S.T. Dupont Maki-E Line 2 "Perfect Ping" — Kinkaku-ji
There are few images in Japanese culture more instantly recognizable than the Kinkaku-ji — the temple of gold leaf, held above its own reflection. The S.T. Dupont Maki-E Line 2 Kinkaku-ji translates that image into one of the world's most demanding decorative arts, producing a lighter that is itself a work of cultural contemplation.
The Art of Maki-E
Maki-e — literally "sprinkled picture" — is a Japanese lacquerware technique with origins in the 8th century. In its execution, a lacquer motif is first painted by hand onto the surface. While the lacquer is still wet, gold, silver, or other metallic powders are applied through a fine bamboo tube, settling into the design with an exactness no mechanical process can replicate. The piece is then placed in a cedar box to dry — slowly, carefully — before being polished by hand with magnolia leaf, charcoal, camellia, and nettle. The result is a surface of extraordinary depth: warm, luminous, and unrepeatable. No two pieces emerge identical from this process.
Wajimaya Zenni
S.T. Dupont partnered with Wajimaya Zenni Inc., master lacquerware artisans based in Japan, to execute the Maki-E collection. Each piece bears the "Zenni" signature — a mark of origin, of authorship, and of the individual hand that made it. Wajimaya Zenni's tradition is rooted in the Wajima lacquerware school, one of the most distinguished in Japan, known for the depth and luminosity of its finishes.
Kinkaku-ji — The Temple of the Golden Pavilion
Built in 1397 in Kyoto, the Kinkaku-ji is a Zen Buddhist temple whose upper two stories are entirely clad in pure gold leaf. It stands at the edge of a reflecting pond, its image doubled in still water — a vision of impermanence made golden, a structure that survives precisely because of what it represents rather than what it is built from. On the Line 2, this scene unfolds across the lacquer surface in gold powder and layered color, the pavilion rendered with the patience the original deserves. This is a lighter for those who recognize that some subjects demand more than competence — they demand reverence.
The Line 2
The Line 2 is S.T. Dupont's defining lighter — the piece against which all others in the Maison's range are measured. Its double yellow flame and the crystalline "perfect ping" that sounds at the opening of the cap have been the acoustic and functional signatures of S.T. Dupont craftsmanship for decades. On the Maki-E Kinkaku-ji, the Line 2 holds a tribute to one of the world's great works of architecture.
Now available at The Tobacconist of Greenwich.
