The "hibachi" charcoal burner is a good example of a once-common object which has all but disappeared from most people's lives. We are among the few families in the neighbourhood who use a hibachi or its near cousin the "irori" (basically a hole in the floor in the middle of a room which serves as a fireplace), but the further one gets into the countryside the more widely they are used. Neither the danro nor the hibachi has a chimney, so the fire has to be made outside, and the heat is provided by glowing charcoal embers. In some of the large old country houses, wood fires are lit indoors, and the smoke is simply allowed to rise up and lose itself among the rafters.  Such heating does raise the room temperature a bit, but in really cold weather it is only effective if one huddles round it with a blanket to keep the cold off one's back. The idea of heating a whole room didn't really come in until air conditioning took off. Now, for most Japanese people, it is indispensable.

This assemblage is just a bit too old to be serviceable. It would have been common to see this kind of arrangement up until about the 1930s or 40s. We use a more modern design of hibachi, made of metal, with a grate and an air vent that can be opened or closed, clearly infuenced by western fireplaces. We back that up with a second charcoal burner which is basically just a kind of earthenware pot, a paraffin burner (I never knew how efficient paraffin burners can be until I came to Japan! In our neighbourhood they are a major form of winter heating) and, upstairs, a storage heater. It is typical to place a kettle or pan on top of the charcoal, to keep the air humid (Japan tends to be too humid in the summer and too dry in the winter) and provide hot water for tea, etc.