J Mouton Sandblasted Samurai Dublin Handmade Briar Pipe, New

Description

Born and raised in the small town of Gueydan, Louisana, Jay Mouton is an American artisan who works under the moniker of J. Mouton. Having crafted duck calls since he was a teenager, Mouton’s first forays into pipe-making began with carving tampers. Mouton’s unexpected successes with these handmade tampers allowed him to purchase the equipment necessary to create the pipes themselves. Studying the works of renowned American artisans such as J. Alan, Grant Batson, and Jared Coles, Mouton gradually developed his own pipe-making craft, which was furthered by his exchanges with Greek artisan Chris Asteriou.

Largely beginning with the opening of the Tsuge Ikebana workshop in the 1970s, Japanese pipe-making has had a profound impact on the craft worldwide. The new shapes, styles, and, techniques Japan learned from the Scandinavia, from figures such as Sixten Ivarsson, Jorgen Larsen, and Jorn Micke, were repaid in kind through shapes, styles, and techniques that were newer still, through the influential work of Kazuhiro Fukuda, Smio Satou, Hiroyuki Tokutomi, Kei Gotoh, and many others. While this “Samurai Dublin” from Louisiana native J. Mouton certainly belongs to the modern tradition of artisan pipe-making, significant aspects of its design point to a type of Japanese tobacco pipe that is much, much older: the kiseru. Kiserus were the dominant form of tobacco smoking instrument in Japan from the arrival of tobacco in the 16th century to the rise in popularity of cigarettes in the late 19th. Such pipes were long and slender, with relatively small bowls and an extension between the bowl and stem that was often fashioned from bamboo. While far from being a 1-1 reproduction of a kiseru, much of the basic idea remains. The key differences are that the bowl is larger (and therefore suited for standard Western pipe tobacco), and made from expertly sandblasted briar; the stem is hand-cut ebonite; and the bamboo shank extension is adorned with fossilized walrus tusk.

 

Details:

Length: 8.2″ / 208.2mm

Bowl Width: 0.79 / 20.06mm

Bowl Depth: 1.8″ / 45.72mm

Weight: 1.5oz / 44g