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Chopsticks Exposed -- Talking Chopsticks

Chopsticks and Human Bodies

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On Body Size (Shindo-Shaku)

Among all of progressive countries, only in Japan does the tableware make a distinction between the sexes.
Take the "husband and wife teacup set" or "husband and wife chopsticks." In the West, a husband and wife's plates are the same size, as well as the children's plates.
The length from the tip of the index finger to the thumb when they are opened to a 90-degree angle is called the "ata" in Japan (most Japanese people don't know this age-old word). There is a term "one and a half ata-length chopsticks" for an age-old wisdom that the best length for chopsticks is 1.5 times the length of open finger "ata."
How is the length of your chopsticks?

Chopsticks Promote the Development of a Child's Intellectual Faculties

From the first cries at birth your brain cells diminish rather than increase. Nevertheless, the weight of a child's brain increases dramatically after birth, signalling the development of intellectual faculties. At age 3 or 4 the brain weight is three times that at birth, at 7 or 8 the brain weight has developed to 95% the weight of of an adult brain. At this time, a function like an electric circuit streches out from the nerve cells spreading out like a net within the brain.
Mainly the movement of the hands, especially the fingers, stimulates the development of this net. As a young child exercises the fingers, the net of nerve cells in the brain governing the movement of hands and fingers develops. In response, mobility of the hands increases and the fingers begin to function as desired, and as the ability to move the body develops, thought, understanding, and imagination processes also develop which means that using chopsticks and pencils stimulates the development of a child's intellectual faculties.
The time for children in Japan today to begin using chopsticks is a problematic issue when considering the relationship of intellectual faculties. There are children who begin using chopsticks just past the age of one, but some eat with a spoon until late. When a child around the age of two begins to show interest in chopsticks as a tool, encourage their use.

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Chopsticks Exposed -- Talking Chopsticks

Japan's Traditional Crafts

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"Rice Bowl, Soup Bowl, ... Chopsticks"

The Quintessential Japanese meal combines the three-piece set of a ceramic rice bowl, wooden soup bowl, and chopsticks. The usual combination is to fill the ceramic bowl with rice and serve soup in the wooden bowl. A ceramic and a wooden bowl along with chopsticks comprise the classic elements for a Japanese meal.
Plates snd spoons are essential but the two bowl/chopsticks set is, after all, Japanese which largely relates to the difference in rice-eating habits between Japan and other countries where chopsticks are used including Korea, China, and Vietnam. Japanese people, said to have eaten sticky rice as the main staple since mythical times, have a special affinity with the double bowl and chopsticks combination.
The fundamental Japanese meal set of the two bowls and chopsticks: matching colors and design, you can create your own tableware setting. This photograph depicts an example of such a setting.

Japanese Chopsticks: Types and Uses

A variety of techniques and styles have been cultivated in making Japanese chopsticks. Among the lacquered chopsticks are the shell patterned and eggshell patterned "Wakasa" chopsticks, the gold patterned "Wajima," the "Tsugaru," the "Aizu," and the "Hidehira" chopsticks.
There are other varieties besides lacquer chopsticks including "half-split chopsticks" and "utensil chopsticks."
Moreover,look outside of Japan and you'll find bizarre chopsticks (there are even Westerners who have been intrigued enough to peculiar chopsticks to start a chopsticks collection).
In this Hyozaemon Home Page, we will continue to introduce various kinds of chopsticks and production techniques.

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Chopsticks Exposed -- Talking Chopsticks

JIPANG - Chopstick Country

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Chopsticks Proverbs and Expressions

In Japan there are chopsticks-related proverbs and expressions.
Let us introduce a few.

"Fussing about how chopsticks are picked up and put down,"

refers to nagging about trivial and irrelevant things.

"Even stumbling chopsticks are funny"

is a reference to young women who giggle nervously at anything.

"It can't be picked up with chopsticks or hung on a pole"

actually often refers to difficult people who refuse to listen to advice from others, etc.

"He hasn't ever picked up anything heavier than chopsticks"

refers to being from a well-off family. Not only does the object of the expression never lift anything heavy but has everything done for him or her by others.
There is, incidentally, the similar English expression "He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth." The reverse situation is described with the expression "He was born with a wooden spoon..."

　

Why are Half-Split Chopsticks Snapped in Two Before Being Thrown Away?

