In Japanese advertisements for “mansions” (flats, apartments) the letters LDK, standing for Living, Dining, Kitchen, are often seen. Since LDK has an interesting connection with the traditional Japanese kitchen, I shall start by describing that room.
The Traditional Kitchen
The part of a traditional Japanese house set aside for cooking and eating, though considered to be one area, was in two parts. The first part, doma, was at ground level and indeed often simply had the beaten earth of the ground as floor. This was where the kamado stood, at which rice and miso soup were cooked. The nagashidai was also here, for cleaning vegetables and washing dishes and utensils, always in cold water. Cold water, considered purer than hot water, was sufficient, since nothing was greasy or oily. The windows did not let in a great deal of light, since they were fitted with vertical slats and horizontal shelves on which the cooking utensils were ranged. Smoke escaped as best it could without a flue.
The second part was adjacent to the doma, but at the raised level of the rest of the house. Though under the same section of the roof as the lower part, this was the living and dining area and contained the irori (centrally situated hearth), sunk in the middle of wooden flooring, where that was the custom. City houses did not have irori, nor was it customary in western Japan. Although the primary purpose of the irori was for heating, certain kinds of cooking, such as oyaki and kiri-tanpo, could be done there, and possibly even certain nabemono with the jizaikagi, a hook suspended from the rafters, on which to hang the pot. This hook was normally used for the kettle to heat water for tea. Above the irori was a shelf called hidana or hodana, which could be used for smoking food, since there was no flue. The smoke from the fire found its own way out, killing off unwanted mosquitoes and other insects in the process.
These two adjacent parts of the traditional kitchen were treated as a single living-dining-kitchen area, an early version of today’s LDK, which in turn leads us to the modern kitchen (daidokoro).
The Modern Kitchen
Whereas modern houses generally have a separate kitchen (still with shelves placed in the windows for storing utensils), in apartments the kitchen, dining, and living areas tend to overlap in the LDK pattern, thus continuing the layout of the traditional house. Although kitchens are provided with water heaters, some people still prefer to wash the dishes in cold water. Cooking is normally done on two gas rings, since ovens are not used in Japanese cooking, though nowadays microwave ovens are almost universal and sometimes also operate as regular ovens for cooking Western food, which is very popular. Many people love to bake cakes, cookies, and even bread. Frozen foods are slowly becoming more accepted and the microwave is useful for preparing these, as is also the popular oven toaster, in which, also, the toast for a Western-style breakfast, now more common than the traditional Japanese breakfast, can be made. The working area in the kitchen is always minimal.
The kamado, that important symbol of traditional family unity, has been replaced by the automatic rice cooker; the seirō (traditional wooden steamer) has been replaced by the mushiki (modern-style aluminum steamer) on the gas ring, and miso soup is also made on the gas ring. In other words, apart from the rice cooker, the traditional kamado and shichirin (brazier) have both been replaced by the gas konro. There are usually only two rings, an arrangement that is quite limiting for Western cookery, as is the cramped work space. People from Western countries usually find Japanese kitchens rather hard to adapt to.
Utensils
Pots, pans, plates, bowls, and ladles are much the same everywhere. But the Japanese kitchen has a number of utensils that are very interesting and quite unique: dobin (teapot); hōchō (knife); hone nuki (fish-bone tweezers); ichimonji (scraper-spatula); kamado (kitchen range); katsuobushi bako (box for shaving katsuobushi); komebitsu (rice chest); koshiki (sieve); kyūsu (small teapot); makisu (mat for sushi); manaita (chopping board); menbō (rolling pin); nabe (pot, saucepan); nukiita (type of board); o-hitsu (container for serving rice); oroshigane (grater); otoshibuta (droplid); renge (Chinese spoon); saibashi (kitchen chopsticks); sasara (brush); shichirin (brazier); suihanki (automatic rice cooker); suribachi (mortar); surikogi (pestle); tamajakushi (ladle); tawashi (brush); teppan (hot plate); toishi (whetstone); zaru (colander).
Usu and kine (the large mortar and pestle) were not used in the kitchen, but in an area just outside the kitchen. Sometimes they were operated by foot-power.
The following are dining rather than kitchen equipment: chabudai (low table); jūbako (tiered food box); oshiki (dining tray); zen (individual low table).
Some of these utensils and pieces of equipment are not only useful but most unusual. The katsuobushi bako is quite unique to Japan. The whole idea of making stock with shavings of cured fish is imaginative, to say the least. Then to bring the carpenter’s plane into the kitchen to make the shavings can only increase the unusualness of this operation. The blade must be very sharp and very finely adjusted, or else the katsuobushi comes out as a powder.
The mortar and pestle known as suribachi and surikogi too are unusual and extremely useful, as anyone who has tried to bray sesame in a smooth-sided mortar will attest. This type of mortar and pestle could be useful in a kitchen anywhere, not just in Japan.
The oroshigane, especially in its domestic ceramic form, is just as useful for grating apple as it is for daikon. All shapes and sizes are available, and often both shape and glaze are very beautiful. The same can be said of pottery storage-jars (kame 并瓦, 甕) with their pattern of glaze dripping down from the rim.
Finally, the Japanese steamer (kaku seirō) is not only beautiful but very practical. Unfortunately it is also rather expensive and not easy to get hold of.
The traditional Japanese cooking utensils bring art and craftsmanship into the kitchen and comprise a unique and very practical batterie de cuisine.
By Richard Hosking in " A Dictionary of Japanese Food- Ingredients and Culture", Tuttle Publishing, Hong Kong, 1995, excerpts pp. 160-163. Digitized, adapted and illustrated to be posted by Leopoldo Costa.