Japanese Table Manner

Even if the most important things to avoid when using chopsticks are the ones relates to funeral ritual, it may be fun to know which are the other table manners.

Here is a list:

 

Arai bashi (洗い箸): Washing chopsticks in soup

Awase bashi (合わせ箸): Passing food from one’s own chopstick to someone else’s chopstick

Chigai bashi (違い箸): Using a mismatched pair of chopsticks

Choku bashi (直箸): Not using the serving chopsticks, but your own sticks to get food from shared plates and place it on your own plate or bowl before eating it

Hane bashi (撥ね箸): Pushing away disliked food with chopsticks

Hotoke bashi (仏箸): Standing your chopsticks up in a bowl of rice

Kaki bashi (掻き箸): Holding a bowl to your mouth and shovelling food in

Kami bashi (噛み箸): Chewing chopsticks

Kara bashi (空箸): Picking up food but not eating it

Kasane bashi (重ね箸): Eating just one dish continuously

Komi bashi (込み箸): Stuffing too much food into your mouth

Mayoi bashi (迷い箸): Hovering chopsticks over the dishes while humming and hawing about what to eat

Mochi bashi (持ち箸): Grabbing a dish, glass, etc whilst holding chopsticks in the same hand

Mogi bashi (もぎ箸): Sucking off grains of rice, etc, stuck to the chopsticks

Namida bashi (涙箸): Allowing tears of soup to drip from your chopsticks

Neburi bashi (舐り箸): Licking your chopsticks

Saguri bashi (探り箸): Stirring soup trying to find that last chunk of tofu, etc

Sashi bashi (指し箸): Pointing at people or things with chopsticks

Seseri bashi (せせり箸): Poking or playing with your food using chopsticks

Soroe bashi (揃え箸): Suddenly lunging at dishes with chopsticks ready

Sukashi bashi (すかし箸): Rather than turning over a fish, picking away the meat from under the bones

Tataki bashi (叩き箸): Making a noise by striking dishes with chopsticks

Tsuki bashi, sashi bashi (突き箸・刺し箸): Spearing food then eating it

Uke bashi (受け箸): Holding chopsticks when asking for more rice

Utsuri bashi, watari bashi (移り箸・渡り箸): Aiming to pick up one dish, but then suddenly switching to another

Watashi bashi (渡し箸): Resting chopsticks sideways across the top of dishes

Yose bashi (寄せ箸): Pulling dishes closer with chopsticks

How to use chopsticks

As in every other countries, knowing table manner is a way to make a good impression.

In this post I explain you how to use chopsticks.

 

How to hold and use chopsticks

Hold the bottom chopstick between the bottom of the thumb and the tip of the ring finger. Close the thumb to stabilize the chopstick, never move it.

Pinch and stabilize the upper chopstick with fingertips of direction finger, middle finger and thumb. This chopstick is held like a pencil, and it is moved while eating, to pull food into the grasp of the chopsticks.

For etiquette, the right way to hold chopsticks is the following:

Pick up both of the chopsticks’ bottom with your eating hand.

Place the other hand’s palm at the top and under the chopsticks. Hold them firmly with the thumb of this hand.

Move your eating hand under the chopsticks and palm up.

Just place a little pressure on the upper chopstick with your eating hand’s index finger, to make it pivot on the index finger while keeping the bottom chopstick stationary.

Release the chopsticks from the other hand.

This procedure is the one that give you the better grip with less effort.

 

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How to use chopsticks:

Close the chopsticks to pick up food.

Open the chopsticks to peel off or break into a part.

The chopsticks should not cross each other while you use them.

Chopsticks should be placed right-left direction (the tips should be on the left) and on a chopstick rest. When a chopstick rest is not available (like in restaurants that use disposable chopsticks) a person may make a chopstick rest by folding the paper case that contained the chopsticks.

Disposable chopsticks (割り箸waribashi) should be replaced into the wrapper at the end of the meal.

Reversing chopsticks to use the opposite clean end is commonly used to move food from a communal plate, and is acceptable if there are no communal chopsticks.

To separate a piece of food in two, exert controlled pressure on the chopsticks while moving them apart from each other in order to tear the food.

Japanese people will always offer their plate to transfer it directly, or pass a person’s plate along if the distance is great.

 

Where to hold chopsticks:

The correct place to put your fingers while holding them is two-thirds of the way from the bottom.

This is a video that explain how to move, how to separate, and other fun and interesting things on chopsticks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3vBqX1NTBc

The Story of Chopsticks

Chopsticks originated in ancient China with the Shang dynasty (1766-1122 BC), The first chopsticks were probably used for cooking, stirring the fire, serving or seizing bits of food, and not as eating utensils.

It was not until the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644 BC) that chopsticks came into normal use for both serving and eating, acquiring the present shape.

By 500 AC, chopstick use spread from China to other Asian countries, including Japan.

While the ancient Chinese character for chopsticks (箸) was latter replaced with a different character, in Japanese it is still in use with the phonetic reading of “hashi”.

This reading was given because, at first, they were a single piece of bamboo connected at one end (折箸 oribashi). This connection resemble a bridge, that in Japanese is also called “hashi” (橋).

By the 10th century AC, they began to be made as two separate pieces and used in pairs, as they are today.

Originally, they were used strictly for religious ceremonies.

Chopsticks are still important in traditional Japanese funeral rites, in the ritual treatment of the cremated remains.

Guests use a pair of mismatched chopsticks (one stick of wood and one of bamboo) to put the bone fragments leftover of the deceased in the urn, starting with the feet to ensure the upright orientation of the body within the urn.

This because they believe that the world of the alive and the dead are separate by a river. To help the dead to go from one bank to another through an imaginary bridge (hashi), they use chopsticks (hashi).

Another funeral ritual is to offer incense, or to stuck a departed family member’s personal pair of chopsticks in the bowl of uncooked rice, and place it upon the family altar as an offer.

For these rituals, it is forbidden to pass food directly from one person’s chopsticks to another’s, to use a mismatched pair of them, and to stick chopsticks in a bowl of rice and leaving them in a vertical position.

Soon chopsticks started to be used for casual eating as well.

This because, as the Chinese cooking methods, Japanese, before stir-frying the food, cut it into tiny pieces, making easy to them to manipulate the food with chopsticks.

In the 17th century AC, the wood began to be lacquered to make them more durable, waterproof and easier to clean.

Plus, the ornate designs make them some of the most attractive and unique chopsticks in the world, reflecting the highly artistic culture of the islands.

Japanese chopsticks are shorter than most chopsticks from other countries. They are typically 7-9 inches long (20-23cm), rounded, and tapered to a point.

Nowadays, chopsticks are usually made of bamboo, sandalwood, pine or plastic, and more expensive sets are made of lacquered wood, silver or even jade.

 

Note:

In Japan chopsticks were are also known as otemoto (おてもと), since て means hand and もと means the area under or around something. The preceding おo is used for politeness.

This word now is just used on the wrappers of disposable chopsticks.