The Japanese Personal Smoking Ensemble

The Japanese personal smoking ensemble is the collection of pieces that carried pipe and tobacco outside the home, from the Edo period through the end of the 19th century. Because kimonos and similar traditional garments had no pockets, small items were either tucked into the sleeve or fastened to the sash (obi) tied around the waist, and were most often hung from that sash instead; the general name for items carried this way is sagemono.

Alongside the compartmented case used to carry seals and medicine (inrō), the smoking ensemble is one of the most common examples of the sagemono family, and within the world history of the pipe it forms the Japanese counterpart to the pouch-and-tobacco pairing of the West.

The Parts of the Ensemble

A typical ensemble was made up of the following pieces:

• Kiseru-zutsu: the case for the kiseru; it could be made of bamboo, wood, horn, metal, or lacquerware.
• Tabako-ire: a soft tobacco pouch of leather or fabric. In early examples the pouch was closed with a cord wound around it; from the 19th century a metal clasp (kanagu or kanamono) was fitted to the flap.
• Tonkotsu: a hard-bodied tobacco container that replaced the pouch. It is noted as becoming widespread after the middle of the 19th century.
• Himo: the pair of cords tying the pieces together.
• Ojime: a small single-holed bead through which the cord passed. It tightened the cords to keep the tobacco container's opening from coming loose; on pouches with a clasped flap this function was no longer needed, so the ojime became purely decorative, and some ensembles dispensed with it altogether.
• Netsuke: the toggle at the end of the cord. It sat above the sash and kept the ensemble from sliding down.

The tobacco carried in the pouch was kizami-tabako, shredded to the fineness of hair; this style of cutting is discussed in the entry tobacco cuts.