Posted on: Friday, December 31, 2004
Sticky mochi holds a tradition together
By Zenaida Serrano
Advertiser Staff Writer
Scott Shamoto — a stout, burly man — didn't hold back with the heavy wooden pestle he repeatedly swung. The sticky, white mass in a large stone mortar, after all, needed a good pounding.
Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser Just as the deafening popping of firecrackers has become synonymous with the New Year in Hawai'i, so, too, has the rhythmic "thunk, thunk, thunk" of Island mochi pounders.
"It's about perpetuating our culture," said Shamoto, 37, his gray tanktop stained with sweat.
Shamoto was one of nearly three dozen men, women and children who made mochi yesterday at the Tenrikyo Hawaii Dendocho church on Pali Highway. Since the church was founded 50 years ago, members and friends have gathered each year to make the New Year's traditional Japanese rice cakes.
• While mochi reportedly is from China, its exact origin is unknown.
• Some say the cooked, glutinous rice cake became a New Year's treat during Japan's Heian period, 794-1185. • It's believed samurai took mochi to the battlefield because it kept well and was easy to prepare. Samurai pounding mochi often meant they were going to battle. • Others believe it was as early as the 10th century in Japan when various kinds of mochi were used as imperial offerings at religious ceremonies.
Source: Tenrikyo Hawaii Dendocho The church's annual mochi pounding, or mochi-tsuki, has indeed become a cultural learning experience.
Yesterday's pounding was a first for Noriko Iwata, 28, who moved this month to Nu'uanu from Shimane, Japan. Iwata said she was used to the machine-made variety as a child growing up in Japan.
"She's very impressed to see it made traditionally," said her husband, Tad Iwata, 27, who was translating for her.
Like Noriko Iwata, Japanese native Taeko Nakao, in her 50s, had never seen a mochi-tsuki until moving to Hawai'i and attending the annual Tenrikyo event 24 years ago. In big city Tokyo, the Kaimuki resident explained, mochi is ordered ready-made.
"I'm learning more about Japanese culture here than in Japan," Nakao said and laughed.
Tenrikyo members began making mochi at 7:30 a.m. yesterday and continued through the late afternoon, eventually making nearly 300 pounds of rice cakes to fill orders made by households and businesses.
The process had begun Wednesday night, with the washing of the mochi rice. Yesterday they cooked, pounded and shaped the mochi into round cakes, setting aside dozens of aluminum trays of the finished products on long tables.
Tenrikyo Hawaii Dendocho mochi-pounding demonstration
• 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. Jan. 9, as part of the 'Ohana Festival • Mo'ili'ili Field • Free • For details: 945-7633 They wore handkerchiefs on their heads and aprons, and their fingers were caked with the doughy goo.
An assembly line of about 10 men and women, covered with flour, stood at a long table and worked together like a well-oiled machine.
"Everyone is encouraged to hit the mochi for good luck," Tad Iwata said.
Salt Lake Elementary School second-grader Eric Miyauchi got his chance yesterday, carefully hitting the mochi with a pestle much smaller than the ones the men used. A handful of men cheered each hit; an elderly man took pictures with a digital camera.
"It's a lot of fun," the 7-year-old said after his turn.
The mochi-tsuki welcomes friends and families — spanning several generations — to be together and enjoy one another's company.
"The mochi starts off as thousands of grains of rice, coming together to become one," Tad Iwata said. "So in the same way, we want to represent that unity, helping each other and working together with all our energy and minds towards this one goal."
Reach Zenaida Serrano at zserrano@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-8174.
The Pearl City resident and two other men alternated swings, pounding the sweet mochi to the right consistency. They also took turns shouting "Yoisho!" as a form of encouragement.
When members of the Tenrikyo Hawaii Dendocho finish pounding this sweet rice, it will be shaped into the symbolic mochi cakes.
"It's a symbol of happiness," church secretary Morio Inoue said. The offering of mochi at religious shrines signifies the prayer for a brighter and better life, while at New Year's celebrations, it represents hope that the coming year will be happier than the last.
Origins of mochi
Nakao and Noriko Iwata worked side by side, rolling batches of the freshly pounded mochi in mochiko flour and shaping the masses into flattened balls.
Mochi pounding in the park
