How To Use Chopsticks
Many traditions get misrepresented and lost in translation (in my own dissertation discussion chapter I even analyzed this phenomenon).
Yes, you too can use Chopsticks. Here are some web pages to help you:
Chopstick Taboos
- Kaki-Bashi
- To rake in or shovel food on one's mouth attached to plate or bowl.
- Yose-Bashi
- To pull your plate around with chopsticks.
- Sashi-Bashi
- To pick up food by stabbing it
- Namida-Bashi
- To drop the sauce from the food of from chopsticks.
- Komi-Bashi
- To overfill one's mouth by stuffing food with chopsticks.
- Neburi-Bashi
- To lick the tips of the chopsticks.
- Nigiri-Bashi
- To hold two sticks together as one would grasp a knife to attack.
- Watashi-Bashi
- To place chopsticks on top of the bowl.
- Tataki-Bashi
- To tap the chopsticks against the bowl to call someone.
- Yoko-Bashi
- To use two chopsticks held together as a spoon
- Mayoi-Bashi
- Wandering chopsticks over several foods without decision
- Utsuri-Bashi
- Changing the food you choose after you have touched a certain food.
- Saguri-Bashi
- Looking for contents in a soup with chopsticks.
Do not stick chopsticks into your food, especially not into rice. Only at funerals are chopsticks stuck into the rice that is put onto the altar.
Do not pass food with your chopsticks directly to somebody else's chopsticks. Only at funerals are the bones of the cremated body given in that way from person to person.
It is improper to wet chopsticks to a height of more than three centimeters. Food stains of a length between one and a half and three centimeters are judged acceptable.
Do not point with your chopsticks to something or somebody.
Do not move your chopsticks around in the air too much, nor play with them.
Kevin ()
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