Tokutomi's Cavaliers

Expanded text of an article published in
Pipes and Tobaccos Magazine, Summer 2006

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Section 4

Elegance and Innovation: Tokutomi's Cavaliers

Toku's elegant playfulness is no more vividly illustrated than in the evolution of his new Cavalier pipes. In 1999, Tokutomi carved a faux-cavalier with a semi-Dublin bowl in the style of an old Pipe Dan shape. At the same pipe show in Chicago in 2004 that saw the first appearance of Teddy's "Alien" and "Seal," Toku became reacquainted with his old Cavalier when it appeared on The Piperack's table. As he took the pipe in his hands, Toku said he'd forgotten all about the design ... and a quiet gleam in his eyes was the only suggestion that another "melodic line" had started to resonate in his imagination.

The Asymmetrical Dublin

By the fall of 2004, Toku had metamorphosed the Pipe Dan Cavalier into an extraordinarily lithe and sinewy shape, whose swirling lines are continually in motion. Yet for all its curves, the pipe balances upright on its Cumberland foot and the pipe radiates a sense of restfulness and ease. The cavalier with freeform Dublin bowl is one of the most accessible of Toku's asymmetrical compositions.


	Asymmetrical Dublin Cavalier

The Reclining Cavalier

After a few more Cavaliers, Toku's imagination shifted into overdrive and he jumped towards a radically new style for his Cavalier's foot. Self-consciously embracing the broad, flat lines of the traditional samurai sword, Toku enlarged and widened the pipe's foot, turning it into a veritable "sword sweep" of vulcanite.

He is still developing this particular variation, but a few months ago, he combined his new, broad-foot motif with his thin-footed, Dublin Cavalier, and another astonishing pipe emerged. Perhaps because of the extra energy of his samurai inspiration, Toku felt driven to incorporate so much asymmetry into this particular "Dub Cav" that the pipe could no longer stand. No matter, to my eye the "reclining" Cavalier represents one of the most adventurous, intriguing, and beautiful pipes that's yet evolved from Tokutomi's amazing powers of improvisation.

Bonsai Table by Teddy Knudsen

Though the reclining Cavalier contains several strikingly beautiful elements, at first sight, the pipe’s composition may disturb the casual viewer. The bowl and shank define many lively and graceful curves, but from certain points of view the lines diverge so much from each other that the pipe’s form seems on the verge of fragmenting. In the picture below, the bowl bends one way while the shank sweeps in the opposite direction. The thick ebonite foot adds to the sense of the shank's momentum away from the bowl.

For example, a wonderfully subtle interplay takes place between the shape of the "side-saddle" bowl and the bent shank. The pointed-oblong at the bottom of the vulcanite foot echoes the outline of the bowl's rim, while the ridge along the front of the bowl flows downward in contrapuntal harmony with the ridge that flows forward along the top of the shank. These visual resonances help our imaginations uncover the relationships and interconnections that were in Tokutomi's mind (or, at any rate, within his fingers) as he originally shaped the pipe.

The pipe's finish also contributes immeasurably to our ability to perceive and enjoy Toku's composition. The striking use of grain lines (with their graceful undulations) and the wonderfully-gauged colors (warm and handsome, subdued but not dull) help our eyes integrate the disparate forms and take pleasure in the pipe's innovative design.

"Samurai Sword" with "Reverse Curve"

Though almost all of Toku's Cavaliers in the "Samurai Sword" style use ebonite stems and feet, early in 2006 Toku turned to yellow acrylic for his first "reverse curve" Blowfish Cavalier. In this style, foot and stem form a single, continuous arc (just as they did in Toku's Pipe-Dan Cavalier: see group photo on page 1).

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