Mochi for the New Year
While Christmas is celebrated in Japan to a certain extent — it’s easy to find Christmas-themed cakes or the local KFC statue of Colonel Sanders wearing a Santa hat — it’s not a very big holiday here.
What’s more celebrated is the New Year! This week we learned about some traditions from this time of year in Japan…
The first is mochi pounding (known as mochitsuki). In this (laborious) process, steamed rice is placed into a large stone mortar (usu) and pounded with specially designed wooden mallets (kine). A big part of the tradition is that people from the community take turns pounding the rice. It also becomes rather intense as one person repeatedly wets and turns the mochi with their hands in between strikes!
Speaking of intense….check out the “fastest mochi maker in Japan” at work 👇
We participated in a demo, so it was more for the experience — off to the side they were using modern machines to prepare mochi for the masses.
We enjoyed fresh mochi (dusted with peanut powder?) and also a sweet bean soup (shiruko) that is often served together with mochi.
Another new year tradition is to hang a woven straw wreath “shimenawa” in front of your house. The display includes “a fern, for honesty and longevity…an orange, for family prosperity… and a Yuzuriha [sprig], a shrub whose leaves do not fall away until a new replacement grows beneath it, represents amity between succeeding generations.” - tipsysake blog
The girls made one for our house, so hopefully we have it hanging in the right place to ward off ill and invite good fortune!
Another tradition I just heard about is kakizome (aka “the first writing of the year”) which encourages people to practice calligraphy (shodo), especially kanji for 希望 (hope), 平和 (peace), 旅 (journey), 夢 (dream), and 喜 (happiness), as a way of envisioning these things for the coming year.
Fortunately I had one last shodo class to attend this year. Sensei had me practice writing the kanji shōgatsu (正月) which represents the new year holiday.
Wishing you lots of love (and learning 🤓) this holiday season!
Yoiotoshiwo! (良いお年を)
Just like chopping wood. Lol
I have to wonder how many times that guy's hands have been clobbered by the mallet.