The steamed rice is balled in a usu (mortar) and pounded. | Photo courtesy of Frank Kamiya
Together with many Japanese and Japanese-Canadian households and community groups, the Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre Auxiliary in Burnaby will hold an event near the start of the New Year: the annual tradition of Mochitsuki, or rice pounding, to make mochi or rice cakes from steamed sweet rice.
Frank Kamiya, a semi-retired architect and vice-president of the Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre has been actively involved with the Japanese-Canadian community since the early 1980s. He recalls his personal experience of the Mochitsuki celebration.
“Many Japanese and Japanese-Canadians have participated in Mochitsuki in our homes or with community groups since the first immigrants arrived in Canada in the 1880s. My father, who was a carpenter, built his own usu or mortar, and kine or mallet, which has since been donated to the Nikkei National Museum,” he says.
A long lasting tradition
A young child uses a kine (wooden mallet) to participate. | Photo courtesy of Frank Kamiya
The annual Mochitsuki day was first organized in 1993-1994 by the Japanese Canadian National Museum and Archives Society, which merged with the National Nikkei Heritage Centre in 2003 to form the Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre.
In Japan, mochi has been eaten for New Year’s Day since at least the Heian Period (794–1185). It is often first laid out as an offering and is then eaten in hopes that it will bring strength to one’s teeth for the New Year, since mochi that is set out as an offering is tough to eat by the New Year. The word mochi is similar to the Japanese word ‘to hold’ or ‘to have,’ so mochi is eaten in the hope of gaining good fortune over the coming year.
The art of rice pounding
Mochitsuki generally takes two days to prepare. On the first day, the rice is washed and left soaking overnight. In the next morning, the rice is drained and placed into the seiro, or steaming basket, which is set over a kettle of boiling water. The steamed rice is then placed into a large usu or mortar made of wood, stone or concrete.
Many people take part, and at least one person swings the kine or wooden mallet to hit the steamed rice, and another turns the rice over at each swing of the mallet. When the pounded rice has reached the right consistency, it is taken out of the usu and placed on a cutting board covered with sweet rice powder to make the sticky rice easier to handle. Others then tear off pieces of the hot mochi to form into bun-shaped patties and leave them to cool.
Personal memories
Japanese gardeners and others participants pound rice at the annual Mochitsuki day at the Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre, Burnaby. | Photo courtesy of Frank Kamiya
Kamiya recalls that his father would pound the steamed rice. “While my mother would turn over the rice after every swing of the mallet. The mochi would be stacked and placed on the altar or shrine as an offering. We would start New Year’s Day with a delicious soup called ozoni, which had mochi, vegetables, fish cakes, etc. We also ate mochi by cooking it over the stove until it softened, and today we [sometimes] cook it in the microwave oven. Today in our mechanized world, we use the mochi machine, like a bread machine, which does the steaming and pounding at the press of a few buttons in less than 45 minutes,” he says.
Mochitsuki is held annually on Dec. 29 at the Nikkei National Museum & Cultural Centre. This year, the day’s festivities will start with a performance by the Chibi Taiko drummers, as in past years, followed by a martial arts demonstration by the Shomonkai Vancouver Aikido Club, and then the main feature – the Mochitsuki display put on by the Vancouver Japanese Gardener’s Association.
For more information visit: www.centre.nikkeiplace.org
