This elegant steamed-rice tub, or ohitsu, is made of sawara cypress, and is used to keep rice warm at the table. The sawara comes from the forests of Kiso in Nagano Prefecture, and is rated so highly that it is protected by the government. In fact, the shrines at the sacred Ise complex, on eof Japan's most revered sites, are ritually rebuilt in twenty-year cycles, using Kisa sawara.

Traditionally, rice would be transferred from a cooker to an ohitsu and placed at the edge of a low table on the tatami, where the housewife would sit. It was her job to dish the rice into family members' bowls and replenish them.

Today, as busy schedules mean that families rarely share their mealtimes, we often see family members serving themselves directly from the rice cooker. It's more likely that ohitsu only make an appearance on special occasions or when entertaining guests. I've even seen one creative hostess using ohitsu small enough to hold only one or two portions of rice, for individual place settings. While most ohitsu today are made by machine, this vessel was made entirely by hand using a round plane. It took more than eight hours to finish.