Chopstick Etiquette

Holding your chopsticks properly:

The lower chopstick should rest at the base of your thumb. Lean it lightly against your ring finger, just a little above the first joint.
The upper stick should sit a little higher above the first joint on the thumb, and rest against your index and middle fingers.

Many people make the mistake of trying to move both sticks at the same time when grabbing foods. But ONLY the top stick should move by moving only the index and middle finger. Ideally your thumb should never move. The thumb and ring finger should be used to keep the lower stick from moving around, and just to keep it steady.

Bad Manners: TABOO
The following is ONLY for traditional Japanese, and other cultures it may not be taboo, but when eating in the presence of Japanese people, it is not well received.

1. Standing Chopsticks: sticking your chopsticks in food is for Buddhist chopsticks and is only permitted as an offering in meals at the bedside of the dead or deceased.
2. Skewering Chopsticks: Impaling food with your chopsticks.
3. Pointing Chopsticks: Do not point especially at people with them.
4. Chopstick to Chopstick: Transferring food from one chopstick directly to someone else’s chopstick. This is only done in a Japanese funeral ritual where they transfer the bone of the dead chopstick to chopstick.
5. Licking Chopsticks: Grabbing bits of foods from the tip of the chopstick with your tongue.
6. Pillaging Chopsticks: Ransacking a dish with your chosptick for only the things you like.
7. Shoveling Chopsticks: Bringing a dish up to your mouth and rapidly devouring the food in gulps. (bringing the dish up to your mouth such as rice is okay, but just not shoveling the food into your mouth is not)
8. Drumming Chopsticks: Tapping your chopsticks on the table or plate.
9. Pulling Chopsticks: Drawing a dish or anything closer to you with your chopsticks.
10. Touching Chopsticks: Putting the hand that is holding your chopsticks in contact with a dish.
11. Waving Chopsticks: Shaking off food that is attached to the tips of your chopsticks.
12. Biting Chopsticks: Holding your chopsticks in your mouth.
13. Crossing Chopsticks: Placing chopsticks in a cross formation at the table. This is another Japanese funeral ritual.
14. Rubbing Chopsticks: It is rude to rub wooden disposable chopsticks together after breaking them apart. This communicates to the host that the user thinks the chopsticks are cheap.

For those that wish to find their right size chopstick
When you make an arrow at a right angle with the thumb and index finger of your dominant hand, the length between your thumb and index finger is called the “hitoata”. Chopsticks that are roughly 1.5 times this length are your “perfect pair”.
Length will depend on the individual’s preference of course, and since it must be balanced with the thickness, you should treat this only as a rough guide. Most chopsticks are an average of 8.5 ~ 9″ length, so again, this is just a guide if you are a fortunate one to be able to get your own personalized chopstick made for you!

See our chopstick line here!

This entry was posted on Friday, July 10th, 2009 at 9:44 am and is filed under Information. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.