Japanese Pipe Artisan Satou Smio Memoriam on Radio Show of August 8, 2023

[admin]

Tonight’s Pipes Magazine Radio Show will break out of our usual format in honor of the late Japanese pipe artisan, Satou Smio. Satou made high-grade pipes that are works of art, and wonders in engineering at the same time. He was trained in both the Danish and Japanese styles of pipe making, and combined both skill-sets in his masterpiece pipes. “Satou Smio, pipe maker, aged 79, died on July 16th, 2023, following a prolonged illness. While not as prolific as in his earlier years, he continued to make pipes until a few months before his death.” – From: “A Legend Passes: Satou Smio“. The author of that post is Sykes Wilford, founder and CEO of SmokingPipes.com, and he will join Brian for a memoriam for Satou for the entire show. Satou was interviewed on the show back in May 2016 on episode 192 here. We will still have the end-of-show segments for music, mailbag and rant.

The show airs every Tuesday at 8:00pm eastern US time, and can be found at PipesMagazine.com and all podcast apps.

Satou Smio and Brian Levine in 2016

 

[geopiper]

I was sorry to hear of his passing. Somberly looking forward to this show.

 

[daveinlax]

Sad News but I really enjoyed listening in on your conversation with Sykes. This was one of my very favorite episodes of PMR.
I’m looking forward to getting a chance to see your Satou collection and other groups at our Collectors Showcase. This is a great opportunity to show off and to see some outstanding pipes.
I really want the Collectors Showcase to be a can’t miss event every year.

 

[renfield]

I was sorry to hear he’d passed. His pipes have a unique style and are beautiful.

You and Sykes did a fine job of eulogizing Satou. I’m sure he would feel honored to be remembered as fondly as he is, both for his craft, and for who he was as a person.
Renfield

 

[andysc83]

Hi Brian, I'm so sorry to hear of Satou's passing. Listening to you and Sykes reminisce about your time with Satou was bittersweet. Also, you can never go wrong with Styx as a music choice!

 

[AroEnglish]

A really great episode about a really great man. You guys honored him well.

For those of us who are ignorant, is Smio or Satou his last name?

 

[swilford]

A really great episode about a really great man. You guys honored him well.

For those of us who are ignorant, is Smio or Satou his last name?

Satou is his family name, Smio is his given name. In Japanese, family name is given first, followed by given name. Moving into English, you see it presented either way with Japanese names: either preserving the Japanese family-name-first order, or flipping it into the English style family-name-last order.

I went with family-name-first in the obituary for the SP blog because it's a little more formal, but it was also confusing since we'd generally--for clarity in English (as is common practice by most Japanese when communicating in English)--gone with family-name-last on Smokingpipes in the past.

Sykes

 

[JOHN72]

I am sorry to hear of the passing of such a brilliant teacher. I always liked the discipline and responsibility of the Japanese hands. Who doesn't, right? Excellent topic. Congratulations Kevin.