some of the same machines and sharing a number of techniques, it’s surprising how different the pipes of father and son turn out to be.

A comparison of Arita pipes suggests the wide variety of cultural and aesthetic influences within Japan. Shizuo’s pipes may be said to express standards of beauty associated with an older, more rural, more nature-based culture. Shizuo’s shapes are often clay-like, asymmetrical, organic, and they exude an “earthy,” unrefined aura.

By contrast, Takeo’s designs seem young, sophisticated, fast, urban. Many of his pipes contain distinctly Japanese lines and forms, but these are usually presented in balanced compositions of considerable refinement. Takeo may exemplify the “international style” in contemporary Japan, a dynamic blending of tradition and innovation.

Of course, father and son occasionally dip into each other’s repertoires: Takeo experiments with the mushroom shape, well-loved by his father;  Shizuo plays around with dynamically-shaped, carefully-balanced designs, like his son.