Hashikura Matsukan: 100 Years of Chopsticks from a Town That Makes 70% of Japan's Lacquered Chopsticks

A chopstick is the one tool that touches almost every meal of your life. Hashikura Matsukan has spent 100 years making that tool worth holding.

We rarely think about chopsticks. They are the quietest object on the table — and the most used. In Japan, a pair touches nearly every meal, every day, for a lifetime. Hashikura Matsukan is built on a simple idea: that something used that often deserves to be made with real care.

For over 100 years, this small maker in Obama has done exactly one thing — chopsticks — and done it better than almost anyone.

A town that makes 70% of Japan’s lacquered chopsticks

To understand Hashikura Matsukan, you have to understand Obama, a coastal town in Fukui Prefecture facing the Sea of Japan. Today it produces more than 70% of all the lacquered chopsticks made in Japan. But how it earned that title is a story most people never hear.

Centuries ago, Obama was home to many low-ranking samurai. In times of peace, when there were no wars to fight, these samurai needed another way to make a living — and they took up a side trade: wakasa-nuri, a lacquerware technique. But nearby towns like Wajima and Echizen were already famous for grand lacquered bowls and trays. So the craftsmen of Obama made a shrewd choice: they would not compete on the showpieces. They would master the one thing the big producers ignored — chopsticks. That decision, made generations ago, is why Obama owns this craft today.

Wakasa-nuri itself, now a nationally designated traditional craft, has more than 400 years of history. Its signature look comes from layering natural materials — eggshell, pine needles, seeds — under coats of lacquer, then polishing down to reveal patterns underneath. The colors are said to echo the local landscape: the sea and sky of the Japan Sea coast.

From a clog shop to a century of chopsticks

Hashikura Matsukan’s own story began with a pivot. Its founder, Tsurunosuke Matsumoto, originally ran a geta (wooden clog) shop — before changing course and moving the business into making and selling wakasa-nuri chopsticks. The company, Matsukan, was founded in 1922.

Through the upheavals of the 20th century, the family held on. As mechanization swept Japanese manufacturing, the second-generation head, Kichiji, grew the handcrafted chopstick business rather than abandoning it. The company is now into its fourth generation, and in 2022 it quietly celebrated its 100th anniversary — a century of doing one humble thing exceptionally well.

The name itself tells the story. Hashikura means “a storehouse full of chopsticks.” That is what this company is: a kura, a treasure-house, of every kind of chopstick imaginable.

“Making everyday meals a little more wonderful”

Hashikura Matsukan works to a philosophy it sums up as ohashi to, kurashi — “chopsticks, and daily life.” Their stated aim is almost childlike in the best way: to make chopsticks that spark a small sense of wakuwaku — a flutter of delight — for the people who use them.

That balance of tradition and modernity is no accident — and it has not gone unnoticed. Hashikura Matsukan has collaborated with nendo, the internationally celebrated design studio led by Oki Sato, on a series of reimagined chopsticks. Working hand in hand with the workshop’s wakasa-nuri artisans, nendo created forms no one had made before — chopsticks with pleated cross-sections that sit more comfortably in the hand, and the now-famous rassen pair that joins into a single sculptural object when set down. It is rare for a 100-year-old craft house to sit so naturally alongside cutting-edge design. Hashikura Matsukan does both, without losing itself.

That is why their range runs from deeply traditional wakasa-nuri lacquered pairs to clean, modern designs in natural wood — comfortable octagonal grips, dishwasher-friendly finishes, tips refined for picking up food cleanly. Tradition where it matters, modern sense where it helps.

Browse the current selection in our Hashikura Matsukan collection. Each piece is sourced directly from the maker in Japan.

Why a pair like this matters

It is easy to use whatever chopsticks come free with a takeaway meal. A pair from Hashikura Matsukan is the other choice: made in the town that perfected this craft, by a family in its second century, finished in a lacquer tradition four hundred years old.

It is the smallest luxury on the table — and, since you’ll reach for it every single day, perhaps the one that quietly matters most.

Explore chopsticks from Hashikura Matsukan and more at Japan Classic. Each piece is sourced directly from its maker in Japan.