Is Kotatsu another Japanese know-how or a traditional piece of furniture?

We envision Japan as a country of high technologies, fast pace of life, glass, concrete and advertising.

But nowhere do they treat their traditions and original culture so carefully. In many modern Japanese houses, you can find household items that were used by distant ancestors.

Today I will introduce you to a compact and cozy element of a Japanese home - kotatsu. This is a small table with a heating element, along the perimeter of which a warm blanket is attached. Winters in Japan are not very cold, but there is no central heating either. In addition, the walls are mostly thin and not insulated, but somehow you need to warm up. That's when the kotatsu gets out of the closet! With the onset of cold weather, the Japanese sits on a pillow, carefully puts his feet under the table and covers himself with a blanket. You can read a book or work on your laptop. A good remedy for colds and autumn blues!

How long has kotatsu been an integral part of Japanese life? Nobody knows for sure. Most likely, the cooking hearth gradually evolved into a kotatsu. Previously, it was heated with coals or water heaters. The modern counterpart, of course, is electric and can be carried anywhere. In Japanese online stores you can find a great variety of different modifications of kotatsu, all kinds of shapes and colors for every taste.

And still in the age of air conditioners and split systems, kotatsu are quite popular. In the evenings, the whole family gathers for him, you can have dinner, discuss the past day, drink tea, do homework for the children. Quite often, you can find cafes equipped instead of the usual kotatsu tables. Especially cats are not indifferent to the table, there is even a famous Japanese song about this love. It seems to me that the very word "kotatsu" resembles a big lazy cat.

I don’t even know why such a cozy and sincere invention was not spread in any other country in the world. What do you think?

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