Mochizukuri, a New Year's tradition
posted December 28, 2003
My neighbors pound rice into gooey mochi, which is rolled in cornstarch, filled with sweet red bean jam or eaten in various other ways. I did the next round.
Here’s a short video of the pounding. Watch those fingers!
Yikes! Were you kneading or hammering when your turn came up?
In my experience, they only let you pound. There seems to be an acknowledged pro (man or woman, I’ve seen both) in each group who is in charge of slapping the water on and folding the rice. Everyone has a good laugh when the pace picks up and you get chugging along really fast, quite a bit faster than you see in the movie clip I posted.
Sometimes you miss and bang the rim. A moment of tension, then laughs. the mallet we were using was the heaviest one I’ve used, so it was really tiring, and everyone was wondering how long the big gaijin would keep swinging before he gave up his turn.
I understand that several people die each New Years eating this stuff. It is so thick and gooey that they choke on it.
A few elderly people do. That’s why it’s important to keep a vacuum cleaner handy. Once in a while you hear about some grampa being saved by having the Hoover jammed in his mouth and sucking the stuck mochi out of his throat.
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