Make Your Own Japanese Chopsticks in a Nara Workshop

Japanese chopsticks are not the same object as their Chinese cousins. They are noticeably shorter, and they taper to a much finer point, a shape that developed for picking bones out of fish rather than reaching across a shared table. In this small Nara workshop you make a pair yourself and find out what that difference feels like in the hand.

You begin by choosing your wood from more than twelve varieties laid out in the studio, each with its own grain, weight and colour. From there the work is done with traditional hand tools: shaping the square blank down, easing the taper toward the tip, then sanding through progressively finer grits until the surface stops catching on your skin. The sanding is the part most people underestimate and end up enjoying most, because it is where a rough stick starts behaving like a finished utensil. The session runs about 45 minutes, which is enough to complete a pair without rushing but short enough to slot into a morning already spent at Todai-ji or a lunch break before the train back to Kyoto or Osaka.

It suits people who want something from Nara that is not a souvenir-shop purchase, and it works well for families, couples and solo travellers alike since the tools are simple and no woodworking experience is assumed. You take the finished chopsticks home the same day. Nara itself is compact and easy to reach, roughly 45 minutes from Kyoto and 35 to 40 minutes from Osaka by train, so the workshop pairs naturally with a half-day in Nara Park and the Naramachi merchant quarter nearby.