Copyright
© 2001 & 2002 John C. Loring
The Japanese
pipe (kiseru). The Japanese pipe, a kiseru,
generally 4" - 12" long in the 19th century, is found in
two basic styles: rao-kiseru and nobe-kiseru.
The difference between the two being in the
shank.
Most commonly found, the rao-kiseru
consists of a hollow bamboo, or occasionally a hollow wood shank (rao)
connected at one end to a metal mouth piece (suikuchi)
and at the other end to a small metal bowl (hizara
or gankubi
- it is said that hizara
refers specifically to the bowl and gankuki
(which translates as ‘gooseneck’ ) to the curve just under the bowl but the
terms seem to be more often used interchangeably to refer to the entire bowl
structure). The metal shanks of the hizara
and suikuchi into which the rao fits are called kata. The terms rao and kiseru are traditionally said to have been derived from Cambodian,
but recent study has shown that if anything the reverse is true with the
Japanese terms being in turn derived from 16th century Portuguese
smoking terminology.
The very first Japanese pipes of the late 16th
century are said to have been made completely of bamboo with one end widened
and deepened to act as a bowl, but in short order the rao-kiseru was introduced. Most
likely these initial rao-kiseru were derived from Dutch pipes,
not the later early/mid 17th century mass produced clays but rather late 16th
century Dutch sailor pipes with pewter bowls and mouthpieces and hollow wood
shanks. These
first rao-kiseru were undecorated, and compared
to rao-kiseru of the 19th century,
were significantly longer and had larger hizara. An older view based on some painted screen scenes
was that these initial pipes had a distinctive and exaggerated ‘hook like’ kata (much like some more recent
Korean or Chinese pipes) and referred to these
pipes as namban giseru. A more recent and likely the better view
however, suggests that the relied upon screen scenes represent an initial
artist confusion between Portuguese artifacts and point out that there are no
surviving archeological or stylistic examples even hinting at a namban giseru while
there are examples of typical straight kata dating to the beginning of the 17th
century. In any event during the 17th century the namban giseru, if it
ever existed, completely disappeared, the hizara of the rao-kiseru grew smaller and overall the rao-kiseru grew shorter with occasional decoration These trends continued in the
following two centuries, so that by the 19th century a rao-kiseru
with a small hizara,
well under 12” in overall length and often decorated was the norm.
It is only speculation, but I would speculate that
this general development of the rao-kiseru evolved
from five factors. First and second
would be the change from home to professional tobacco preparation most likely
leading to both a finer, consistent shredding conducive to a smaller hizara and a
better quality ‘smoother’ kizami-tabako blend conducive to a shorter rao. The third was undoubtedly the increasing
official acceptance of smoking, meaning that kiseru could be smoked outside the home, suggesting smaller pipes
easier to carry and with that emergence, an increasingly important vehicle for
the wealthy to use to publicly display status (in the late 18th
century silver, gold and brass pipe decorations were expressly, but unsuccessfully,
prohibited) and for
all to use to express their individuality. The fourth and fifth factors go to
the increased quality of decoration, wherein not only did the hizara and suikuchi kata
sometimes become the subject of exquisite metal work but likewise the rao, although
most such have been lost to wear and replacement, might be of rare material or
the subject of wondrous lacquer work.
Here, especially in the 19th century, the increasing wealth of Japan as a whole
must have played a role, as did late in that century, the 1871 ban on sword
making which meant that some of Japan’s finest artisans turned to the kiseru to display there incredible metal
working skills.
To these five factors I would add a sixth, albeit
perhaps only a product of western eyes, and that is
what to my eyes at least, is a cultural preference for the more delicate,
smaller as opposed to the bulkier and larger.
One factor suggested by some others, I discount,
that is that the cost of tobacco led to smaller hizara and consequently smaller kiseru. I discount this as a factor for even if I
assume expensive tobacco, this would not have persuaded the wealthy smokers to
change their pipe preferences, and we know that even limiting the sampling to
the finest of rao-kiseru, obviously owned by wealthy
smokers, that large hizara
are the very rare exception.
