Japanese Chopstick Etiquette 101

Eating sushi without chopsticks is an incomplete experience, somehow. Chopsticks have become familiar utensils in Asian restaurants,  and they have also come to serve other uses such as holding up long hair or as a decorative piece.

Developed in China about 5,000 years ago, chopsticks (箸) originated as simple twigs used to remove food from the fire.  The use of chopsticks is in perfect harmony with the teachings of Confucius: “The honorable and upright man keeps well away from both the slaughterhouse and the kitchen. And he allows no knives on his table.” This further boosted the popularity of chopsticks. Chopsticks spread to Japan, Korea, and Vietnam in 500 CE. The Japanese used chopsticks strictly for religious ceremonies.  In Japan today, chopsticks are used to eat most kinds of Japanese food. Spoons, forks, and knives are commonly reserved for Western dishes.

Here are a few golden rules to remember when dining with chopsticks:

Do not eat food straight from the serving dishes.

When food is served, the proper etiquette is to take the food with the chopsticks and place it on your own plate before eating it.

Hold chopsticks correctly.

Using chopsticks isn’t as simple as it seems. It may take some practice to get the hang of it as there is a proper way to hold and use chopsticks. But once you’ve mastered using chopsticks, you can work on the next step—catching a fly with it as in the movie “Karate Kid.”

Do not let your chopsticks hover over food while deciding on which food to take.

When you use your chopsticks while your hand hovers in indecision over the food on the table, it is considered greedy or, in Japanese, sashi bashi.

Use the chopstick holder.

Most Japanese restaurants provide a chopstick holder or rest. If the chopsticks provided are disposable, there likely won’t be a chopstick holder. But you easily fashion one using the wrapper of the chopstick. Remember not to place your chopsticks upright on your food bowl, as that arrangement resembles the ceremony performed at funerals.

Do not lick the ends of your chopsticks.

An adult mouth contains 500 to 1,000 kinds of bacteria with many diseases related to oral bacteria. With that said, keep the spreading of your saliva to a minimum.

Bon appétit or more appropriately, itadakimasu!