In Japanese food culture, chopsticks aren’t merely an item of cutlery, but a symbolic presence connecting nature and humanity.

Blessed with abundant forests, Japan has long made use of diverse tree species for tableware, incorporating wood’s benefits—lightness, pleasant mouthfeel, and antibacterial—into daily life.

Chopsticks in particular have a special presence due to their role in receiving nature’s bounties as the sole implements used to bring food to one’s mouth. Called hashi in Japanese, their name is said to originate from a homophone, hashi (bridge), implying a link between humans and the gods, thus their handling embodies gratitude and reverence for life.

This window expresses the sense of a vibrant, seasonal forest connecting seamlessly with the dining table through objets d’art featuring diverse tree species, styled like bonsai, and a sculpture of chopsticks rising from a large bowl adorned with wood radicals, the basic building blocks of kanji characters. The spiritual essence of precisely arranging a single pair of hashi, combined with the natural presence evoked by the scent of wood, reflects the pleasing aesthetics inherent in Japanese food culture within the space.

Yasuko Sato, Art Director