The furo is the warm-season fire: a brazier placed directly on the tatami, filled with ash, with the kettle set above it. Keeping the fire at a distance from the guests takes the edge off the heat, and the whole arrangement is built to suggest coolness. It is the counterpart to the sunken hearth and is used from May through October.
History
The brazier is older than the sunken hearth, deriving from metal fire vessels used in Heian and Kamakura Zen temples. Bronze braziers were long regarded as the most formal type; earthenware braziers came into wide use in the Momoyama period. Rikyu is said to have favoured earthenware, and practitioners in every period since have worked out their own combinations. Bronze, earthenware, and board braziers all remain in use.
Types
By material: bronze (the most formal), earthenware (wabi taste since Momoyama), iron, and board braziers (light and summery). By form: kirikake, sukigi, doan, and menotori among others. A brazier requires its own kettle, ladle, trivet, and base board, all in summer proportions.
In practice
At the height of summer a placement called nakaoki shifts the brazier to increase the distance from the guests further still. Ash shaping is more sculptural here than in the hearth: patterns such as the two-line press, distant mountains, and waterfalls are drawn with the ash scoop to bring a summer landscape into the room. The host arranges the interior during the charcoal procedure, and the steam and the kettle's sound do the work of suggesting coolness.
Sources
- 風炉（デジタル大辞泉 / 精選版 日本国語大辞典） / コトバンク
Supports: 風炉が釜をかけて湯を沸かす炉で、唐銅製・鉄製・土製・木製があり夏を中心に用いること。『延喜式』（927）に「白銅風炉」の記載があること
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Edited by the operator of Chaen (a one-person operation) / Last updated:
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Related terms
- Ro (sunken hearth)ro
A hearth cut into the floor mats, used from November to April, that brings the fire close to the guests.
- Hatsuburo (first brazier)hatsuburo
The changeover in May from the sunken hearth to the portable brazier, opening the warm half of the year.
- Natsu no dogudate (summer arrangements)natsu no dogudate
Arrangements from the rainy season through high summer — flat bowls, blue-and-white, glass, basketry — built to suggest coolness.
- Kama (kettle)kama
The iron kettle that heats the water; the centre of the hearth and the source of the sound called matsukaze.