Tradition

The Japanese culture is built on tradition.  There are rituals that are both formal and informal that go with tradition.  We know folks in Japan but, most frequently, we are with our Japanese friends in Hawaii.  There is great Japanese influence in the islands.  Japanese people have lived there for over 200 years.  One-fifth of Hawaii’s residents are of Japanese ancestry.

A special Japanese family tradition that is carried on in Hawaii is the making of mochi (pron. moe-chee) for the New Year’s holiday.  The Japanese New Year is the same as in western cultures…January 1.  Traveling to the island of Kauai for many years, we have made several friends there who are locals.  The Umakoshi family is very special to us.  The matriarch is Akiyo Honjo or, as she is affectionately known, “Ma”.  Her daughter Amy Umakoshi and her family have welcomed us into their home for many years now to make mochi.

In fact, we remember making mochi 12 years ago for the last Year of the Dragon and we had been partaking in the tradition for some time before that. Amy has three sons and a daughter and they have families, so the holiday date is set when they can all be together.  Jane and I are honored that they would include us and, for a while, we only observed because we felt like we might be intruding.  Eventually we were invited to the table to make the mochi and I’ll say being good at it is not easy. However, I take advantage of the tradition that if you make a bad mochi, you have to eat it.  Sometimes I’m not as careful as I should be…on purpose.

Mochi is sort of a rice dumpling.  It’s filled with sweet beans, herbs or sweet potatoes, among other things, and shared with family and friends as a holiday treat.  There are mochi-making machines but tradition so often comes with old-fashioned methods and the Umakoshi’s make mochi from scratch.

There are several days of preparation, buying and cooking the beans and herbs, soaking the special rice and getting the trays and other utensils together in the special covered garden addition to their home where the mochi is made.  When the day arrives Sueharu Umakoshi, who helped build the famous Coco Palms resort and actually saw Elvis when he made the movie Blue Hawaii, is up in the early hours building a fire of koa wood in his home-made barbeque grill.  It is there that rice is steamed to perfection before being pounded into dough.

The rice pounding is the trickiest part of the process.  It is pounded with a long wooden mallet in a marble pestle.  The rice dough has to be turned when it is piping hot.  So it takes two people, one to pound and one to wet their hands with cold water and turn the dough. It takes rhythm and getting out of synch could get someone hurt.  I haven’t seen it happen but I’ve also never volunteered to be the dough-turner.

When the dough is ready, it is placed on a large table, covered with flour, torn into pieces which are then formed into the mochi dumplings with filling inside.  Amy told Jane that it is best to make a little parachute with the dough and then roll it around the filling.  Jane is getting pretty good at it and I still end up eating more than I make.  I bought a headscarf while in Japan recently and thought that wearing it for the ceremony would improve my mochi-making skills.  When Sueharu told me the Japanese characters said “Banzai!”, I decided that might force me into the dough-turning job and so I gave up the scarf.

Tradition strengthens relationships.  It builds families, friends and allies.  It is a powerful bond.  Jane and I have been so honored by our friends the Umakoshi’s that making mochi has become an important part of our lives.  While we go through the process with them, we “talk story” as they say in Hawaii.  We share our life stories with each other.  We have watched their families grow and seen the grandchildren thrive while making mochi.  This year, Ma turned to me and said “I was born in 1914.”  Then came a series of childhood remembrances from Japan that were captivating. How lucky we are to be able to encounter other cultures and traditions from around the world.  The sharing breaks down barriers and brings us all closer together.  Happy New Year.