burning-hot tongs; red-hot tongs
Refers to metal tongs (火箸) that have been heated in a fire until they are red-hot or burning hot. Often used in contexts of traditional Japanese heating or as a dramatic image.
Burning-hot tongs were placed beside the sunken hearth.
Pick up charcoal with red-hot tongs.
Standard kanji spelling.
Mixed kanji-kana spelling; common when 箸 is written in kana.
Irregular okurigana usage; 焼け is normally written with the okurigana け.
Irregular okurigana usage with mixed kana.
Compound of 焼け (yake, 'burning, heated', from 焼ける) + 火箸 (hibashi, 'fire tongs'). The derivation is straightforward; the word describes tongs that have become hot from fire.