Expensive Sushi with Cheap Chopsticks?

[SuzySushi]

The funeral association in Shinto practice is the same as you describe. It's used when preparing ritual food sacrifices, presumably to help the dead person eat. Also, I believe due to association with funerals, it's not good to directly pass food from one pair of chopsticks to another.

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AFAIK, the taboo against passing food from one pair of chopsticks to another derives from a Japanese funeral ritual in which the bones of the dead are picked from the ashes after cremation and passed from one mourner to another before being interred in an urn. I've never seen this personally.

[hzrt8w]

I am just wondering... if we go to a formal Japanese banquet, like a wedding or opening ceremony or something, in Japan, do they provide the same cheap wooden chopsticks or some better ones? Or does everybody brings his/her own chopsticks?

[SuzySushi]

I am just wondering... if we go to a formal Japanese banquet, like a wedding or opening ceremony or something, in Japan, do they provide the same cheap wooden chopsticks or some better ones?  Or does everybody brings his/her own chopsticks?

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Wooden or bamboo chopsticks. Often they provide more finely finished chopsticks made of cedar or another fragrant wood. They're still meant to be thrown away, though. (I reuse mine!)

[prasantrin]

There are, of course, exceptions with the chopsticks behavior as well: namely, some families keep a few pair of lacquered "guest chopsticks". They are used pretty rarely and don't become strongly identified with a family member, but rather broadly with all outsiders to the home. And it is possible to hear an apology at a private home that they have no guest chopsticks other than waribashi.

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Years ago, I had an extended stay at a friend's house in Kyoto. My first dinner with the family, my friend took out a pile of unused (still in their bags) chopsticks, from which I chose my favourite pair. Those chopsticks became my chopsticks for my entire stay with them, and when I go back to visit, they're still my chopsticks. I also had my own tray (at dinner, each person had a cute tray on which their meal was placed).

The only place I have seen reusable chopsticks is at my school's shakokan (aka shokudo). We have plastic chopsticks, which get washed and reused, and also waribashi. Most people seem to use the plastic ones--a nod to the environment, perhaps?

[Chef Metcalf]

It's part of the ritual too I think, the crack of the balsa wood, the razzering back and forth to make sure there's no splinters.

And what about the interesting interaction of the next ten minutes trying to figure out how exactly do you make that paper crane hashi holder anyway?

Maybe the bottom line is that balsa wood grips the food, laquered or plastic chopsticks don't.

In a nutshell, we need all the help we can get.

Chinese plastic chopsticks always remind me of the scene where Julia Roberts shoots the escargo across the restaurant. Same same!

[JasonTrue]

This rubbing of chopsticks together is one of the bad habits of on-the-run businesspeople that Westerners seem to have unfortunately picked up on and taken as obligatory.

In fact, the only time this rubbing practice is really acceptable is when eating noodles at a quick-service shop, such as in a train station. It is not intended to remove splinters, but actually to raise them, increasing friction when food is picked up, making it faster to grab the noodles.

In any other context, it's not really good manners or desirable behavior.

It's part of the ritual too I think, the crack of the balsa wood, the razzering back and forth to make sure there's no splinters.

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[Chef Metcalf]

In fact, the only time this rubbing practice is really acceptable is when eating noodles at a quick-service shop

That it may be, but it's also something that you see on a daily basis in any cross section of restaurants in Japan.

Good or bad manners aside.

[helenjp]

Rubbing chopsticks...I don't think I remember when I last saw that in a restaurant - it is pretty bad manners .

Expensive restaurants certainly use a better grade of chopsticks, but some people apparently feel that even the most expensive bamboo chopsticks should be the pull-apart type, just to demonstrate that nobody has used them before.

And what about the chopsticks made from fresh, green-skinned live bamboo? They are definitely delivering a message about freshness!

Teacups - I think the "grab any cup" thing is pretty modern. When I first came to Japan, every family I knew assigned cups, ricebowls and chopsticks to individuals. Sometimes they would move to the family altar after death - I remember seeing a special ricebowl and teacup etc being used for the main offering at a family altar, and a little line-up of deceased relatives' personal teacups (full of tea of course) behind that.

I do the same thing that Prasantrin's friends do - regular visitors have their own chopsticks, and I remember which rice bowl and cup they have, and rarely use them otherwise. It's quite fun, and my sons' closest friends always rush to get *their* chopsticks with great pride.

[Hiroyuki]

In Japan, plain wood (shiraki) gives the impression of cleanliness and sacredness. Even today, celebratory chopsticks (iwaibashi) like these are often used at New Year's holidays. They are for one time use only, just like waribashi.

The point is, guests at a house and customers at a restaurant are supposed to be given plain wood waribashi to honor them as such (no matter how cheap they may appear to you).

[Pontormo]

This morning on National Public Radio there was a story related to this topic.

The Chinese government is planning to impose a tax on disposable wooden chopsticks to thwart ecological disaster.