[HN Gopher] A Japanese Glossary of Chopsticks Faux Pas
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A Japanese Glossary of Chopsticks Faux Pas
Author : cainxinth
Score : 73 points
Date : 2026-03-20 20:54 UTC (2 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.nippon.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.nippon.com)
| dibujaleojos wrote:
| Holy cow! I thought there was going to be a list of 8 of them...
| There's like 40!
| Fricken wrote:
| And I thought the Inuit had a lot of words for snow.
|
| I wonder how many of these words a typical Japanese person can
| list off the top of their head.
| cthalupa wrote:
| Interesting. Some of these are big deals (particularly the ones
| mentioned as important) but others I have seen Japanese people in
| Tokyo do quite consistently. Soroebashi - not on the table, but
| I've seen chopsticks aligned by pushing them against the plate
| hundreds of time. I've also seen them used to stir miso soup,
| etc. plenty.
|
| Others I don't know that I would have much of an inclination to
| do and haven't seen but am not sure if it's because it really is
| a faux pas or just because no one else really tends to do it
| either.
| wahnfrieden wrote:
| it's like western etiquette: upper class, fine dining
| traditional practices are not what you'll see everyday even
| among polite society. the spectrum of behaviors will also
| depend on one's company.
| jeffbee wrote:
| Yeah? How are you supposed to line up the sticks? And stir the
| soup? I think the "Mawashibashi" faux pas is to whip the soup
| like a madman, or to aimlessly swish it, and the translated
| listicle doesn't convey that.
| 0x3f wrote:
| You could surreptitiously agitate the soup as you pull out
| the solid contents.
| frereubu wrote:
| I've seen those too. I was going to say that I've seen people
| put the bowl to their mouth and shovel food in with chopsticks,
| but now that I come to think about it that might well actually
| be from the series Tokyo Diner and Takeshi Kitano films, and
| may be deliberately uncouth characterisations...
| emursebrian wrote:
| Most of these are common sense. As a tourist foreigner, you also
| aren't expected to know all the customs but it's appreciated when
| you try. The one about which direction to NOT point the
| chopsticks in was new to me. If you just watch what other people
| are doing, then try to do the same thing, you're probably on the
| right track.
|
| Related to eating, one pro-tip I got from a local is that when
| you're ready to close your tab or get your check at a bar or
| restaurant, you can make a small X with your index fingers.
|
| Really useful in a busy bar!
| 0x3f wrote:
| > Most of these are common sense.
|
| A lot of them are not common sense at all. Even the 'serious'
| ones require cultural knowledge to understand. Only a subset of
| the rest would be un-ideal across cultures, which is what I
| would use to measure 'common sense'.
|
| It's like how in some asian cultures it's rude to bring the
| bowl closer to you by lifting it off the table, and in others
| it's the opposite. And of course there's some just-so story for
| why, that seems to make sense if you don't know about the
| opposing just-so story.
|
| Things like that aren't what I'd call common sense.
| morkalork wrote:
| A bunch of the common sense ones, like not pointing at
| someone with your ustensiles, are the same in western
| etiquette.
| SpecialistK wrote:
| > The one about which direction to NOT point the chopsticks in
| was new to me.
|
| I suspect it mostly affects left handed people.
| mjamesaustin wrote:
| I was shocked to find it's a faux pas to rub disposable
| chopsticks to remove potential splinters. I was taught this is
| what you're supposed to do with disposable chopsticks.
| WorldPeas wrote:
| right? What's the right way? I don't want splinters on the most
| sensitive surface in my body..
| cthalupa wrote:
| The splinters come from where they break apart and there's
| not really any reason to have that part of the chopsticks
| touching your skin.
|
| But you move away from break apart disposable chopsticks in
| Japan long before you get to high etiquette dining. In my
| experience, basically every restaurant in Japan that isn't
| of, like, fast food tier, provides actual chopsticks instead
| of disposable ones.
| waffletower wrote:
| I had mostly disposables but they were actually lathed
| wood. The crude rectangular cut chopsticks are terrible --
| usually not for splinters, but they often break
| imperfectly, leaving you with two sticks with different
| lengths.
| floren wrote:
| For those cheap chopsticks, I've found the best way to
| break them is to grasp them at the very tips, then move
| your two hands away from each other briskly without
| twisting, just straight apart. I haven't had many break
| badly since I started doing this.
