Traditions of Hawaii Mochitsuki

Mochi Pounding (jp.Mochitsuki), it happens in preparation of the New Year celebration in Hawaii and is done either with a Traditional Japanese Wood Malley or Mochi Machine. It is not exclusive to the Japanese in Hawaii, because as many other traditions have integrated and changed over time in the islands the mochi pounding gathering is no exception. With mochi pounding comes other traditions like Hawaii New Years Soup (Ozoni) and Good Luck Mochi Stack (Kagami Mochi). In Japan there would be a ceremony called “Kagami Biraki” (鏡開き), translated as "opening the mirror", where the mochi would have enough time exposed to the elements that it would become as hard as a rock and shattered with a hammer as it was the "breaking of the mochi". It is a Japanese traditional ceremony held on January 11th that would symbolize the shattering of our old soul and starting anew for the remaining year.

It has become a New Years tradition of families who celebrated Cultural things, from either family-ties, celebrations of community, or even a bonding activity would still do things as their ancestors did when they had arrived and had their own Hawaii take on it. The family member that would take the planning into account would often pick one of the last days of December to make the day a mochi day, but the most popular day was the 30th. The day before on the 29th was seen as avoiding bad luck as the number 29 sounded like kurushimu or the word suffering in Japanese. The day after was seen as rushing, a sort of disrespecting to others, and the gods as giving decorations not a long enough time to show respect. 

The color of white has its own symbol that had stayed in Hawaii with being the color of preservation and had its own sort of energy almost like “mana” from the hands that had made it and passed it on to the eater. There aren’t many text books that cover it, but people have always been eating mochi casually, which is completely different from the relationship with the Kami (gods) where it pushes a renewal of the soul year after year. People from the past believed that the renewable source of the soul came from what you had eaten, so in essence people were eating to not only renew themselves, but also preserve. The soul would gradually decrease throughout the year as painstaking work, and agonizing amounts of worry, were both seen to drain a person's soul throughout that year. At the end of the year it was seen as being completely empty of life and the one who brings the renewal of souls will be embraced by a kami that descends from the top of a high mountain, this is why some believe the Hawaiian Mountain of Mauna Kea may have magical properties to bestow on humans during this time of year to those who engage in the ceremony. The decorations become a place where the spiritual energy is placed by the kami and the broken parts are for each family member, but it wasn’t just any cold and hard mochi, but it was what was the blessing and distribution of the soul energy from the kami.

What it maintained in Hawaii from the old ways was how white the traditional mochi was, how round it was, and the keeping of the cold-mochi in the home. It was a vessel for the soul, so it was like eating life from the gods according to the “tales of Miyakkosama”. It was said that having mochi in the house as decoration was to fill a household with the spirit of the gods. As each person ate mochi they were celebrating life, but in Hawaii the celebration would be about who was making the mochi that imbued their good luck. Traditionally it started being made all white as it was from those who came before. There are variations of things it was eaten or used as: dusted with Kinako (soybean flour) and eaten, grilled on the side with a syrup like sauce, put into soups “Ozoni”, and used as decoration mochi “Kagami” in hopes of health and good fortune. When people stacked the mochi on top of one another it would be hard at that point, but it was all about offering to the shinto-gods. 

The most famous version of this legend (often cited from the Bungo Fudoki) tells of a wealthy man who grew arrogant. In the world of Japanese folklore and the deep history of mochi, an 8th-century record of the customs and legends of the Bungo Province there lived a clan of wealthy peasants. They were "rich" in the way that matters most in an agricultural society—their granaries were overflowing with rice, which was money in those days, filthy rich is what they were. Because they were so rich in rice, they began to lose their sense of gratitude and started to see the labor of the harvest and the spiritual significance of the grain not as a blessing, but as an annoying activity that seemed like a waste of time. 

They decided to throw a massive celebration to flaunt their wealth, pounding an enormous mochi, but instead of offering it to the gods, the men of the clan grew boastful, they took that sacred mochi, set it up on a target-post, and used it as an archery target. As the legend goes, an archer named "Hata no Irogu" pulled back his bow and let an arrow fly, a piercing disrespect to the gods. He aimed for the center of the white rice cake, treating it as nothing more than a piece of wood, but what it did was instill a curse. The clan expected the mochi to shatter, but it did not, instead, it transformed. It sprouted wings and turned into a Great White Bird representing “Inadama, the rice spirit” that cried out and took flight, soaring high into the clouds and disappearing toward the mountains. The spirit had left the people of the village and in the upcoming days ahead the rice paddies turned to dust, the family isolated itself from the other villagers, and their lives disappeared from history.