What is "tatara"

The is the traditional Japanese furnace used for smelting iron and steel. The word later also came to mean the entire building housing the furnace.

The steel, or , used in the forging of Japanese swords (, commonly known as ) by contemporary Japanese forge masters like Kihara Akira and Gassan Sadatoshi is still smelted in a tatara. One of the few remaining tatara is the Nittoho tatara in Shimane Prefecture, Japan.

Tatara may refer to:

• Bond (Chinese constellation), one of White Tiger's Stars
• Tatara Bridge, a bridge on the Shimanami Kaidō connecting Hiroshima Prefecture and Ehime Prefecture in Japan.
• Tatara (furnace), from the Japanese word for bellows

Tatara is a surname:

• Kacper Tatara, a Polish soccer player

Tatara may also refer to:

• Tatara, the character of the manga Fushigi Yūgi authored by Watase Yuu
• Tatara, the disguised name of the female protagonist Sarasa, or the name of her brother, in the manga Basara authored by Tamura Yumi