Enjoy your homemade or professional sushi dishes with this authentic Japanese hangiri, a round, flat-bottomed wooden tub used in the final steps of preparing rice for sushi.

This hangiri, also known as sushi oke, is made from sawara cypress wood and bounded with two copper bands.

Concretely the wood used as the base material of this hangiri is from over 200-year-old natural sawara: a kind of Japanese cypress that is known for its excellent moisture resistance, hardness, and quick drying. Compared with artificially planted sawara, the natural one is less likely to shrink even under heavy use, so the copper belts (attached to the outer surface for reinforcement) on the bowl rarely fall off.

Features

• A hangiri absorbs not only heat but also excess moisture.
• Sawara cypress is specifically used for its resistance to mold, rot, insect infestation, and resilience to warping.
• Another reason natural sawara is well suited for rice is that it has oil in its wood grain. This helps the cooked rice cool down faster, prevents it from getting mushy, and makes it look shiny. The bowls made with plastic, metal or glass do not have these functions.
• The inner surface of the wooden barrel is manually shaved by professional artisans. By shaving it with a plane instead of sandpaper the wood maintains its toughness and waterproof quality.

Instructions

Generally, it is necessary to soak the sushi bowl in the water before adding the rice, but with this sushi bowl, there is no need to do this.

To make sushi rice, mix boiled rice with sushi vinegar directly in the bowl.

After use, keep the hangiri bowl dry. From its second use, wipe the inner surface lightly with a wet cloth; this prevents the rice from sticking to the bowl.

Check out a lid for this wooden barrel if you have an interest.

You may find some areas of the wooden bowl being greasy. This is a natural resin that comes from the sawara wood; rest assured that it is harmless and does not affect the product quality in a negative way. It has a strong antibacterial effect and allows the bowl to enhance its resistance to wetness and acid. Although you cannot remove its color bleeding completely, you can minimize the greasiness by polishing the greasy area with sand paper.

Details

• Material: Natural sawara cypress (body) / copper (belt)
• Size: Approx. φ36.3cm × 9.5cm (outer diameter) / φ33.5cm × 7.8cm (inner diameter)
• Recommended cooking capacity: Approximately 1.05kg
• Manufacturer name: Umezawa Mokuzai Kougeisya
• Notes: Avoid washing this product with chlorine-based detergent. To prevent mold and the like, dry this product thoroughly when unused. The lid is sold separately.
• Made in Japan