Posted 2 years ago
kwqd
(1122 items)
This little implement is called a Medamayaki nabe and is made of cast iron, about 4" in diameter minus the handle, and appears to be reminiscent of a Japanese donabe, or clay cooking pot. The maker was the Oigen foundry. The lid is vented and very similar to lids traditionally seen on donabe. The cutouts in the lids of donabe are used for resting a spoon in. The design is plum blossoms.
Since donabe means "clay pot" this is obviously not one, but is perhaps meant to call them to mind. It might also be considered to be a small "hotpot" the use of which is popular in both Japan and China. Since this little pot is lined, I suspected when I found it that it was meant to either be used for baking food or serving food in after being heated in an oven or with hot water.
I contacted Oigen to see if it was their work and received the following reply:
"Thank you for your inquiry. We are sorry for late reply.
Yes, It was one of our products called "Medamayaki nabe (frying egg pot)". As the name shown it is for fried egg(it can cook anything but there was the time when people liked to cook with specific cookware).
We do not even produce this pot now. Thank you for adding this pot in your collection. We hope you like it and enjoy cooking frying egg."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donabe
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_pot
I am no longer collecting, unless something falls off of a shelf and hits me on the head, and have started downsizing, selling some of my art collection, donating items to thrift shops, etc., as I prepare to move into a new house. I do keep an eye out for small, inexpensive pieces of Japanese metalwork and this was both, so I snagged it. I am going to thrift shops to look for a few pieces of furniture to make it possible to live to some extent in my "new" house while I work on cleaning it and cleaning out my old house and getting ready to sell it and very occasionally find something too good to leave to an uncertain fate and take it to my new house which was built in the late 1930s. My old house was built in 1883.
I plan to take only my favorite paintings with me and focus on moving only Japanese, Bohemian and a bit of American art glass and Japanese metal ware, plus a bit of studio pottery to my new house. Unfortunately, a three pack a day smoker lived in my new house so cleaning it up has been a challenge. I did find a very nice vase by Michael Schwegmann for $4.99 that I had to rescue..... Not sure if there is interest in his work on CW but there was a post of some of his work to CW a couple of years ago.
Welcome back... we thought you found the earth was flat and fell off! Glad to see you still have more treasures to share.
Hey, I stay away from the edge. I'm no dummy.
Hi Kevin good to see you! Beautiful cherry blossom design on this cast iron pot, nice find
Thanks Jenni! It is a nice little pot. I hope that I get a reply from Oigen about what it is called and how to used it.
I'm sure glad you said that lid was a place to rest a spoon. As a former ashtray collector I made a premature speculation. Thanks for clearing up the pot mystery.
Glad you found it helpful, fhrjhr2! I suppose that chopsticks could also be rested in the grooves. Donabe are often used for communal meals so having a dedicated utensil for all diners to use only for retrieving tidbits from the pot probably had something to do with the evolution of the lid design.
Thanks for loving my latest bit of Japanese cast iron Jenni, Kevin, vcal, PhilDMorris, fortapache, Cisum, dav2no1, Watchsearcher and Vynil33rpm!
Thanks aura!
too difficult for me , because i got more questions than answers
doabe is a contradictio interminus, so it is a nabe or yosenabe
it got a puffing hole ( hot pot)
and it got a handle, i can,t translate the japanese properly , something like from oven to table , so a sort of in between pot
the strange thing the supplier delivered this without a QURIRU , which is an inside portable grill
its probably informal family ware ( oude jongens krentenbrood)
people always think the incisions on the lid are used for Oshashi which ain,t true , because from strict tradition you can,t use Oshashi which might possible could lead to Sashi Bashi and Hasi Watashi ( =[ is the risk of foodpassing) positions
so it is for spoons , actually this is a sort of casual way of SUPUN YASUNDE, the way in which you rest your spoon ,
Thanks for your comments apostata! I was just throwing the possibility of chopsticks out there without actually finding any references to using the lid as a chopstick rest. Every example that I have seen pictured has a spoon resting on the lid, so good point about the negative etiquette of using chopsticks! It may well have come with some sort of grill when new. This little pot was found at an estate sale, so that grill may have been lost or the connection between the two tools was not recognized. I hope that Oigen will respond to my email for more information. I am pretty sure that the two characters on the right are the Oigen mark.
Thanks for loving my little pot BHIFOS and blunderbuss2!
addendum actually i don,t know much about this, i wondered when it ought to be single for table presence dinner ware , the shape would be haba hashi (wide bowls) i don,t understand this, maybe the combined it all asked the supplier , i am out of my league here
I think you are correct, apostata. I think it is meant to be used for a single serving for one person. If/when I hear from Oigen, I will update the description and add a comment for awareness of the update.
I have started moving my Japanese metalwork collection to my new house. Sadly, I have not heard anything from Oigen, though they promise a three business day response time to any queries! I think it has been over a week, now.... Guessing they are not responding to queries like mine, just current business queries. Oh well...
Lovely to see you again, kwqd! I'm very glad to hear you are OK.
And what a beautiful metal piece you've posted here! I don't blame you for snapping it up despite your efforts to downsize. Wish I could tell you exactly how it's meant to be used, but I don't know either.* I wonder if maybe the lid could be flipped over to serve as the bowl out of which you eat the heated food?
Anyway, yes, this is definitely a plum design. The blossom is one of the stylized representations of the plum blossom (https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/89368373841311182/) , and failing all else, you can usually tell plum design from cherry or camellia because plum is always shown on thick, jagged branches like these.
*P.S. In a pinch you could ask on one of the Reddit subcommunities, e.g. "What is this thing" (https://www.reddit.com/r/whatisthisthing/).
Thanks for your comments, rhineisfine! I don't think that the lid is meant to be used for serving since it has a vent hole in it, though I did consider that at first, too. Too bad that Oigen did not reply, as I am pretty sure that this is their mark. I dropped all of my social media accounts when I retired, but maybe I will rejoin reddit and post it there if all else fails.
Ha ha, good point about the vent hole! Hadn't spotted that. Yes, that might make for a messy dinner table, I suppose.
If you do take the plunge with Reddit, you could also try the community r/translator ("the Reddit community for translation requests") if you have any doubt about the mark.
Yay! Mystery Solved! I heard from Oigen and have included their reply in the description!