The other principal style of kiseru is the nobe-kiseru. While a fourteen inch long nobe-kiseru
has been found dating back to the late 17th century generally
speaking they are significantly less
common and shorter then the rao-kiseru, were
more much more expensive, and said for a time at least to have been reserved
for the nobility. The nobe-kiseru typically is an all metal pipe
but occasionally all glass or all ceramic. In any event the defining
distinction between a rao-kiseru and a nobe-kiseru is that the latter lacks a bamboo or wood shank. The 'shank' of a nobe-kiseru,
the equivalent of the rao
in a rao-kiseru, is called the 'do'. Nobe-kiseru in the
19th century were often popular with the date, dandies, and consequently sometimes referred to as date-kiseru (it is also suggested
that the term date-kiseru refers
specifically to long kiseru carried by a ‘dandy’ on their shoulder, probably
both uses at one time or another were correct ). While today
the collector will find far more rao-kiseru then nobe-kiseru, I suspect that the but for the
1870’s bans on making and wearing swords the nobe-kiseru would be far rarer still and that many of the nobe-kiseru we see today are the product of
sword makers finding a new area for their skills. While completely subjective, supporting this
view is a personal observation that looking at all the various collections of kiseru as a composite, the rao-kiseru give me a feeling of centuries
of conservative development while the nobe-kiseru
suggest a burst of innovative styling. Somewhat like leaving a museum’s gallery of ‘Old Masters’ and
entering that of the ‘Impressionists’.
Both the rao-kiseru
and nobe-kiseru come in a variety of
sub-styles.
Rao-kiseru are
generally classified by the shape of the kata
of the hizara and suikuchi,
both kata always being of the same
style. The typical rao-kiseru
kata is in the sekishu
(gently rounded) style, less common are the tamagawa
(tubular), goten or kodai-ji
(bulbous), or joshin
(paneled) styles. It is said that goten styled
kiseru were favored by nobility and tamagawa by samurai of lesser rank but I suspect if true, it
was only momentarily. Since the rao-kiseru was refitted from time to time
with rao (bamboo shanks) of different lengths,
the shaft length is less of a style determinant although it is clear from
prints that at different times different lengths were popular and certain
lengths were considered appropriate for different occasions. For instance an extremely long pipe
occasionally came into style carried by resting the pipe on one's
shoulder. It is said that such pipes
were the choice of the early 17th century smoking clubs referred to
earlier and who are said to have sometimes worn their pipes like swords. In the
18th century these pipes, then called hana-mi-kiseru,
might be displayed on the shoulders of women traveling to an
hanami, a
picnic outing during cherry blossom season.
Other prints dating both earlier and later show such pipes carried by
retainers following their master to or from the bath. Collectively prints from the 19th
century tend to show women with somewhat longer pipes then the men but no where
near as long as the aforementioned affectations. Likewise tobacco equipment intended for the
home generally suggest that the kiseru
smoked in the 18th or 19th century home was at least an
inch or two longer then pipes carried outside the home.
Nobe-kiseru styles are more eclectic
and generally are classified by the shape of the do. Nobe-kiseru
styles include: 'goten' - even flowing, thinnish linear pipes; 'joshin'
- with rectangular 'do'; 'tazunagate' - with twisted, rope like 'do'; 'natamame' - with flat 'do'; and 'giyamono' - made of glass rather then metal and
associated with tea houses. Most all nobe-kiseru are shorter then the typical rao-kiseru, rarely longer and I suspect that
most often the nobe-kiseru was intended
as a pipe to be carried when one went out rather then one smoked at home. Indeed one form of the rare longer nobe-kiseru pulls or screws apart into two or
more parts for travel. And even nobe-kiseru of average length can be found
to screw apart into two or more pieces to be conveniently carried. Similarly it is said that the natamame style was favored by soldiers in the 19th
century, I assume because with the flat do
they are easy to carry.
A kiseru (be it a nobe-kiseru
or rao-kiseru) of unusual form is
referred to as a 'kawarigata' (literally,
‘fancy model’). Two particular kawarigata, are
one having a single bowl and two rao meeting to form a /\ at the bowl, termed a meotokiseru. and another with an
“S” shape rao
joined by metal fittings at the curves. Although
usually not termed as such, another kawarigata form, are unusually large, in the sense of
bulky or heavy, kiseru of both the
rao (most
often) and nobe
variety. Three explanations are given
for these large pipes most probably all collectively correct. Typically overly
large rao-kiseru are termed 'prize' pipes
‘traditionally’ awarded to victors of
sumo wrestling matches but on
other occasions as well. Others
attribute overly large kiseru of both
varieties to sumo wrestlers who preferred large pipes or to actors, artists and
‘dandies’ who liked to show off. Still
other’s refer to these pipes as 'kenka-kiseru,' large to massive pipes that could be
used as defensive weapons (somewhat similar in purpose perhaps, to bokuto – wooden ‘doctors’swords carried for defensive purposes - a related but rarely found pipe, usually a nobe-kiseru,
is one that pulls apart to reveal a dagger).
