Do I need to season a new donabe before using it?

Yes, if it is earthenware. Unglazed Japanese clay is porous, so a new pot is seasoned by simmering a thick rice porridge in it. The starch seeps into the pores and seals them, which stops seepage and greatly reduces staining and odour.

Does porcelain need seasoning too?

No. Porcelain is vitrified and not porous, so it needs no seasoning. Seasoning applies to porous earthenware.

工芸Kogei What the listing does not tell you

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An earthenware donabe clay pot with its domed lid, side lugs and a dark glazed band. — An AI-generated image, not a photograph of a specific piece.

土鍋の目止め

A new donabe is not ready to cook in. There is a step first.

Q: How do I season a donabe?

Put cooked rice in the pot, fill to roughly 80 per cent with water, bring to a boil on low heat and simmer about 20 minutes, then let it cool completely before washing and drying.

Unglazed Japanese clay is porous. Used straight out of the box, it leaks, stains and holds odours. The step that fixes it takes twenty minutes and a bowl of leftover rice, and almost no overseas listing mentions it.

Cross-section of an unglazed clay wall before and after seasoning. Before, the pores are open through to the inner surface. After simmering rice porridge, starch has filled the pores nearest the inside and sealed them. — The clay is the same on both sides. What changes is the inner few millimetres: starch settles into the open pores and closes them, so liquid and odour stop travelling into the body.

Does this apply to yours?If the piece is earthenware (donabe, unglazed or partially glazed clay), it needs medome (目止め) before its first real meal.

What medome actually does

Season it by cooking a thick rice porridge in it: put cooked rice in the pot, fill to roughly 80% with water, bring to a boil on low heat and simmer about 20 minutes, then cool completely. The starch seeps into the pores and seals them.

Sealing the pores stops water seepage and makes the interior less absorbent, so the pot takes on far less stain and odour from strongly flavoured dishes. Skipping it is the single most common way a new donabe is ruined.

Earthenware, not porcelain

This is a property of porous earthenware, not of porcelain. Porcelain (磁器) is vitrified and needs no seasoning — which is why the earthenware/porcelain distinction has to come before any care advice.

How these pages are put together. Written in Japan, but we do not own or test the pieces described here — the facts are compiled from makers, specialist retailers and published sources, and every one is listed at the foot of the page so you can check it yourself. Makers do change specifications, so confirm against the listing or the manual before buying. If something here is wrong, tell us and it gets corrected.

Where to look

Donabe are made in several pottery regions, Iga and Banko among the best known for direct-flame ware. Whatever you buy, check whether the piece is earthenware or porcelain before you follow any care advice — the two want opposite things.

Musubi Kiln — donabe & cookware ↗A Banko-ware donabe — listed as gas only ↗

The Banko-ware pot above is worth opening for a second reason: its description states the heat source plainly — gas only, not induction — and then says nothing whatsoever about seasoning it before first use. That combination is normal, and it is why this page exists. Whatever you end up buying, the listing is reliable about the hob and silent about the first twenty minutes.

Sources The other guides

鉄瓶と鉄急須

A new donabe is not ready to cook in. There is a step first.

What medome actually does

Earthenware, not porcelain

Where to look

Tetsubin or tetsu-kyusu?

What destroys lacquerware

A single-bevel knife is made for one hand