By Porter Lang
Look at the tips first. Japanese chopsticks end in a point, and that one detail explains most of the other differences.
The basic shape
Wikipedia’s article on chopsticks says Japanese pairs are typically sharp and pointed, which helps in dissecting fish and seafood, and that many have grooves around the eating end to stop food slipping. It gives a general range of 23 to 26 centimetres and says Japanese chopsticks are often shorter for women, with smaller sizes for children. It gives no separate Japan figures, so we give none. The Japanese word is hashi (箸). The article calls the common belief that the word is otemoto a misconception: te is hand, moto refers to the area under or around something, and o is a politeness prefix.
Types, as the article lists them
Traditional ones are wood or bamboo, and often lacquered. Lacquered pairs are called nuribashi. Cooking chopsticks, ryoribashi, are 30 centimetres or more, often bamboo and sometimes looped together with a string. Reusable personal chopsticks are maihashi, “my chopsticks”. Disposable waribashi are usually unlacquered, a piece of wood partly cut so that the user splits it, which shows the pair is unused. Wikipedia says Japan uses around 24 billion pairs a year, almost 200 per person.
Wakasa-nuri, from Obama
Wikipedia says traditional lacquered pairs are produced in Obama, in Fukui Prefecture, in many colours of natural lacquer, decorated with abalone mother-of-pearl and eggshell. Two further sources describe the craft. Wargo, a Japanese retailer’s blog, which we treat as promotional, says it has about 400 years of history and that the lord Sakai Tadakatsu gave the eggshell and gold-leaf technique its name, Wakasa-nuri, in the middle of the Edo period. It says over a dozen coloured lacquer layers are applied and then polished with stones and charcoal to reveal the patterns, a process called togidashi. Simple English Wikipedia lists eggshell, seashell and pine needles as decorations.
Where the two pages part
The retailer’s blog says chopsticks require over 60 steps, nearly all by one craftsman, and take several months to a year. Simple English Wikipedia says production has 18 steps, done by one artisan, and that a pair takes at least half a year. The blog says lacquered chopsticks hold over 80 per cent of the market share for Wakasa lacquerware products. Simple English Wikipedia says Obama City lacquer chopsticks account for 80 per cent of domestic production, that almost all are factory-made, and that artisan-made pairs are less than 1 per cent of Obama’s domestic production. Those are different claims, and we report them side by side. The blog dates the national Traditional Craft designation to 1978; the other page does not mention one.
The rules
Tokyo Weekender, an English-language magazine, says Japan supposedly has over 70 rules of chopstick etiquette, and names seven. Tatebashi is standing chopsticks upright in rice, which it links to funeral rites. Hiroibashi is passing food chopstick to chopstick, which it links to a funeral custom. Jikabashi is taking shared food with your own chopsticks; it says to use the serving pair. Kamibashi is biting the chopsticks. Wikipedia’s article gives an overlapping set: do not cross them on the table; place them horizontally with the tips pointing left; avoid reversing them to use the clean end; rest the tips on a chopstick rest, or on a folded wrapper if there is none. It adds that formal use calls for returning waribashi to their wrapper at the end of a meal.
A short history
The magazine says archaeological evidence shows chopsticks in some form from the Yayoi period, 300 BC to AD 300, and that early ones were a single piece of bamboo bent like tweezers, used mainly in rituals. It says they spread from the imperial family and nobility, and became widespread from the Kamakura period, 1185 to 1333, by which time they were two separate pieces. In the Edo period, it says, they were made from cedar and other woods.
Dates in order
- Yayoi period, 300 BC to AD 300: chopsticks in some form, according to Tokyo Weekender.
- Kamakura period, 1185 to 1333: widespread, as two pieces, according to Tokyo Weekender.
- Early Edo period, 1596 to 1615: Wakasa lacquerware said to begin, according to Simple English Wikipedia.
- Middle Edo period: the name Wakasa-nuri, according to the retailer’s blog.
- 1978: national designation, according to the retailer’s blog only.
Side by side
The two Wakasa pages agree on Obama, the Edo period and the eggshell, shell and pine-needle decoration. They disagree on steps, time and what the 80 per cent measures. Our reading: a craft with a few remaining artisans and a large factory output invites two kinds of figure, and the sources may be counting different things. That is our inference.
What kind of sources these are
Wikipedia and Simple English Wikipedia, both open to editing; a retailer’s blog, promotional; and an English-language magazine. We read no Obama city or lacquer association page. We name no model, no size for sale and no care advice, since none was sourced.
What we left out
Prices, and the retailer blog’s remark on a presentation of chopsticks to a foreign politician. Origin details of the first Obama lacquer tray, which the sources tell differently. Import and trade figures for disposable chopsticks.
Quick answers
What are Japanese chopsticks like? According to Wikipedia, they are typically sharp and pointed, often with grooves at the eating end, and the general range is 23 to 26 centimetres.
What is tatebashi? Tokyo Weekender says it is standing chopsticks upright in rice, which it links to funeral rites. It advises keeping them flat when not eating.
Where does Wakasa-nuri come from? Simple English Wikipedia says Obama City in Fukui Prefecture. It lists eggshell, seashell and pine needles among the decorations.
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