Kiseru of both varieties, but
especially rao-kiseru were in occasional need of a through cleaning
or minor repair or in the case of a rao-kiseru
replacement of a broken or ‘soured from smoking’ rao
and a common
street scene in a 19th century Japan was a raoya
with one or two hand carts and a boiler to generate pressurized steam. A raoya
cleaned and repaired kiseru, replaced rao,
and sold common place, undecorated kiseru.
Because of the small bowl the kiseru is often
mistaken for an opium pipe but in fact opium never took hold in Japan and the kiseru
was exclusively used to smoke kizami-tabako.
The tabako
was rolled into a small ball and pressed into the hizara
of the kiseru. A 'bowl' of
tobacco provided three or so 'puffs'.
Traditionally, it said a kiseru was filled, lit, and puffed about
three times, then perhaps, twice more in succession it might be emptied,
refilled, relit from the embers of the prior bowl, and puffed thrice more, for
a total of nine or so puffs. A suigaraake or kurawa, a small metal or
wood ash receiver, was sometimes carried (most often as a netsuke, see below) to hold the embers for relighting the pipe but
it is recounted that, while not considered good manners, many of the lower
classes just held the embers in the palm of the hand while refilling the kiseru
with the other. Prints of working or
traveling scenes also sometimes show one person's pipe being lit, bowl mouth
against bowl mouth, from the embers in another's. Or in print
scenes of workers, from smoldering, slow burning cord, apparently left burning
during the day to light kiseru during
work breaks. Then again if you
were fortunate enough to be entertained by a geisha she would fill, pack and
light the kiseru and after taking the first puff, hand the pipe to you.
A kiseru shank can quickly heat up, especially
those of all metal nobe-kiseru, and
prints show kiseru rao
and do with a scarf tied around,
seemingly for a finger hold either to protect the fingers from heat or perhaps
the converse, to protect a delicately decorated rao from oily fingers. On the other hand one also find kata of the hizara
of rather ordinary ‘working class’ pipes with a finger hold beaten in,
apparently for the hardy souls that did without. I have seen no paintings or prints showing a
kiseru smoked holding kata of the hizara rather they uniformly show a kiseru
smoked by holding it either by the finger tips at mid point on the rao or do in an under handed or over handed
(occasionally with a completely twisted wrist) fashion or alternatively, closer
to the suikuchi (the mouth piece) by one or
two fingers against the thumb. Since the
paintings and prints tend to focus on the ‘better’ classes I conclude that
holding a kiseru by the kata
of the hizara
was definitely for ‘lower’ class calloused fingers that could stand the heat.
Prints and paintings from prior to the 19th
century sometimes show kiseru with an
apparently movable thin, flat round or square of stiff paper, leather or metal fitted
at the pipe's rau
or do mid-point. If
round in overall shape, the bottom appears to have been cut flat. Referred to as a tsuba (a word more commonly understood to refer to a sword guard) it appears that these were
not part of the pipe as originally crafted and that at least one purpose was to
act as a pipe rest (it is reported that occasionally these rests were in
fact a fixed metal part of the kiseru). A late 17th/early 18th
century code of manners has this interesting passage: “the host should pick up
a kiseru and remove the guard … [and give it to the guest to smoke, who after
smoking it, should] replace the guard on the kiseru and put it in front of
him.” When I first read this elusive
passage I concluded that the reference was to a mouthpiece ‘guard’ intended to
prevent moisture in a recently smoked pipe (a natural by product of
smoking) from dripping
out. However, in light of the evidence
of the prints (which also do not show any ‘mouthpiece guards’) I must conclude
that the reference in the text is to that which is portrayed in the
prints. On the other hand it may be that
the purpose of these tsuba
rests/guards was to tilt both the mouthpiece and bowl opening of the pipe
upwards so that any moisture flowed to the bottom of the bowl rather then
dripping out. More modern textual
references speak of cleaning the kiseru with a twist of paper after smoking or
of tapping the bowl of the pipe against the edge of an ash receiver both of
which would have the effect of eliminating residual moisture.
Copyright
© 2001 & 2002 John C. Loring