Japan Travelogue Series: Shichirin

Shichirin are Japanese compact, lightweight, portable cooking stoves. Many modern shichirin are made from ceramic or blocks of diatomaceous earth usually mined from deposits. These are then carved before being fired in a kiln and fixed onto metal. Some shichirin are made with thick double-sided ceramic.

Shichirin is a compound word made from the kanji characters 七 (shichi or nana, “seven”) and 輪 (rin or wa, “wheel,” “loop,” or “ring”). The “rin” in shichirin is said to also have come from the Edo period currency denomination, the one-rin coin. Charcoal is mainly used to heat up the shichirin and it is also considered to be an affordable way to cook because the charcoal needed to cook in it is more cost efficient.

Join Michelle as she shows us how to grill with a shichirin!