It is said that the custom of smoking came\nto Japan with the so-called \u201cNanbanjin\u201d (the Portuguese) in the late 16th\ncentury. Once arriving at Nagasaki, smoking became very popular rapidly in\nKyoto without passing through local cities in between Nagasaki and Kyoto.\nTobacco immediately began to be cultivated, and pipes themselves came to be\nmade in Japan. At the beginning the pipes produced were large, but were made\nsmaller over time, and eventually they had a role as an accessory as well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Early on, the material for pipes was mainly\nbrass or iron, but elaborately worked precious metals such as gold or silver\nalso came to be seen. Pipe cases for carrying pipes or pouches for tobacco,\nboth luxuriously decorated and worthy of aesthetic regard, came to be produced\nin large quantities. Among both men and women these \u201csagemono\u201d for smoking,\nhanging from kimono sash at the hip, functioned as fashionable and important\nornament. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Genroku (the late 17th century), because\nof layer after layer of sumptuary laws, some of these extravagances were secretly\nproduced, while other objects, though apparently plain on the surface, had\nthrough the originality of the craftsmen who made them been elaborately\ndecorated in areas hidden from sight below the surface. The world of the sophisticate, the so-called \u201ciki,\u201d\nwas expressed in the aesthetic sense developed under such a control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, it was after the Meiji era that\nspectacular pipe cases were to be made. \nOnce the Edo shogunate had collapsed and the sumptuary laws been\nabolished, and then the Haito Edict, which banned the wearing of swords, was\npromulgated, the craftsmen for sword-fittings, who formerly had depended upon\nsamurai for their living, began to make metal-fittings for \u201csagemono\u201d. With their distinguished techniques and\nartistic taste they constantly created marvelous works. Among these metal workers were Kano Natsuo\nand Unno Shomin, the greatest metal craftsmen of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It gives us great pleasure to be able to put on this exhibit of smoking paraphernalia by the greatest metal craftsmen. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":233,"template":"","class_list":["post-234","special_exhibition","type-special_exhibition","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","en-US"],"acf":{"spex_mv":"https:\/\/sannenzaka-museum.co.jp\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/\u7159\u7ba1\u3068\u7b52\u3068\u7159\u8349\u5165_web.jpg","spex_date_start":"2014\/8\/23","spex_date_end":"2014\/11\/16","spex_date_start_cal":"2014-08-23","spex_date_end_cal":"2014-11-16","spex_contents":false,"spex_pdf":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sannenzaka-museum.co.jp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/special_exhibition\/234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sannenzaka-museum.co.jp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/special_exhibition"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sannenzaka-museum.co.jp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/special_exhibition"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sannenzaka-museum.co.jp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sannenzaka-museum.co.jp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}