Long ago, when minka were still single-space dwellings and their interiors were not yet partitioned, all the activity of the household - not only cooking, but heating, illumination, drying, and so on - was focused on the large central fire that burned brightly all year; at night, too, the inhabitants of these ‘earth-sitting dwellings’ (doza-sumai 土座) would sleep on mats spread around the fire. In northern Japan, the cold climate forced people to lead indoor lives even during the day, and the houses were close and dark.

In the warm south of the country, on the other hand, houses were only for sleeping and resting in. These dwellings had raised timber floors to keep out venomous insects, snakes, and animals, and had good cross-ventilation. Bringing fire into this type of construction was problematic, and a fire was hardly needed other than for cooking anyway, so it was preferable to keep it outside; this also removed smoke and hot air from the house.

As we have seen in the last few posts, the internal fire of the northern dwelling eventually evolved into the modern, multi-purpose irori. In contrast, the external fire of the south developed into the subject of today’s post: the Japanese stove, the kamado (かまど or 釜土, lit. ‘kettle earth’), which was specialised for cooking. The kamado did not develop out of the irori, but was distinct from the beginning.

A fine example of a comma-shaped Japanese stove (*kamado* 釜土, here *kudo* くど) built in the earth-floored utility area (*doma* 土間) of the Iguchi family (*Iguchi-ke* 井口家) residence, Kyо̄to City. This fine example is a ‘seven burner’ stove (*nanatsu kudo* 七つくど). Usually the large ceremonial pot (*о̄-gama* 大釜) is at the endmost position, but rarely, as here, it is located in an intermediate position.

Eventually the two mixed together, so that minka in the northern Tо̄hoku region also have kamado, minka in the mountains of southern Kyūshū also have irori, and it is not possible to draw a clear or exact border between ‘irori country’ and ‘kamado country’; but we can make the broad distinction that from the Chūbu region north-east the irori is primary, while from the Kinki region west the kamado is predominant.

When using fire to cook in a pot (nabe 鍋 or kama 釜) under primitive conditions, there are basically two possible methods available: either to suspend the pot above the fire via a rope and hook or some other method, or to sit it on a stone or stones placed in or around the fire, with the simplest stable configuration consisting of three points of support. Whereas the irori primarily employs the former method, making use of the ready means of suspension offered by the dwelling’s roof beams, the kamado, with its origins in the outdoor fire, employs the latter principle; even today the kamado is represented symbolically in some regions by three stones, for the purpose of veneration.

Presumably the Japanese had been building simple stone windbreaks around fires since the Jо̄mon period (Jо̄mon jidai 縄文時代, c. 10,000 BC - 500 AD), but the relatively sophisticated, portable clay kamado first appeared in the Yayoi period (Yayoi jidai 弥生時代, c. 300 BC – 300 AD). These kamado are recognisably ‘modern’ in that they almost completely enclose the fire, with an opening in the side to feed and tend it, and a circular hole in the top on which the pot (kama 釜) sits. They functioned not only to shield the fire from wind and prevent the escape of sparks, but also to concentrate the flames under the pot so that scarce fuel could be used more efficiently. Some of the impetus for this development may have been provided by the cultural and demographic transition from a relatively sparse population of Jо̄mon hunter gatherers to one of sedentary Yayoi farmers living on the increasingly denuded and crowded agricultural lowlands.

A Yayoi period (*Yayoi jidai* 弥生時代) earthenware *kamado* from the О̄saka area, excavated from the traces of a dwelling. Rice was cooked in the pot, made of the same earthenware, that fits neatly into the opening at the top.

Eventually the kamado grew to become an immobile structure of stone and clay with substantial thermal mass, and the kama was improved by the addition of a lip or brim (tsuba 鍔) to create what is known as the tsuba-gama (鍔釜), which both supports the pot on the edge of the opening and forms a seal with it, thus preventing any of the heat of the fire from being lost upwards. There was also the migration of the kamado indoors, into the earth-floored utility area (doma 土間) of the minka interior. With these changes, even fuels of low energy density, like straw (wara 藁) or pine needles (matsu-ba 松葉), could be made effective use of, a development that would have been especially welcomed by the farmers of the firewood-poor plains.

An old cast-iron *tsuba-gama* with prominent *tsuba*, ring handles, and a wooden lid.

As its convenience came to be recognised, the refined kamado was adopted even in what had previously been exclusively ‘irori country’, and we can see a division of function between irori and kamado emerge, with a kamado for pot-cooking being built in a corner of the irori, and the irori presumably relinquishing this role to the kamado.

Development of the kamado did not end with modernity and electrification, but took a somewhat unrecognised path, and the kamado is still in widespread use today, albeit in disguise: the electric rice cooker, which first appeared in its familiar automatic form in 1955 with the Tо̄shiba ER-4. With its lipped and lidded kama fitting snugly into a heated enclosure, this kitchen appliance is a direct descendant of the kamado, and forms part of the lineage of a cooking technology that stretches back 2,000 years.