Kiseru
Encyclopedia
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese smoking pipe traditionally used for smoking kizami, a finely shredded tobacco
Tobacco
Tobacco is an agricultural product processed from the leaves of plants in the genus Nicotiana. It can be consumed, used as a pesticide and, in the form of nicotine tartrate, used in some medicines...
product resembling human hair.
The word kiseru comes from the Khmer
Khmer language
Khmer , or Cambodian, is the language of the Khmer people and the official language of Cambodia. It is the second most widely spoken Austroasiatic language , with speakers in the tens of millions. Khmer has been considerably influenced by Sanskrit and Pali, especially in the royal and religious...
word "ksher".
Typically the mouth piece and bowl are made from metal, with a tubular shaft of wood or bamboo
Bamboo
Bamboo is a group of perennial evergreens in the true grass family Poaceae, subfamily Bambusoideae, tribe Bambuseae. Giant bamboos are the largest members of the grass family....
stretching in between. The bowl is much smaller than that of western-style pipes. Because each kiseru is basically a rod with metal ends, extremely long kiseru could be carried as weapons, especially by the gangster-like kabukimono
Kabukimono
or appeared in Japan, between the end of the Muromachi era and the beginnining of the Edo period, . Kabukimono is often translated into English as 'strange things' or 'the crazy ones', believed to be derived from kabuku meaning 'to slant' or 'to deviate'...
samurai of Edo period
Edo period
The , or , is a division of Japanese history which was ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family, running from 1603 to 1868. The political entity of this period was the Tokugawa shogunate....
Japan. Many kiseru have been engraved with elaborate details by skilled artisans and were a status symbol for the owner.
Tobacco was known in Japan since the 1570s at the earliest. By the early 17th century, kiseru had become popular enough to even be mentioned in some Buddhist textbooks for children. The kiseru evolved along with the equipment and use of incense
Incense
Incense is composed of aromatic biotic materials, which release fragrant smoke when burned. The term "incense" refers to the substance itself, rather than to the odor that it produces. It is used in religious ceremonies, ritual purification, aromatherapy, meditation, for creating a mood, and for...
associated with the Kōdō
Kodo
-In Japan:* The kōdō, Japanese incense ceremony.* Kodo , a taiko drumming group based in Japan.* The Kodo Group, a yakuza criminal organization...
:
- The kō-bon, an incense tray, became the tabako-bon, a tobacco tray
- the incense burner evolved into a charcoal fire pot for lighting tobacco with hot air
- The incense pot became a jar to contain the ash.
During a smoking session, the smoker would put a ball of stringy kizami tobacco in the bowl, light it at the charcoal fire, then dump the ash into the ash container.
During the Edo period
Edo period
The , or , is a division of Japanese history which was ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family, running from 1603 to 1868. The political entity of this period was the Tokugawa shogunate....
weapons were frequently used as objects to flaunt one's financial status. Since commoners were prohibited to carry sharper weapons, an elaborate kiseru carried slung from the waist often served the purpose. After the Meiji restoration
Meiji Restoration
The , also known as the Meiji Ishin, Revolution, Reform or Renewal, was a chain of events that restored imperial rule to Japan in 1868...
and the abolishment of the caste system, many craftsmen who previously had worked on decorating swords moved on to designing kiseru and netsuke
Netsuke
Netsuke are miniature sculptures that were invented in 17th-century Japan to serve a practical function...
for tobacco pouches.