One winter day, according to a famous story, the warlord Oda Nobunaga went outside and found that his sandals were missing. He asked Saru, Monkey, as he called his young servant, where they were. The servant took them out of his robe and said that he had warmed them. The servant later became Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the ruler of Japan.
The story first appears in Ehon Taikōki, a popular illustrated biography. The magazine Waraku notes that no other source has it, so it cannot be called true.
In a sumo stable, the stablemaster assigns young wrestlers of makushita rank and below to each sekitori, a wrestler of the top two divisions. They serve him as tsukebito, attendants.
The number has no fixed rule. A jūryō wrestler is said to have one or two attendants, a makuuchi wrestler two or three, an ōzeki three or four, and a yokozuna seven to ten.
In a sumo stable, the wrestlers eat around low round tables, a few at a time. They eat in the order of the banzuke, the ranking list, from the top down. The meal is served by wrestlers of low rank.
The Ajinomoto Foundation for Dietary Culture described these customs in its exhibition Sumō to shoku, Sumo and Food.
A zenza is an apprentice rakugo storyteller. On stage, the zenza turns the mekuri, the card that shows the name of the next performer. He folds the masters’ haori jackets and kimono.
He takes particular care over serving tea. One storyteller recalled for Gendai Business: Mazu shishōgata ga irasshattara ocha o dasu. Kimono ni kigae owattara ocha o dasu. Kōza ga owattara ocha o dasu. When the masters arrive, serve tea. When they have changed into kimono, serve tea. When they come off the stage, serve tea.
In 2017, the Daily Sports newspaper described daily life at the Takarazuka Music School. Classes began at 9 a.m., and before that came a thorough cleaning, so the students arrived at 6:30. They also had to bow to Hankyu trains, because a senior student might be on board.
In 2020, the Kobe Shimbun reported changes. The cleaning done by the first-year students, the yokasei, was divided among three groups, and the rule that first-year students may answer only hai or iie, yes or no, was being dropped.
At a Japanese company dinner, drinks are poured by others, a custom called oshaku. A business guide in Mynavi News explains that the person of lower standing generally pours for the person of higher standing. The pouring goes around in order, beginning with the guest of honor and the most senior seats.
A personal finance site notes that there was a culture in which tejaku, letting a superior pour his own drink, was considered rude.
A future employee wrote to a Japanese personal finance site before starting work in April. The company had told the writer about a rule: new employees come to work early in the morning and clean.
The site answered with the definition of working time from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. Working time is any time under the employer’s direction, whether the direction is stated or implied. Early cleaning that the company directs, even tacitly, counts as working time and must be paid, even if no rule is written down.
At a Japanese wedding reception, one of the speeches is given by the shuhin, the guest of honor. The wedding magazine Zexy advises couples to give this speech to jibuntachi yori meue no hito, a person above them in standing, with whom they hope to keep a relationship.
If the guest of honor is the boss at work, Zexy suggests asking in person and in private: Puraibēto de onegai shitai koto ga arimasu. Ojikan itadakenai deshō ka. There is something private I would like to ask. Could you spare me some time?
A well-known story tells how Ishida Mitsunari entered the service of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Hideyoshi stopped at a temple and asked for tea. A temple boy first served a cup almost full of lukewarm tea. Hideyoshi asked for more. The boy served less tea, a little hotter. The third time, he served a small amount of quite hot tea in a small cup. Hideyoshi was impressed by the boy’s attentiveness and asked the abbot for him.
The story is known as sanken no cha, the three offerings of tea. It first appears in Bushō kanjōki, published in 1716, and was later retold in Ehon Taikōki and Meishō genkōroku. It is most likely a later invention.
The most senior person is shown to the kamiza, the seat of honor. In a meeting room with chairs on both sides of a central table, it is the seat farthest from the door.
The order applies in a taxi too. The seat of honor is directly behind the driver, followed by the seat behind the front passenger and then the middle of the back seat.