Copyright
© 2001 & 2002 John C. Loring
Pipe Accessories at home and
in the shop (tabako-bon). It is probably fair to say that every 19th
century home and shop in
The tabako-bon
at a minimum contained a small, often covered, hi-ire (a small hibachi)
to hold charcoal for lighting the pipe (on a kau-bon this would be called a kau-ro) and a sometimes covered tubular (usually bamboo) container (hai-otoshi, haifuki, or togeppoh),
perhaps with a film of water in the bottom, to hold ash and waste (today
haifuki or togeppoh would be the more commonly
used terms, the latter being the name of the place where a Buddhist priest
started to use a bamboo tube for ash in
the mid 18th century – on a kau-bon
the equivalent receptacle would be called a taki-gara-ire)
and
traditionally two kiseru (while
one would think this represents one for the host and the other for the guest,
it is said that the two are intended to represent the pair of incense tongs
customarily found on a kau-bon). Other accessories might
include a shallow covered box (like that used for incense) to hold kizami-tabako
or a tatohgami of the same, metal tongs to
pick up a charcoal fragment, a pick to clean the pipe bowl, tough, tight twists
of paper (koyori) or rice straw for cleaning,
and a small concave metal 'bowl' to temporarily hold an ember for
lighting. Early paintings and prints
from before the 19th century typically show either a footed, round
or rectangular smoking tray with a shallow rim or alternatively a long
rectangular shallow tray with a long, tall rectangular handle with hooks for
two kiseru, each style holding a cylindrical (wood?) hi-ire with
a tall "u" shaped handle or an open top ceramic hi-ire, a
shorter cylindrical hai-otoshi and a shallow
square shaped dish/box, probably used to hold kizami-tabako (in at least one painting there appears to be
a layer of kizami-tabako at the bottom the
dish/box) or tatohgami.
When shopping it was customary to chat and smoke a kiseru
with the shop keeper and to that end the shop would have a fairly plain small
open wood tabako-bon half of which was
lined with copper to act as an uncovered hi-ire, and a tubular bamboo
node hai-otoshi. More elaborate versions of a shop tabako-bon might be carved with bold
calligraphy identifying the store. The tabako-bon was no doubt also a fixture of
inns and tea houses but these were more likely to have been more akin to those
found in a home of similar status.
In the ordinary home there might be nothing more
then that which would be found at a shop with a few more accessories, or
perhaps instead of an open box tabako-bon
it would be tray or a home made chest.
And if an early 20th century report is correct it might well
have served multiple duties:
“In
nearly every house is a receptacle filled with ashes in which is buried a
burning coal. Over this water is heated
for the tea and on cold days the hands are warmed, but the chief service seemed
the providing of a convenience for the smoker.
The pipe and mouthpiece are of metal, the stem a reed of some kind. The tobacco is light-colored, finely cut,
very dry, and very mild. The bowl will
hold a ball of tobacco the size of a small pea, and after filling it and
lighting it from the coal one or two whiffs consume it all. Even one smoke will often suffice, though the
pipe may be filled a few times for successive smokes.” E.S.N. Morse, Japan Day by Day, 1917.
In the wealthier home however, the tabako-bon and accessories, as one might
expect, were more elaborate and in several varieties, and most of all in keeping
with the formalities, as this excerpt from a late 17th/early 18th
century code of manners suggests:
“A guest should not carry his own tobacco [upon
entering a host’s house on invitation].
He is to smoke the tobacco which has been prepared for guests by the
host and which has been placed in the tray, regardless of its quality. A guest should not smoke until his host has
entered the room, When the host offers
tobacco, the guest should at first refuse to accept it, saying, ‘After
you.’ This refusal should be made two or
three times in the same way as is customarily observed when sake or tea is offered. Then the host should pick up a kiseru and remove the guard. After
wiping the kiseru, the host should
then offer it to his guest, saying, ‘Please enjoy smoking with this kiseru.’
If the tobacco is of good quality, the guest is to praise it. After taking a puff or two he is to replace
the guard on the kiseru and put it in
front of him. Upon his departure he is
to wipe the pipe clean with a paper handkerchief and return it to the tobacco
tray. However, when the host notices the
guest cleaning it he is to say, ‘Please leave it as it is.’ Should the host be
the guest’s supervisor or boss [or elderly], the guest should have the good
manners to refuse the kiseru even if
it is offered, saying ,’Tamaezu’ (‘I am too humble a
person to accept it’).” Shin-mi Rau-zhin, Yaso Okina
Mukashi Gatari [I cannot help but add that every time I
read this passage I wonder how many silent insults were given by failing to
praise the tobacco and how many silent retorts followed by allowing the guest
to finish cleaning the kiseru.]
As indicated by the foregoing pipe smoking was an
integral part of the tea ceremony within the century of its introduction in
“The hi’ire … function is to hold a small lit charcoal with which
to light the kiseru. A small but perfectly shaped section of
charcoal, about the size of a thumb joint is lit and set at a slight angle in a
peak of carefully formed and smoothed ash, to give the kiseru easy access. His care
and skill in creating this miniature landscape … shows the host’s frame of
mind. More important than the exact form
is the state of the charcoal when used.
If the hi’ire
is prepared too soon and left, a deep layer of ash will build up on the surface
of the charcoal, making lighting up unpleasant.
So the hi’ire
is a real test of the host’s practical and aesthetic knowledge. … [The]
container for kizami
is a large sheet of heavy paper, folded like an incense packet [a tatogami tabako-ire] …
[You, as the guest then takes one of the two kiseru and] roll a ball of [kizami], not too loose nor too tight. Upturn the bowl of the kiseru over the charcoal and inhales until the kizami is lit. One only gets another couple of puffs. When finished, pick up the bamboo tube [haifuki] and tap
the kiseru gently on the edge, then
return the tube to the tray.”
Beyond the deceptively simple tabako-bon for tea ceremonies, the Japanese well-to-do home would also
contain several tobako-bon in the form
of small chests and quite identifiable as a pipe smoking accessory. These tabako-bon
were for both personal use and to entertain visitors (indeed one 19th
century print shows a semi circle of nine seated women, each with an elegant
and different lacquered tabako-bon
before her). Rather than open boxes they were miniature chests (sometimes
referred to as tabako-dansu) often with finely
decorated, covered and matched metal hi-ire and hai-otoshi;
metal handles or insets for carrying the bon that continued the
design; hooks or insets to hold one or
usually two kiseru; and two or more drawers to hold tatohgami and pipe tools. Typically the kiseru (almost always rao-kiseru) associated with a tabako-bon
were 10" to 12" (or about 2" to 5" longer then a kiseru
one would carry when going out of the house).
The chest itself was most often either of fine grained woods or would be
finely lacquered (most often black with gold design) with some qualifying as being among the finest examples
of Japanese lacquer work. Variations of tabako-bon of this style include formal, and
often quite beautiful 'picnic' boxes without side drawers or pipe hooks; elongated narrow boxes of a plainer sort
intended to rest by a sleeping mat; chests with additional drawers to hold
writing implements (brush, ink blocks, paper etc); and larger multi drawered chests with a removable tabako-bon.
In short, given that one of the primary purposes of
a tabako-bon in a wealthier home was to honor and impress
guests, the tabako-bon of the 19th
century
Copyright
© 2001 & 2002 John C. Loring