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The is a traditional 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 dates back to the Heian period (794 to 1185). They are filled with incombustible ash with charcoal sitting in the center of the ash. To handle the charcoal, a pair of metal chopsticks called 'fire chopsticks' is used, in a way similar to Western or tongs. were originally used for heating, not for cooking. It heats by radiation, (bibliographic data: [1]) and is too weak to warm a whole room. Sometimes, people placed a 'iron kettle' over the to boil water for Japanese tea. Later, by the 1900s, some cooking was also done over the .
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. Nevertheless, such risks do exist, and proper handling is necessary to avoid accidents. (bibliographic data: [2]) must never be used in airtight rooms such as those in Western buildings.
In North America, the term refers to a small Portable stove heated by charcoal (called a in Japanese), or to an iron hot plate (called a in Japanese) used in restaurants.
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