| dmit wrote:
| I once witnessed a local admonish another (younger) local for
| exactly that at a bar. He replied with a bratty "Not my fault
| they're using crappy chopsticks..."
| raised_by_foxes wrote:
| It's rude if it's a nice establishment, as it conveys your
| belief that the chopsticks are of low quality. So that's what
| you're signaling with that. If everyone already knows they are
| cheap (e.g. disposable), then have at it.
| triceratops wrote:
| If a nice establishment has splintery chopsticks maybe they
| should look in the mirror.
| radley wrote:
| I agree. I always have to do it, except at the rare
| restaurants. Not just splinters, but rough edges too.
| wagwang wrote:
| Always interesting to see the analogs of island vs continental
| culture when comparing UK <-> America and Japan <-> China. Seems
| like islanders, due to their reliance on trade, naturally get
| specialized and autistic about their craft so they can have a
| comparative advantage, and their obsessions carry over into
| stuffy traditional practices.
| dugidugout wrote:
| Would you mind sharing your insight? I'd be interested to hear!
| 0x3f wrote:
| I counter with the American swap-the-fork-hand-after-you-cut
| thing. Diabolical.
| dgxyz wrote:
| That's just mental. Does my head in when I see it.
| mlhpdx wrote:
| American raised by a Brit here, and I was literally just
| doing this during lunch out. I consider the upside down
| fork just plain torture.
| bigwheels wrote:
| Fascinating culture and raises numerous questions arising from my
| subsequent confusion:
|
| 1. _> Fan shiZhu Kaeshibashi (also known as Ni saZhu
| sakasabashi)
|
| > To turn the chopsticks around when serving food so that the
| tips of the chopsticks that have touched one's mouth do not touch
| the food._
|
| Does this mean it is preferable to use the tips that may have
| touched mouth to then serve more food? Or is this considered fine
| because it's also taboo to touch the tips to your mouth? (which
| only a BARBARIAN would do!)
|
| 2. _> kosuriZhu Kosuribashi
|
| > To rub waribashi (disposable chopsticks) together to remove
| splinters._
|
| Just proceed to eat some splinters, then? What is the good
| etiquette way to handle low quality el-cheapo chopsticks?
|
| ---
|
| I have been guilty of the above as well as:
|
| Chigiribashi - Hold one chopstick in each hand and use them like
| a knife and fork to tear or cut food into smaller pieces.
|
| Soroebashi - Hold chopsticks together and tap them on a dish or
| the top of the table to align the tips.
|
| Namidabashi - Allow sauce or soup to drip from the tips of the
| chopsticks when eating. Namida means "tears."
|
| Nigiribashi - Grip both chopsticks in a fist.
|
| Neburibashi - Lick the chopsticks.
|
| Hashibashi - Place the chopsticks like a bridge across the top of
| a dish to show one is finished. Chopsticks should be placed on
| the hashioki (chopstick rest).
|
| Furibashi - Shake off soup, sauce, or small bits of food from the
| tips of the chopsticks.
|
| Mogibashi - Bite off and eat grains of rice that are stuck to the
| chopsticks.
|
| Yokobashi - Line the chopsticks up together and use them like a
| spoon to scoop up food.
|
| .. growing up my mom used to say, "What are you, raised by
| wolves!?" .. apparently, yes!
| vitus wrote:
| > Kaeshibashi
|
| The preference is to use a separate pair of communal chopsticks
| that is not used directly for eating.
|
| > Kosuribashi
|
| I have heard that this one is because it's considered to be an
| insult implying that the chopsticks are low-quality. (That
| said, if your chopsticks are indeed low-quality, then avoiding
| splinters is probably preferable to then visibly plucking
| splinters out of your fingers.)
| 0x3f wrote:
| > Just proceed to eat some splinters, then? What is the good
| etiquette way to handle low quality el-cheapo chopsticks?
|
| Well first of all the chopsticks are joined at the non-eating
| end, typically. So the splinters would be bothering your
| fingers more than anything.
|
| It's rude because it insults the host, in a way. Anywhere that
| would care about you doing it should not be giving you the
| cheap chopsticks in the first place. If you're in a place that
| gives you them, they probably don't care about you doing it.
| sudo_cowsay wrote:
| There are steel chopsticks (though not really common <-- only
| in Korea).
