Oki Sato, the creative force behind Nendo, recently teamed up with chopstick manufacturer Hashikura Matsukan to reinvent the ancient utensil and rethink the way we use it. The result was the collection of six beautiful designs, out of which we would like to point out two - rassen and kamiai. Both are marked by the same principle - combining a pair into a single entity. Nendo explains:

Chopsticks ordinarily come in pairs, but the rassen chopsticks are a single unit. They’re separated into two for eating, then rejoined into one form when not in use.

Unlike the rassen chopsticks, that intertwine via spiral rotation, kamiai utilize an external element. The chopsticks interlock thanks to the magnets placed at the base of each piece. Kamiai simply snap together when they are flipped and fitted to each other. The magnets are inserted towards the outside of each chopstick, so that the chopsticks don’t get locked accidentally while someone is using them to eat.