Hibachi

The hibachi (Japanese: 火鉢, fire bowl) is a traditional Japanese heating device. It is a brazier which is a round, cylindrical, or box-shaped, open-topped container, made from or lined with a heatproof material and designed to hold burning charcoal. It is believed hibachi date back to the Heian period (794 to 1185).^[1] It is filled with incombustible ash, and charcoal sits in the center of the ash.^[2] To handle the charcoal, a pair of metal chopsticks called hibashi (火箸, fire chopsticks) is used, in a way similar to Western fire irons or tongs.^[3] Hibachi were used for heating, not for cooking.^[3] It heats by radiation,^[4] and is too weak to warm a whole room.^[2] Sometimes, people placed a tetsubin (鉄瓶, iron kettle) over the hibachi to boil water for tea.^[3] Later, by the 1900s, some cooking was also done over the hibachi.^[5]^: 251

Traditional Japanese houses were well ventilated (or poorly sealed), so carbon monoxide poisoning or suffocation from carbon dioxide from burning charcoal were of lesser concern.^[2] Nevertheless, such risks do exist, and proper handling is necessary to avoid accidents.^[5]^: 255^[6] Hibachi must never be used in airtight rooms such as those in Western buildings.^[6]^: 129

In North America, the term hibachi refers to a small cooking stove heated by charcoal (called a shichirin in Japanese),^[1] or to an iron hot plate (called a teppan in Japanese) used in teppanyaki restaurants.^[1]

Primitive hibachi from before the Edo period (1600–1868) (Fukagawa Edo Museum)
A traditional charcoal hibachi, made c. 1880–1900
House of the Edo period (Fukagawa Edo Museum)
Two women and a man warming themselves by a hibachi