We call rice cake "Mochi".
Making mochi is called "mochi-tsuki".
I would like to explain how to do mochi-tsuki.
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| 1. First, we steam waxy rice which is raw material of mochi by firewood. |
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| 2. Well steamed waxy rice is put into a wooden "Usu". Usu is a unique
equipment for mochi-tsuki. |
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| 3. At first, we grind the waxy rice with two big pestles which is called "Kine"
to prevent waxy rice spilling out. |
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| 4. Next, we start pound it with Kine after grinding for five to ten minutes.
The steamed waxy rice are changed to mochi. |
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| 5. We pick up the mochi from Usu and make small pieces from one big piece.
We round them for good size for eating. |
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Mochi-tsuki was a traditional event in Japan which had been done by every family. Mochi is usually eaten at a New Year's ceremonies, so we make mochi before the New Year. However, recently most of people don't do mochi-tsuki because we can buy it at store, and also we can use auto mochi-tsuki machine which is very easy and convenient to make mochi. However, mochi-tsuki still has many good things. Mochi-tsuki requires many people and power, so family and relatives gathered and cooperated with each other. We can strengthen our relationship among family. And I believe this is the best point. Mochi made with Usu and Kine is softer than machine made.
That's why my family does mochi tsuki every year. |
Child Research Net would like to thank the Doshisha International Junior/Senior
High School and Masataka Fukunaga, student and author, for permitting reproduction
of this article on the CRN web site. |
Copyright (c) 2007, Child Research Net, All rights reserved.