Inspiration from Anime

Pipe makers can get inspired from any number of sources, and sometimes from some that are fairly off-beat. I tend to watch a lot of anime (Japanese animation), which I find fun, relaxing, and often entertaining for a bunch of reasons “normal” grown men might find silly. It can be campy or serious, or even both at the same time. Sometimes it can also be hard to watch – either it’s trying too hard, or not hard enough. Like listening to heavy metal, you get an entire range of entertainment ranging from excellent to horrible. One thing, as a pipe maker, that I noticed, is that a lot of anime can feature pipe smoking – for reasons I don’t know, and have not explored (this is just my entertainment, after all).

I think I first noticed it in a classic anime, Rurouni Kenshin, a story about a wandering swordsman who found stability with a group of misfits in Edo Period Japan. One of the villains, Shishio, was often seen smoking a Kiseru – a style of Japanese pipe with a long middle section and diminutive bowl, designed for short smokes with a very fine cut tobacco, Kizame tobako. The tobacco is similar to shag cut, is rolled into a small ball, and placed in the bowl for smoking.

Kiseru are often long, sometimes up to eighteen inches, and are dominated by their long middle section (Rau, analogous to the shank in western pipe anatomy), and the bowl is very undersized by European standards. The mouthpiece is generally round, often metal, and the entire affair can be reminiscent of a typical “opium pipe” by moviegoing audiences. They are, however, intended for tobacco, not illicit drugs, and as with many things pipe smoking, they have their own ethos complete with accessories and ceremony that may seem strange to those not familiar with them.

In many respects, Kiseru are a black sheep of the pipe smoking world. They are distinctively Japanese, and have very little in common with Western pipe smoking ideals. I am a fan of the unusual, and maybe that’s why I find them so fascinating. At some point I decided to see what I could do with the idea, drawing on my experiences and personal preferences, as well as what I’ve learned over the years making pipes.

I had a rough idea in mind and tried to hit some typical proportions, while not straying too far from the inspiration. What I came up with deviates slightly from a typical kiseru – the bowl is briar, the shank bamboo, the mouthpiece ebonite, and thin acrylic rings were added for accent. While the materials differ, I made sure to keep some traditional aspects, including the concentric, round mouthpiece as opposed to the flattened “football” shape on most modern pipes. The bowl is very small, with a 3/8″ chamber that is only about half an inch deep. This is exceedingly small, and some may wonder what the usefulness is, and even after consideration, some may discount Kiseru as an extreme niche within pipe smoking – and I have to admit they would probably are correct. However, that didn’t stop me, and I’m overall very happy with the result.

I have not yet smoked this pipe, but when I do, I’ll be sure to post a followup.

Please let me know what you think in the comments below. I’d love to know what kind of reception something like this would receive.