| wenc wrote:
| The disposable wooden chopsticks in Japan don't splinter
| (they're higher quality and cost more than the ones we have in
| the US).
|
| That's why you don't need to rub to get rid of splinters.
| reaperducer wrote:
| _The disposable wooden chopsticks in Japan don't splinter_
|
| If that was always true, there wouldn't be a word for it.
|
| I've been given some pretty gnarly chopsticks at roadside
| places outside the main metropolitan areas.
| moron4hire wrote:
| I think it's important to point out that these are good manners
| for eating with Japanese people, not good manners for eating
| with chopsticks. There is no requirement to emulate Japanese
| eating manners if you're not in Japan and not anywhere near a
| person raised in Japanese cultur. There are other cultures that
| use chopsticks that do not necessarily have these manners.
| _spduchamp wrote:
| What a coincidence... I was just in my backyard shed playing with
| my robot chopstick. https://youtu.be/BhBXliscj0I
| morkalork wrote:
| Namidabashi and Furibashi seem like a contradiction
| frereubu wrote:
| > koziZhu Kojibashi (also known as hoziriZhu hojiribashi)
|
| > To use the chopsticks to pick something out from near the
| bottom of the dish.
|
| I think there must be some bits that are lost in translation for
| some of these. This makes it sound like you can't eat all of the
| food in a bowl with your chopsticks.
| FartyMcFarter wrote:
| Maybe it means that you're digging up food that is under other
| food?
| bigwheels wrote:
| It's like core-ing out the goody bits from an otherwise bland
| pint of ice cream. Who would ever do such a disgusting and
| selfish thing? :-0
| frereubu wrote:
| Yeah, could be - that's kind of what I mean in terms of being
| lost in translation. It feels like there's missing
| information / context in quite a few of them.
|
| Edit: In fact I think you're completely right - "picking out"
| something near the bottom of the dish does suggest that.
| univerio wrote:
| I think just written in an ambiguous way: "dish" here
| refers to the food contained in the vessel and not the
| vessel itself.
| themaninthedark wrote:
| Let me check but I think it refers to a shared dish; at an
| izakaiya you often order a bunch of shared food plates and
| then serve yourself from them.
|
| It is definitely rude to use chopsticks that you just put
| in your mouth to go rooting around for something in those.
| You are supposed to take from the top and ideally turn them
| around using the back end. Some people frown on using the
| back ends however as it may have been touched by your
| hand...
|
| Edit add: It means to dig food out, either from your own
| dish or a shared one. Like mixing the food up to look for
| something you like in it.
| irishcoffee wrote:
| Fan shiZhu Kaeshibashi (also known as Ni saZhu
| sakasabashi)
|
| To turn the chopsticks around when serving food so that
| the tips of the chopsticks that have touched one's mouth
| do not touch the food.
| waffletower wrote:
| I lived in Japan for nearly 6 years and found that concern for
| faux pas such as these for hashi (chopsticks) are way way
| overblown. I used at least one thousand disposable pairs of
| chopsticks in Japan and never had the desire to smooth them --
| they are higher quality than Panda Express offerings. I knew
| about this "taboo" prior to arrival and it was simply irrelevant.
| Avoid the obvious symbolic references to makura gohan (bowl of
| rice offering to the deceased) at the end of your meal and you
| are probably golden. If you have kids in Japan, gaijin passing
| food with chopsticks to their children in a restaurant is going
| to be seen in a neutral or even sympathetic light. The Japanese
| may silently judge but they rarely sneer or harass. If you spend
| a lot of time with modern Japanese families you might be
| surprised to discover Western stereotypes of Japanese taboos are
| sometimes outdated and even incorrect. They are very aware that
| foreigners will not understand all of their customs, and many of
| those customs have decreasing importance as their culture
| evolves.
| decimalenough wrote:
| Passing food by placing it directly on someone else's plate or
| bowl is fine. The taboo is specifically about two people
| holding onto the same thing at the same tine with chopsticks,
| the way cremated bone fragments are placed into the urn at
| _kotsuage_.
|
| Other than that, I agree. It's kind of like trying to apply
| Emily Post's etiquette to TV dinners: many of these "rules"
| would be viewed as prissy by Japanese and some (eg. giving your
| miso soup a swirl with your chopsticks before drinking) are
| very, very commonly ignored.
