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| freshly-made mochi |
Mochi (餅, rice cake) is a popular Japanese food traditionally made by pounding warm, cooked rice with a large wooden mallet until it becomes a soft, chewy substance. A short-grain glutinous rice is used to give it the sticky, highly-elastic quality that characterizes it. There are many ways to eat it, such as with sweets, soups, and more. It’s also used as decoration during the New Year’s holiday season. Nowadays, mochi-making machines exist, but the culture is not lost. The traditional "mochi-pounding ceremony," Mochitsuki (餅つき), is still fairly common, especially around this time of the year.
I’ve have the opportunity to participate twice at elementary schools, and I've really enjoyed each experience. The yearly event draws the local community together, and many of the students' parents or grandparents come to help out. During my first time last year, I meet some very friendly grandfathers. This year, I had chances to meet more of the students’ fathers. This kind of friendliness has been a really nice aspect of the events.
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| Hammering rice into mochi |
Of course, the actual process of making mochi by hand can be pretty fun too and involves three basic steps. First, the rice is soaked and cooked overnight. Second, the rice is pounded with wooden mallets in a heavy wooded mortar. And lastly, the gooey mass is formed into small round balls or other shapes. Based on my personal experience, it seems like the second step of mochi-pounding is traditionally reserved for men, whereas women take on the third step of forming the mochi into shapes. Certainly anyone is free to participate in any step they wish (and all kids at the school--boys and girls--get to swing the mallet a few times), but I’ve never seen a single Japanese women pounding mochi nor a Japanese man rolling it into balls. I don’t think it’s sexist, I think it’s just based on preference. Men generally like to puff out their chest, flex their arms, and smack mochi with the heavy mallet, while women generally like to chat and gossip around a table with their friends.
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| Students' mothers rolling mochi balls |
At the elementary school events I attended, there were a few different kinds of mochi to choose from when all was said and done. Last year we were a but spoiled; for example, we could make a ice cream and mochi dish with a variety of toppings like red bean paste, sprinkles, even chocolate chips. It was awesome! However, this year was slightly less extravagant and was limited to kinako mochi (roasted and slightly sweet with soy flour coating) and ozoni (a kind of mochi and vegetable soup). But both are traditional New Year’s specialties and very delicious.
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| Left: ozoni, Right: kinako mochi |
