Discovering the Joy of Donabe Rice Cooker

As a Japanese person, rice has always been at the center of what I eat. I feel lucky that I have access to good rice here in the States nowadays. But not too long ago, my daughter dropped a little bombshell on me. She said, “Mom, the rice in my lunch box is too hard by the time I eat it. Can you make me sandwiches instead?”

WHAT?! As a Japanese mom, I felt a deep sense of shame. Sandwiches over rice?! That was the moment I started my quest to find a way to cook rice better.

I knew the rice quality itself wasn’t the issue (I buy good rice), and Oregon water is soft enough. I’ve been cooking rice in a Staub pot, and I thought I had the process down after trying all sorts of methods. The next thought: should I finally go for an electric rice cooker? These days, there are some seriously amazing ones that make rice taste incredible. But here’s the problem—having a big plastic machine sitting on my kitchen counter all the time? Nope, I can’t do that...

And that’s when the donabe rice cooker entered my life.

This rice cooker is no ordinary donabe—it’s a clay pot crafted by a single artisan in Iga, Japan, designed specifically for cooking rice. It’s solid, heavy, and a little rustic, but oh my goodness, the rice it makes is on another level. It did take me a few tries to adjust the water-to-rice ratio and cooking time to my liking, but once I got it right, the result was so beautifully fluffy that I felt genuinely excited to cook rice again.

And once you’ve nailed the perfect bowl of white rice, it’s only natural to want to try more—brown rice, mixed rice, takikomi gohan (seasoned rice with veggies and meat)… the possibilities keep growing. The donabe has turned cooking rice into something fun, almost like a little event in the kitchen.

The beauty of this donabe rice cooker is that it’s also beautiful enough to go straight from stove to table. You can cook a dish like takikomi gohan and serve it directly, making the donabe part of the meal and the hospitality. And honestly, I just love the way it looks—whether it’s on the stove doing its job or simply chilling on my kitchen shelf. It feels like a tool with real presence, and that makes me happy every single time I see it.

I’m in love with you, my donabe rice cooker. Here’s to many years together.