One thing we could never do without in our dyeing and weaving work at Hitotsuya is this “hettui-san” — a traditional wood-fired kamado stove. We use it in many parts of our work: simmering plant dyes, dyeing cloth, and boiling spun yarns and fabrics. With fuel costs continuing to rise, being able to use firewood gathered from the surrounding satoyama landscape is a real blessing.
▼ Dyeing a large piece of cloth.
▼ Setting the twist in hand-spun cotton yarn.
▼ The firebox where we feed in the firewood.
Recently, however, our hettui-san had not been working quite right. It has already been a full seven years since we moved here, and when I thought about it, I realized that we had never once cleaned the chimney. So I bought a chimney-cleaning brush on Amazon and climbed up onto the roof to get started. But when I looked at the chimney cap at the very top, I found a large hole in it. And when I tried to remove it, the whole thing simply came off in my hand――😱
The cleaning itself went more smoothly than I expected, but the broken cap had to be replaced. So I ordered something called a “T-gasa”, or T-shaped chimney cap, from Amazon and climbed back onto the roof once again. I am not exactly young anymore, and lately I have become a little rounder than before, so the work continued very carefully and rather nervously, as I tried not to break through the roof.
▼ The old chimney cap, rusted and broken.
▼ With the cap gone, the chimney looked like this――😰
▼ The new cap is made of stainless steel. Hopefully it will stand up to wind, rain, and snow better than the old tin one.
▼ Repair complete!
Wait a minute. I thought I had bought the same kind of chimney cap, but the shape is different! Maybe I should have bought an “H-gasa”, or H-shaped chimney cap, instead of a T-gasa――. In any case, our hettui-san is working properly again, so I think we can call it good!
Life in the countryside comes with many kinds of trouble that you simply do not find in the city. But honestly, that is part of what makes it fun.
Note: “Hettui-san” is a Kansai dialect word for a traditional kamado stove. In Kyoto, this kind of stove is often called “okudo-san,” while in Osaka it has commonly been called “hettui-san.”