(This section currently under development)

Chopsticks in Tales of Old

(This section currently under development)
* We are preparing the stories "The Great Viper of Yamata" and "The One-Inch Boy."

Although it is Chopsticks Country

Lacquer is painted on the outside of laquer chopsticks (nuribashi) but since synthetic lacquer products exist, safely is a concern since chopsticks touch the mouth every day.
Here at Hyozaemon a mother once raised the question, "When my child was playing with lacquer chopsticks, they left a line across paper like a colored pencil. Isn't it poisonous to put those chopsticks into one's mouth everyday?"
Hyozaemon chopsticks use 100% raw lacquer. However, since there are no food hygiene regulations for Japanese lacquer products, inferior products exist which exhibit the label "lacquer" even when synthetic lacquer has been mixed in with synthetic lacquer.
Be careful of labels declaring "lacquer."

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Chopsticks Exposed -- Talking Chopsticks

Splitting Hairs Over Utensils

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Personal "Tools of the Trade"

Carpenters in Japan who don't share their plane or saw with anyone, making sure that their tools fit their own hand perfectly, would never consider loaning out what they consider to be their own personal "Tools of the trade". the same goes for a cook and his knife and whetstone.
From childhood, Japanese people use their own special chopsticks and rice bowl, and are reticent to let anyone borrow them. To Japanese people, chopsticks and a rice bowl are one's "Personal Tools."
This has something to do with Japanese views of cleaniness and also with the feeling that chopsticks seem rather sacred, thus good fortune and long life chopsticks are often sold at shrines.
While mendicant priests carry only chopsticks and a bowl as the minimum utensils needed for eating, they also feel that there are things not to be borrowed from other people.

Easy to Hold, Easy to Stack

(This section currently under development)
*Searching for Japanese cuisine tableware "wisdoms."

Stories about Chopstick Wood Unfolded

Just as katsura wood is said to be perfect for shogi(Japanese chess)-boards and torreya wood makes the best go-boards, is there anyone who thinks that "this is the perfect material for chopsticks?" Actually there are a many types of wood that if manufactured properly make fantastic chopsticks.
Choose a few "types of wood that can be made into chopsticks" for Japanese anecdotes and superstitions about them.

Black Persimmon :

Black persimmon chopsticks are for long life. Black persimmon wood is as rare as jade.

Chestnut :

Use chestnut chopsticks for a year and you'll become a millionaire. Use chestnut chopsticks during the new year to help in getting by.

Ceder :

With a ceder cane even during hard times you can accomplish your goals.

Cypress :

The name of this wood "Asunaro" means "tomorrow it will happen," symbolizing hope.

Zelkova :

Burn the zelkova and be rid of mice for two years.

Torreya :

A sty will disappear if you brush the torreya across your eyes three times on August 15.

Horsechestnut :

The fruit of the horsechestnut tree, if borne with care, will guard against paralysis.

Ginkgo :

Hang a small ginkgo mallet from your waist as a charm to ward off colds.

Pine :

Everlasting green with the beauty of long life, the pine is exalted as the bearer of good omen.

Plum :

Biting down on the young plum branch heals toothache.

Other wood used for chopsticks include black sandalwood, purple sandalwood, cherry, and southern sky paulownia. A material called "Shuboku" or "pre-eminent wood" made of thin boards of cherry, red maple, pine, or ceder stacked in layers is some of the best material for making chopsticks. (At Hyozaemon we are currently putting together a chopsticks series called "Japanese wood" bringing alive the particular characteristics of various types of wood.)

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Chopsticks Exposed -- Talking Chopsticks

All About Eating

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Manners for Japanese Cuisine

(This section currently under development)
* Japanese cuisine begins and ends with chopsticks. I want at least to be able to eat my meals in peace.... But it doesn't hurt to know. Let us introduce a few tips for making Japanese cuisine.

Taboos when using Chopsticks

(This section currently under development)
* Yep, Japanese are sensitive about how to use chopsticks. That's why there are various taboo chopsticks terms like "fickle chopsticks," "chopstick licking," "stuffing chopsticks," "prying chopsticks," "groping chopsticks," "waving-in-the-air chopsticks," "grasping-at straws chopsticks," "skewer chopsticks," "crying chopsticks," "itching chopsticks," and "thinning chopsticks."

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