Kotatsu

[1] Kotatsu are used almost exclusively in Japan, although similar devices for the same purpose of heating are used elsewhere, e.g. the Spanish brasero or Iranian korsi.

On top of the wooden platform a quilt was placed, known as an oki that trapped and localized the heat of the charcoal burner.

By 1997, the majority (approximately two-thirds) of Japanese homes had the modern irori and 81 percent had a kotatsu, though they are warmed using electricity instead of glowing coals or charcoal.

A person sits on the floor or on zabuton cushions with their legs under the table and the blanket draped over the lower body.

[3] Families may choose to concentrate their activity in this one area of the house in order to save on energy costs.

[citation needed] Pets such as cats frequently sleep under kotatsu, however, and are small enough to fit completely underneath—comparable to cats who sleep on floor heating vents in Western countries (Japanese homes do not generally have floor heating vents).

In the evening family members gather around the kotatsu to enjoy food, television, games, and conversation while keeping the lower half of their bodies warm.

In Spain and Portugal, the Mesa camilla [es] is a small round table with a brasero heater (i.e. a brazier) placed underneath.

[13] The 18th-century traveler Lady Mary Wortley Montagu describes the similar tendour in her Turkish Embassy Letters.

[14] Tajikistan and Afghanistan have the very similar sandali, used even today in many traditional houses as a warm family eating place.