This is also a favorite folk tool that is packed with functionality and witty wisdom.
I was able to meet the real thing on my trip to Mie the other day, so I will introduce it.
(at Sekiyado Machiya Museum)
There must be many people who have never heard of long hibachi.
Here is the photo.
As the name suggests, it is a brazier.
Let's start with the history of the brazier.
There are various types of materials and shapes, but it is a heating device that puts ash in a container and burns it with charcoal to keep warm.
Hioke, Hibitsu, etc. are also in the same group.
It seems that there are classifications such as a brazier being a bent wooden or moulded vessel, a hibachi being a square wooden vessel, and a brazier being a circular thing made of metal or ceramic, but like the previous box stairs, the area around them is a mess. It looks like
Historically, pits and fire chests are older.
The brazier first appeared in the early Edo period, and it seems to have been made of metal.
Since then, various materials and shapes have been born.
One of them, the one I'm most interested in is this long hibachi.
These are the points of Nagahibachi
-Material is wood, shape is rectangular as the name suggests
I wrote that some were made of ceramic, but it seems that a wooden stand was attached to the bottom because it was too hot, although it was easy to remove it without removing it.
Wood can be used as it is without any problem by blocking the heat if the point is removed.
●Kettle
A copper pot inside the brazier was used to boil water, or a trivet was put in and an iron kettle was placed over it to make sure there was enough hot water.
Drawer
There is a drawer at the bottom of the long brazier.
Using the heat and drying of the brazier, it seems that seaweed and tobacco were put in as a dryer.
Of course, my favorite is here.
Did you put the seaweed and cigarettes in the lower right drawer in the photo below?
A tool born out of necessity in an era when there were no airtight containers to prevent drying.
The wisdom of our predecessors who solved the problem by using the existing brazier's heat and drying "next" as a dryer is wonderful.
"Two birds with one stone" is smart.
Middle ground