Copyright
© 2001 & 2002 John C. Loring
Tobacco
carries (tabako-ire and tonkotsu). Tobacco
carries are tabako-ire, but collectors today generally limit that term to soft sided carries, with
hard sided tobacco carries referred to as tonkotsu.
Soft sided tobacco carries made of coated paper, tabako-ire,
first appeared in
In earliest form it appears that tabako-ire
included both sack shaped pouches held closed at the top by an ojime,
probably a variant of a kinchaku, a
money purse, and rectangular pouches closed by a flap held tight by a himo wound around, probably derived from
the hiuchi-bukuro, a flint pouch.
The former style may be seen in early drawings
hanging from a kiseru by himo attached to one or both kata. It is also reported
that in the 17th century samurai would go on flower viewing
excursions (sic) carrying very long kiseru
with tabako-ire tied to the
pipe.
The latter, rectangular, hiuchi-bukuro, style pouch however, soon came to predominate. Early prints and paintings show this style hanging
below the obi with a himo tied around for closure but later
prints, as well as all surviving examples that I have seen, appear to have a
clasp closure. All the examples of this
style that I have seen have a half pocket inside the pouch, a pocket that I
suppose may have been originally for flint and tinder but which I suspect by
the 19th century was often used to hold a natamame style nobe-kiseru or
other small kiseru.
By the 18th/19th century
the kanseinui,
flap, of the rectangular style tabako-ire
was held shut by a kanagu or kanamono, a three piece metal
closure system as follows. The omote kanagu piece is affixed to the front side of the
flap and almost always has a raised or embossed decoration. The companion, uraza, piece is affixed to the inside of the flap and
is either undecorated or engraved. The third piece of the system is a
utilitarian prong on the pouch itself that clasps to the uraza effecting the closure of the tabako-ire. Because omote kanagu and uraza decoration involved two
different metal working skills, if the uraza as well as the omote were to be
decorated it generally it took two artisans to make a kanagu. On occasion however, the omote kanagu was not original but rather
a refitting of a menuki, metal sword
furniture, or an obi ____ , an obi pin. Like kiseru, kanagu were the
beneficiary of the 1870s sword making ban.
While seemingly the kanagu was
permanently affixed to the tabako-ire,
in fact kanagu were often replaced to
fit the season or occasion and an ensemble including a tabako-ire might be made up with alternative kanagu for that purpose.
Lastly, it should be remembered that while the kanagu is an important element of the tabako-ire, it is only one element.
The Japanese pipe smoker devoted considerable funds to the fine leathers
or fabrics of the pouch and indeed it was the fukuro-monoya, the pouch and purse maker, not the metal artisan
that was in overall charge of putting together an ensemble.
Collectors today refer to hard sided tobacco carries
as tonkotsu, it appears however, that that term was not generally used
in Japan prior to the 20th century with tobacco carries of all sorts
being referred to as tabako-ire. Yet even if the terminology is historically
suspect, it is now universal, at least among collectors and equally important,
useful, so it will be followed here.
That said tonkotsu whatever the proper name are found in a
variety of shapes and materials, most commonly wood or sometimes metal dating
back to as early as the mid 17th century.
An early form of tonkotsu was a rectangular
shape, roughly 4”-5” tall, 3” wide and 2”-3” deep, consisting of two stacked
compartments, the bottom one shallow, probably used to hold flint, steel and
tinder, and the top one deep, probably used to hold the tobacco. Other then that seldom seen style, tonkotsu
are invariably single compartment containers.
They can be found made out of diverse materials and in diverse shapes
but predominately they were made of wood
in one of four styles, a thick round shape with the opening cover in the
center of the oval; a container
retaining the shape of a natural object such as a wood burl or an animal horn
and opening at the top; a shape caved as a three dimensional figure such as
ho-tei, daruma or a skull with a top or side opening; or a rectangular shape
with rounded sides and usually opening at the top. This latter style is most collected as it
sometimes found with exceptional carvings, inlay work, lacquer or metal
appliqué, a combination of the same or
fully lacquered and can be quite valuable for their artistic merits.
It should be noted that tonkotsu are often, wrongly, referred to as inro, multi-compartment
sagemono medicine and seal containers that are quite collectable in and
of themselves, but readily distinguishable from tonkotsu because inro have more then one compartment, are generally
smaller in overall size and most often are done in lacquer.
In general it appears that at any given time, at
least among the ‘better classes’, the tabako-ire
was substantially preferred to the tonkotsu. The former are found far more often in
paintings and prints then the latter.
And while this ratio does not seem to necessarily hold true in terms of
surviving examples, it has to be remembered that tabako-ire
are far more fragile and most probably comparatively few have survived. Lastly, given the popularity of smoking and
personal smoking ensembles at all levels one would suppose that if tonkotsu were the preferred tobacco
carry, we would see far more tonkotsu then
inro, but in fact we see far more inro then tonkotsu.
A final historical note, it appears that towards the
end of the 19th century there was a trend to smaller tobacco carries
of both types, in some cases to less then half the typical size. In terms of tabako-ire this might be attributed to the then emerging custom of
carrying an ensemble in the pocket of western style clothing, but in terms of tonkotsu, it can only be considered a
turn of the century stylistic preference.
Copyright
© 2001 & 2002 John C. Loring