The hibachi (火鉢, 'fire bowl') is a traditional Japanese heating device. It is a brazier which is a round, cylindrical, or box-shaped, open-topped container, made from or lined with a heatproof material and designed to hold burning charcoal. It is believed hibachi dates back to the Heian period (794 to 1185).^[1] They are filled with incombustible ash with charcoal sitting in the center of the ash.^[2] To handle the charcoal, a pair of metal chopsticks called hibashi (火箸; 'fire chopsticks') is used, in a way similar to Western fire irons or tongs.^[3]Hibachi were originally used for heating, not for cooking.^[3] It heats by radiation,^[4] and is too weak to warm a whole room.^[2] Sometimes, people placed a tetsubin (鉄瓶; 'iron kettle') over the hibachi to boil water for tea.^[3] Later, by the 1900s, some cooking was also done over the hibachi.^{[5]: 251}

Traditional Japanese houses were well ventilated (or poorly sealed), so carbon monoxide poisoning or suffocation from carbon dioxide from burning charcoal was of lesser concern.^[2] Nevertheless, such risks do exist, and proper handling is necessary to avoid accidents.^{[5]: 255 [6]}Hibachi must never be used in airtight rooms such as those in Western buildings.^{[6]: 129}

In North America, the term hibachi refers to a small cooking stove heated by charcoal (called a shichirin in Japanese),^[1] or to an iron hot plate (called a teppan in Japanese) used in teppanyaki restaurants.^[1]

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  Primitive hibachi from before the Edo period (1600–1868) (Fukagawa Edo Museum)
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  A traditional charcoal hibachi, made c. 1880–1900
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  House of the Edo period (Fukagawa Edo Museum)
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  Two women and a man warming themselves by a hibachi

• Brazier
• Japanese traditional heating devices:
  • Kamado: a kitchen stove
  • Shichirin: a portable brazier
  • Tabako-bon: a mini brazier to light tobacco in kiseru pipes
  • Kotatsu: a covered table over a brazier
  • Japanese tea utensils § Hearths
    • Chagama
    • Tetsubin
• Japanese cuisine