Ichi Kitahara 2015 Asymmetrical Horn Handmade Briar Pipe, Unsmoked [SOLD]

Description

Ichi Kitahara is a Japanese pipe-maker, but he’s also something of a renaissance man. He is classically trained in fine art; he has spent time as a high-end jeweler and silversmith; he has also worked as an Itame, the Japanese name for a particularly skilled sushi chef; and last, but not least, he is an artisan maker of high-grade pipes. This he originally learned as an apprentice of Japanese master Hiroyuki Tokutomi, before evolving into a master in his own right, with his own, distinct style.

The horn is a recurring shape within Ichi Kitahara’s catalog, but if you’ve seen Kitahara’s horns, you’ll know that they’re very different from most. While the horn is a relatively modern design, with precedents being set by the Danish Olifant of Bo Nordh and Sixten Ivarsson, as well as many others since, these horns have tended to be defined by a simple (though still difficult to master) C-curve from shank to rim. There is, therefore, typically a strong symmetry on the shape’s horizontal axis, and a good degree of symmetry on its vertical axis as well. With a pipe such as this one, however, Kitahara’s shaping has eschewed symmetry at almost every aspect of the design. The rim, for example, is not only replete with ridges that jut out energetically, but also positioned at an off-angle relative to the shank. The shank itself displays a similar sharpness and energy as it flows away from the bowl, before curling upwards back in the direction from whence it came. The stem is flared in a form that mirrors the shank’s recoil, while a ridge on the pipe’s underside cuts a figure not unlike the one more commonly found on the blowfish shape – but does so, again, at an off-angle to the general direction followed by the pipe.

This Kitahara is completely unsmoked, with an original bowl coating. It also comes with its original sleeve.

 

Details:

Length: 5.5″ / 139.7mm

Bowl Width: 0.74 / 18.79mm

Bowl Depth: 1.3″ / 33.02mm

Weight: 1.7oz / 50g