Satou (Smio Satou)

Satou is the name Tokyo-based Japanese master Smio Satou (in Japanese order, Satou Smio) stamped on his pipes. What set the maker apart was combining European-derived briar pipe making with Japan's centuries-old urushi lacquer craft on the same bench. He carried out all his production by his own hand in a single-room workshop above his home. Satou died on 16 July 2023, at the age of seventy-nine.

A Craft Passed Down From Father

The craft entered the family through his father. The elder Satou was one of the first few craftsmen in Japan to make European-style pipes from briar in the 1940s. Until then, a pipe in Japan meant the thin metal-bodied, bamboo-shanked kiseru; Western-style pipes were smoked but not made locally. As Smio Satou told it, his father had even repaired General Douglas MacArthur's pipes during the postwar occupation years. In later years he did contract making and repair work for Tsuge, and his son's first stop was the same firm.