| dekhn wrote:
| The main one for me is not putting your chopsticks on top of
| the bowl rim or putting the chopsticks sticking up from the
| rice. Those are both intuitive natural actions for me. In the
| US I rarely see chopstick rests so I'm always wonderting what
| to do with them when I'm not using them.
| AftHurrahWinch wrote:
| Phew, I'm glad "inserting them into your nostrils and braying
| like a walrus" isn't on the list.
| ngruhn wrote:
| waruburashi
| sudo_cowsay wrote:
| sacrilegious lol
| mmooss wrote:
| > To place one's mouth against the side of a dish and push food
| in with the chopsticks.
|
| I've seen people eat noodles and broth (e.g., ramen) like that a
| million times? What am I missing? How do you properly eat noodles
| and broth?
| waffletower wrote:
| That taboo is simply wrong in many contexts. Watch Tampopo
| after reading this and it can correct for a lot.
| triceratops wrote:
| Slurp the noodles and drink the broth?
| decimalenough wrote:
| It's not a taboo, it's just not considered good manners in
| formal contexts.
|
| But it's fast and efficient, which is why people do it anyway.
| mmooss wrote:
| So how does one eat ramen-like dishes in formal contexts?
| unsignedint wrote:
| The article does a good job calling out the more serious
| offenses, although I'd personally argue that nigiribashi is just
| as bad as the other two. Most Japanese people would probably
| react with a bit of shock to those.
|
| That said, chopstick etiquette is definitely evolving. Something
| like chobujubashi isn't enforced as strictly anymore, especially
| with more awareness around left-handed users. Kaeshibashi, on the
| other hand, is becoming more common, and in some social circles,
| not doing it can actually come across as rude.
| Sprotch wrote:
| Wow you used all the Japanese words, I bow to you sensei
| perdomon wrote:
| Some of these sound just as made-up as a lot of Western dining
| "rules." Maybe someone more familiar with the culture can say
| whether or not these are true faux pas in an everyday ramen shop
| or similar.
| hatthew wrote:
| I'm curious for a native's opinion on how important these are.
| The etiquette I was taught growing up in the US is a mix of:
| - several things that are often quoted as good etiquette but
| nobody follows (elbows off the table, correct order of dishes)
| - lots of things that are customary but nobody cares if you don't
| follow it (napkin on lap, placement of silverware) - only
| a few things that actually matter and would be considered rude by
| normal people (don't touch shared food with used silverware, keep
| your mouth closed while chewing)
|
| Of these several dozen "rules" for chopsticks, how many actually
| fall into the last category of things that actually matter?
| midtake wrote:
| > kosuriZhu Kosuribashi
|
| > To rub waribashi (disposable chopsticks) together to remove
| splinters.
|
| Stopped reading there. If you're handing me crappy chopsticks to
| eat with I am rubbing them together first.
| mijoharas wrote:
| For anyone else curious after reading "-bashi" 40 times:
|
| (Not gonna direct quote because the damn site doesn't allow copy-
| pasting so they don't get a link, paraphrased):
|
| Kirai-bashi would be literally translated to "dislike-chopsticks"
| and means bad chopstick table-manners. Hashi is chopsticks and
| bashi is the voiced form of it.
|
| So the bashi suffix/word on the end of all of these just means
| chopsticks it seems.
| twodave wrote:
| Glad to know I haven't picked up any seriously bad habits, but
| how the heck do you keep the chopsticks aligned without tapping
| them somewhere?
|
| Most of these seem related to health/sanitary practices/being
| considerate more than anything. Just avoiding contaminating what
| others are going to eat with your own utensils is an easy way to
| describe several of them.
| koolba wrote:
| > Yi riZhu Utsuribashi (also known as Du riZhu wataribashi)
|
| > To keep putting the chopsticks into the same side dishes. It is
| proper etiquette to first eat rice, move on to eat from a side
| dish, eat rice again, and then eat from a different side dish.
|
| So keto itself is a faux pas?
|
| > Fan shiZhu Kaeshibashi (also known as Ni saZhu sakasabashi)
|
| > To turn the chopsticks around when serving food so that the
| tips of the chopsticks that have touched one's mouth do not touch
| the food.
|
| Ewww. I'd rather be rude than share germs.
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