By Porter Lang
Start with the walls. A donabe is thick on purpose, and nearly everything else about it follows from that.
What it is
A Japan-focused cookware article defines a donabe as a traditional clay pot for cooking meals, especially hotpots, and says winter is the main season for nabe dishes. It names zosui, shabu-shabu and nabeyakiudon among them, and says steaming rice in one gives a crisp bottom. The same article says thick clay spreads heat slowly and fairly evenly, and credits the pot’s ability to keep heat while it cools for the flavour of what is cooked in it.
Why Iga
Wikipedia says Iga ware comes from Iga in Mie Prefecture and that early pieces were not very different from nearby Shigaraki ware. It describes the local clay as highly heat-resistant, able to take repeated firing, sometimes up to three times, without cracking. The cookware article says Iga ware production was first recorded in the early eighth century, the Nara period. Wikipedia says the origins are believed to be the second half of the seventh century and the eighth century. These are close, and we show both.
The clay
Three producer-linked pages describe the clay in similar terms. One says the valley once lay under Lake Biwa, so the clay is former lakebed mud holding the microscopic remains of water creatures and plants. Another puts the age at roughly four million years. A third says the same thing about the Iga region.
The first producer page then explains why that matters for cookware. In the kiln the organic matter burns away and leaves tiny air pockets in the thick walls, which insulate the pot, so it heats quickly and stays warm. That is a maker’s explanation rather than a laboratory result, so treat it as one.
How a pot is made
One producer describes its sequence. The clay is shaped in a plaster mould, then each piece is shaved with a plane to roughen the surface, which widens the area the heat reaches. The handles, which it calls ears, are attached with clay thinned in water. Pieces air-dry for a week, longer for thicker ones. A thin base glaze goes on first and a denser final glaze after, applied by two people, one glazing and one wiping off excess and checking.
Then the firing. The same producer gives a first, biscuit firing at about 800 °C for eight hours, and a final firing at 1,200 to 1,300 °C for ten hours in a large gas kiln, followed by twelve hours of cooling inside. The whole process, it says, takes about two weeks.
Where the sources disagree
- Temperature: the producer above says 1,200 to 1,300 °C. The cookware article says Iga ware is fired at about 1,400 °C. We cannot reconcile them. They may be describing different kilns, or different pots.
- Glaze: Wikipedia says Iga ware does not use applied glaze, and that the surface comes from wood ash melting into a green, translucent glaze called biidoro, which modern gas kilns do not produce naturally. Two producer pages describe applied glaze on donabe. Our reading: Wikipedia is describing the old tea-ceremony wares, and the cookware is a different line. That is an inference.
- Kiln type: Wikipedia says the old pieces were fired over three days in a kiln dug into the ground. A producer says its own historic sixteen-chamber wood-fired kiln, built in 1835 and used until 1970, has been replaced by gas.
Reading wear and cracks
A donabe-focused site says black spots on the bottom are a normal sign of a well-used pot, and that a bottom turning black after only a few uses means the heat is too high. It also explains the fine cracks that can appear in the glaze, called kan-nyu: the glaze shrinks more than the clay as it cools, the cracks do not affect function, and they become more noticeable with use. The same site is a retailer’s, and the page gives no guidance on seasoning or drying, so we give none.
Sizes and range
The retailer-linked page lists four capacities: 800 ml for one or two people, 1,200 ml for two or three, 2,400 ml for three or four and 3,000 ml for four to six. One producer says it has made more than 1,000 specialised kinds of donabe over the years and currently makes more than two dozen, including types for rice porridge, roasting and slow cooking.
Dates in order
- Second half of the 7th century to 8th century: Iga ware’s believed origins, according to Wikipedia.
- Early 8th century: first recorded Iga ware production, according to a cookware article.
- 1596 to 1615: Iga kilns thought to be established, according to Wikipedia.
- 1835: a producer’s wood-fired kiln built, according to the producer’s own site.
What kind of sources these are
Wikipedia; a cookware article; and three producer or retailer pages, which are promotional. We read no museum or trade-body page, so the donabe-specific claims rest on makers.
Questions a buyer would ask
Which heat source suits it? No page we read answered that, so we do not. Is it glazed? Producers say yes for cookware; Wikipedia says the old ware was not. Ask the maker.
Quick answers
Why is Iga clay good for donabe? Producer pages say it is old Lake Biwa lakebed clay, and that burned-out organic matter leaves air pockets that hold heat.
What are the black spots on a donabe? A donabe-focused site says black spots on the bottom are normal for a well-used pot, and that fast blackening means too much heat.
How old is Iga ware? Wikipedia says its origins are believed to date to the second half of the seventh century and the eighth century.
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