What Is Nabe? Japanese Hot Pot & Communal Dining Explained
Oct 01, 2026
Nabe (鍋), often expanded to nabemono (鍋物), is the broad Japanese tradition of cooking ingredients in a pot and eating them as they cook.
Many nabe meals are prepared at the table and shared by several diners. Meat, fish, tofu, mushrooms, leafy vegetables, noodles and other ingredients may be added to broth or seasoned liquid, then transferred into individual bowls as they become ready.
That makes nabe more than a single recipe. It is both a cooking method and a social meal format.
What does nabe mean?
The Japanese word nabe means pot. In food contexts, it also refers to dishes cooked and eaten from a pot, especially hot-pot meals.
JNTO describes nabe as food—commonly meat and vegetables—cooked in a communal pot and served at the table. The category includes famous dishes such as sukiyaki and shabu-shabu as well as many regional and household variations.
Is nabe one specific dish?
No.
There is no single standard nabe recipe. The broth, seasoning, ingredients, pot and cooking method can all change.
A light kombu-based tofu nabe, a strongly seasoned sukiyaki, a seafood hot pot from Hokkaido and a sumo-associated chanko nabe all belong to the wider family.
Why is nabe associated with winter?
Hot pots are strongly associated with colder weather because the pot stays hot at the table and the meal is eaten gradually as ingredients cook.
JNTO repeatedly presents nabe as a winter staple, and many regional hot pots use ingredients at their best in colder months.
That said, nabe is not legally or culturally restricted to winter. Restaurants and households can serve hot-pot dishes throughout the year.
How does a shared nabe meal work?
A pot is placed at the centre of the table over a heat source. Ingredients are added in stages and cooked in broth, stock or seasoned liquid.
When ingredients are ready, diners transfer portions into their own small bowls. Additional ingredients may be added as the meal continues.
This creates a very different rhythm from teishoku or donburi: the meal is not fully assembled when it reaches the table. Cooking and eating overlap.
What is yose nabe?
Yose nabe is one of the most flexible styles. The word yose carries the sense of bringing things together.
The pot may include meat or seafood, tofu, mushrooms and vegetables, with the exact combination depending on household, season and what is available.
JNTO describes yose nabe as especially adaptable and well suited to home cooking because the ingredients and broth can be changed freely.
What is sukiyaki?
Sukiyaki is a hot-pot dish centred especially on thinly sliced beef with ingredients such as tofu, mushrooms, negi, shirataki and leafy vegetables.
The seasoning is comparatively sweet and savoury, commonly using soy sauce and sugar. Diners often dip cooked ingredients in beaten raw egg.
Regional cooking methods differ. JNTO notes a familiar distinction in which Kanto-style sukiyaki tends to simmer ingredients in seasoned liquid, while Kansai-style preparation commonly begins by cooking and seasoning the beef before other ingredients are added.
What is shabu-shabu?
Shabu-shabu uses thin slices of meat that diners briefly swish through hot broth to cook them.
Vegetables, tofu and mushrooms are usually cooked in the pot as well, while the cooked meat and other ingredients are eaten with dipping sauces such as ponzu or sesame sauce.
The name is associated with the sound and motion of swishing the meat through the liquid.
What is chanko nabe?
Chanko nabe is strongly associated with sumo training stables.
There is no single chanko recipe. Chicken, seafood, tofu, vegetables and other ingredients can be cooked in a substantial broth. The term is linked to the wider food culture of sumo wrestlers rather than to one fixed ingredient list.
Restaurants serving chanko can be found beyond the sumo world, including establishments run by former wrestlers.
What is yudofu?
Yudofu is a comparatively restrained hot-pot preparation centred on tofu warmed in kombu-based water or broth.
It is especially associated with Kyoto and demonstrates how nabe can be very simple. A hot pot does not need to be crowded with meat and seafood to belong to the category.
What are some regional nabe traditions?
Regional hot pots can express local climate and ingredients very clearly.
Ishikari nabe in Hokkaido uses salmon and vegetables in a miso-based broth. Imoni in Yamagata is an autumn hot pot built around taro and other ingredients, and large outdoor imoni-kai gatherings bring families, friends and communities together around large pots.
MAFF describes these gatherings not just as eating occasions but as local social events in which people cook and share the pot together.
Is oden a type of nabe?
Oden is commonly grouped with hot-pot foods because ingredients such as daikon, eggs, konnyaku and fish cakes simmer together in broth and are served hot from the pot.
In everyday classification, the boundaries between “nabe,” “nimono” and named specialist dishes can be flexible. It is usually more useful to understand how the food is cooked and served than to force every dish into a perfectly rigid category.
What is the purpose of the individual bowl?
Even when the pot is shared, diners normally eat from their own bowls.
The small bowl receives a manageable portion from the hot pot, sometimes together with broth or dipping sauce. This is part of an important feature of Japanese shared dining: the cooking vessel can be communal while the act of eating remains individualised through personal bowls and chopsticks.
Our guide to shared dining in Japan explains that wider pattern.
What etiquette matters with nabe?
The exact customs vary by household and restaurant, but a few principles are useful:
- use the serving utensils provided for the communal pot when available;
- transfer food to your own bowl before eating;
- pay attention to whether raw meat has separate utensils;
- do not monopolise the pot or repeatedly search through it for preferred ingredients;
- follow the host or more experienced diners if the cooking order matters.
Nabe is generally convivial rather than ceremonially formal. The aim is coordinated sharing, not anxiety about rules.
Who cooks the nabe?
Sometimes one person takes responsibility for managing the pot. In other meals, everyone participates.
JNTO notes that shared hot-pot meals can naturally create small roles: one diner may watch the heat, another may manage ingredients or remove foam. This cooperative aspect is part of what makes nabe strongly associated with groups.
What is shime, the ending of a nabe meal?
After the main ingredients have been eaten, the remaining broth contains flavour from everything cooked in it.
Many nabe meals finish with shime (締め): rice, noodles or another starch added to the remaining broth. Rice may become a simple zosui-style porridge; noodles can absorb the concentrated soup.
This final stage turns the accumulated broth into the closing part of the meal rather than discarding it.
Does nabe always have to be communal?
No.
Individual hot pots are common in restaurants, hotels and some home contexts. Small single-person pots preserve the cooking-at-the-table idea without requiring a shared vessel.
So communal dining is characteristic of nabe, but not a universal requirement.
What kind of pot is used?
Different hot pots use different vessels.
Earthenware donabe are common for many simmered dishes because they retain heat well. Sukiyaki often uses a relatively shallow iron or metal pan. Other restaurants use stainless steel, divided pots or specialised equipment.
Again, the vessel follows the cooking method.
How does nabe relate to Washoku?
Nabe fits comfortably within the broader Washoku emphasis on season, locality and ingredient character.
The format is especially good at accommodating regional vegetables, seafood and meats, while the shared table turns cooking itself into part of the meal.
Nabe in one sentence
Nabe is the broad Japanese hot-pot tradition in which ingredients are cooked in a pot—often at the table and often communally—then eaten from individual bowls as the meal progresses.
Where to go next
Continue with How Shared Dining Works in Japan, compare the one-bowl format in What Is Donburi?, or return to The Japanese Table.
The physical pot deserves its own distinction from the meal: a donabe is a Japanese clay or earthenware cooking vessel. It is common for many nabe dishes, but nabe can use other pots, while donabe can also cook rice, soups and simmered dishes.
