Rice Washing Bowl

Inambak, or rice washing bowl, is a basket used to sift out grit while washing rice by stirring it up in the water. It is also called ssalbegi. It is a wooden bowl with multiple linear grooves carved on the inner side to catch heavier particles including sand sinking into it. The grooves are used to scrub the rice clean. A paddle-like tool called jori was also used to wash the rice in large quantities, although this bowl was often used when washing a small amount of rice. The grooves of this bowl were also effectively utilized when picking out other impurities such as unhulled rice or grit from small amounts of rice remaining after washing a large quantity with a jori. Its size is generally appropriate for women. It is made by deeply hollowing out pine wood, which is relatively resistant to water. It is designed for tiny rocks or grits to be stuck in between the engraved lines that resemble scratches made using fingernails. Around ten or more parallel grooves engraved from the top to the bottom on the inside are designed to prevent tiny rocks, which are heavier than rice, from sinking to the bottom. Given the material of the bowl, inambak was not a tool that can be produced quickly, and in order to enhance durability, perilla oil was applied on the surface and dried before it was polished with a dishcloth, or lacquered in red or black and then coated in perilla oil to create a reddish-brown hue. In modern times, it is made of various materials including plastic or stainless steel, and a plastic basket with bumps on the inside is generally used as an alternative to inambak.