Tokutomi
Pipe Maker
Tokyo, Japan
Hiroyuki Tokutomi studied under Sixten Ivarsson in 1976-77. He is one of a few carvers who trained directly with the man who was primarily responsible for the change in mindset that yielded the Danish Revolution in pipe making during the 1960s and 1970s.
“I said, please teach me. And he let me into his shop.”
His creations have captured the imagination of astute collectors in the United States and Europe. Though his pipes are often beautifully grained, that is not what has ignited the passion of those that collect and love Tokutomi’s pipes. While his engineering is perfect and the smoking qualities superb, that is not what has yielded this excitement. Quite simply, Tokutomi’s sense of design and shape is brilliant. Tokutomi is an artist whose medium happens to be briar, whose self-imposed constraints are the limitations imposed by the necessary functioning of a smoking instrument.
