Many have probably heard of Japanese soba (buckwheat) noodles, but toshi-koshi soba may be foreign! This is a tradition, which still remains very common these days, of eating soba on the final day of the year, often close to midnight. Soba noodles are thin and very long, and so are said to bring longevity to those who eat them. I have to say, I feel a year younger today!
Japan has a culture so rich and so deep that even after having been here for 6 years, I’m still hearing new customs and traditions for the first time. Mochi-tsuki is something I’d heard about before, but never had the chance to try. This weekend, however, I was lucky enough to be invited out to Gunma prefecture to join the ceremony with a friend’s family.
My friend’s house in Shibukawa, Gunma prefecture.
Mochi is Japanese rice cake, made of mochigome, a short-grain rice, and is eaten year-round in Japan, but is traditionally made in the mochi-tsuki ceremony on the 30th of December each year.
The mochi starting to look more like mochi!
First, the rice is soaked overnight and then cooked by steaming. It is then placed into a hollowed out wooden mortar called an usu, and hammered with wooden mallets called kine. Usually the hammering is done by two people, alternating in a steady rhythm to avoid hitting each other (the kine are very heavy!).
Cooking the mochi.
This family’s ‘usu’ is almost 100 years old.
Every now and then, the mochi is turned and wet a little more, and after it reaches a smooth consistency, it is placed onto a large wooden board and covered with a special flour, before being rolled flat with a rolling pin. It can be formed into various shapes, depending on the dish it is being used for.
Mochi gets very sticky and stretchy!
The ‘kine’ being used to hammer the mochi.
Rolling out the mochi.
Our mochi batches almost ready!
The most well-known dish in which mochi is used is the traditional soup eaten on New Year’s Day, o-zōni, but mochi is eaten in a number of different ways. There’s also kinako-mochi (mochi coated in soy bean flour, and also often brown sugar syrup), daifuku, or anpin for those using the Gunma dialect (sweet red bean paste wrapped in mochi), or various other sweet and savoury treats.
O-zōni, the traditional New Year’s Day soup.
Kinako-mochi – usually eaten for good luck.
‘Daifuku’ or ‘anpin’.
Eating traditional meals with Japanese families has always been the highlight of my time in Japan, and even better is being involved in the cooking process!
