Kotatsu (low heated table with quilt)
Kotatsu (mesa baja con calefactor y manta)
- Date
- c. century XIV-XV · confidence low
- Place
- Kyoto, Japan
- Credited to
- Japanese society of the Muromachi and Edo periods
- Field
- Tools
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A low table with a charcoal hearth or, today, an electric heater under the top, covered by a quilt that traps heat. It warms the legs of the whole family gathered round without heating the entire house.
It derives from the irori (sunken floor hearth); the form with a frame (yagura) and quilt settled in the 15th-17th centuries and the date is approximate.
What it led to
- economical local heating in houses without central heating
- family life around the table in the Japanese winter
- electric kotatsu from the 20th century