Featured What are these wooden containers? Chinese?

Hi all, I picked up these three containers at auction recently-I would love to know what they are? Sometimes I like to pick up oddities . I didn't actually realise they had lids and open until just now! They are all approx. 3.5"L. Any idea of age? all help appreciated, thank you.

 

looks like bamboo salt and pepper....and a ????

 

Does appear to be.

 

I like them.Looks like they have some age. Answer is written on them?

 

I will use the old Google translate and see how far I get, thanks!

 

Of course! Why didn't I think of that?!

 

I think the markings will tell more of their purpose an' probable contents...they appear to be inverted, bicbw.

They're bamboo, not wood...

 

I'm not having a huge amount of luck translating but the one with hole in the side seems to say "Shichimi". The others are coming up as "Small frying technique" and "simulate" . I'm thinking Japanese then rather than Chinese maybe?

 

Japanese was also my 1st inclination ...


For millennia, the fast-growing, resource-efficient and versatile grass known as bamboo has been used in Japan for everything from handmade craft to cuisine – and has also become a symbol of strength, simplicity, and prosperity. Perhaps one of the earliest purposes in Japanese culture was as food.

 

The tubes are upside down in the photo, but from left to right they are containers for shichimi (a Japanese spice mixture of seven spices), pepper, and toothpicks. Because of the Japanese spice mix, they are Japanese, not Chinese (although the characters are Chinese).

 

Thanks for the info, much appreciated! Any idea of age at all?