Chicago Exhibit, May 2008

INTRODUCTION TO THE EXHIBIT

Japan and Pipe-Making’s Second Wave

Thirty years ago, a small number of Japanese craftsmen traveled to Denmark and learned first-hand about the revolutionary new designs and techniques in pipe-making developed by Scandinavian carvers like Sixten Ivarsson. During the post-war years, a "Danish Wave" had swept through the comfortable world of the English smoking pipe and ushered in many new creative possibilities for briar carvers. Pipe-makers in Japan were eager to learn all they could from the Danish master craftsmen.

Today, several extraordinary Japanese carvers have been traveling to Denmark, to Europe, and to America, carrying pipes that present their re-imagining of the original Danish revolution … along with their proposals for how that original "Danish Wave" might be extended and developed. Pipe-makers like Tokutomi, Gotoh, Satou and Fukuda all revere the work of the great Danish masters; Tokutomi in particular considers himself a student of Sixten, who is still inspired by his mentor. But notwithstanding their sense of continuity with the past, current Japanese pipe-makers have infused the original Danish principles with their own unique aesthetic and artistic traditions.

From their use of "asymmetrical balance" (very different from Europeans’ controlled use of asymmetry); to their love of "natural" detail like plateau or unusual grain shapes (what Europeans consider "flaws" in wood, Japanese often find as occasions for beauty); to their broader tolerance for "contrast" (what Europeans find clashing, in shape, color or texture, the Japanese often find complementary) … Japanese high-end pipe-makers have been developing carving styles that open up a whole new range of possibilities in pipe design and aesthetics. Judging from the responsiveness of pipe collectors and the way the work of carvers like Tokutomi and Gotoh seem to be affecting both younger and older carvers around the world, we may well be witnessing what historian Barney Suzuki has referred to as a "second wave" sweeping through the pipe-making world … this one spreading outwards from Japan.

This exhibit shows a few of the highlights of the fascinating work being produced by some of the better-known Japanese pipe-makers. The selection only scratches the surface of the imaginative ferment currently percolating through the workshops of carvers like Tokutomi, Gotoh, Satou, and T. Arita. But I hope these pieces do suggest the intriguing possibility that in a world increasingly hostile towards smoking – and, by extension, the instruments of smoking – the work of certain carvers might encourage even some non-smokers to recognize that briar pipes can be objects of great beauty, illustrating the ingenuity of human craftsmanship and expressing that wonderful human impulse to make that which is useful also beautiful.

Thomas Looker
Curator, The Briar Gallery
Chicago, May 2008