Chopstick Rules and Commandments

A friend of mine, a real Japan-o-maniac, recently e-mailed me a guide to proper Japanese chopstick etiquette. It was a gentle hint, I guess.

As a budding fan of Japanese food who's otherwise never let a grilled eel slither past, I was appalled to learn of my waywardly chopstickish way, as well as relieved to find that it's a relatively short list of offenses that one can commit while dining with a pair of bamboo sticks.

Some prohibitions are already familiar, or simply make sense. Just as it's bad form to let an empty fork hang limply from your mouth, you should likewise avoid dangling your chopsticks (kuwae-bashi), as well as the associated sins of sucking on them or salaciously licking the tips (name-bashi) of yours or anyone else's.

And just as you wouldn't ordinarily aim a dinner knife at someone unless planning to employ it, pointing a chopstick or even skewering your own food (sashi-bashi) is also to be avoided -- as is any other minor tabletop warfare, such as dueling over your food (ninin-bashi). Other common no-nos include cramming more food into an already filled mouth ("stuffing chopsticks," or komi-bashi), pulling entire plates of food toward you (yose-bashi, or "drawing chopsticks") or snarfing your food ("shoving chopsticks," or kaki-bashi). All these are not incomprehensible to a westerner.

There is, however, one bad that explicitly contradicts ordinary occidental etiquette. Tapping on your glass with a clean knife is, for us, a useful and polite signal to fellow diners. But in Japan, tataki-bashi -- or drumming your chopsticks against a vessel or on a table -- will draw only disapproving stares.

And -- who knew? -- you must also be careful to avoid planting your chopsticks upright in a bowl of rice, an indiscretion known as tate-bashi or "tombstone chopsticks." Unless you happen be dining at a funeral.

More curious, even, is a pair of apparent Catch-22 violations. You must neither commit namida-bashi, letting your "crying chopsticks" drip liquid, nor should you fling off any excess, that being the "shaking chopsticks" sin of furi-bashi. What's most intriguing in these prohibitions are the aesthetic screw-ups, for these are sins against the very art of eating. Saguri-bashi ("stirring chopsticks") is the unseemly act of poking around at the bottom of your soup, whether in search of treasure or not. Mayoi-bashi ("indecisive chopsticks") is the offense of loitering over the choices spread out before you. And completing this trio of indiscretions is my favorite: "capricious chopsticks," or utsuri-bashi, where you deign to pick up an item with the thought of eating it, only to put it back. It is annoying to be indecisive.

That sin, at least, is universal.

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