Mochitsuki is a Japanese custom fundamental to the Japanese character. Mochitsuki means making mochi ( sweet rice cakes.). Both secular and almost all Japanese ( religious groups - Buddhist, Shinto and even some christian) have a rice cake making event near the end of the year. Many Japanese schedule their mochitsuki events at the third day before the New Year. Mochitsuki is a community event, allowing young and old to socialize and have fun in a community project. Today, most people consider mochitsuki, an ethnic secular custom of the Japanese people without a religious meaning.
In ancient Japan, rice was a special valuable food used only for special occasions and holidays. Typically rice was offered as one of the first crops to the Gods. Each grain of rice, in Shinto tradition symbolized a "tamashii" human soul, so pounded rice cakes represented millions of souls. So when the community, hand pounded the rice using a wooden mallet ( kine), each person could reflect on the Gods' blessings and reflect over the events of the previous year. So the act of pounding and handling the rice was a self purifying or self reflective act. The Shinto Priest ( Kannushi for Head Priest or Gon Kannushi for assistant priest) would offer the pounded rice cakes to the Gods on behalf of the entire community.
For the Japanese New Year, the mochi is shaped like the rounded disk of the traditional Japanese mirror, kagami, hence the stacked rice cakes are called "kagami mochi". Since ancient times, the mirror represented the Shinto Goddess Amaterasu omikami, the Sun Goddess. The mirror has been with the sword and the jewel, one of the three Japanese Imperial Regalia. The Shinto Goddess, Amaterasu o mikami as mentioned in the Kojiki, the oldest extant Japanese book, is closely associated with swords and many Japanese consider her a Sword Goddess or Sword Kami.
Kagami mochi is made of at least two stacked flatten balls of mochi and is placed on a small rasised tray called a "sanbo". A sheet of white paper, a symbol of purity is laid under the cakes. A small bitter fruit, typically a satsuma mandrin orange is placed on top of the rice cakes. The fruit signifies longevity in its name, "daidai" meaning "generation to generation".
Mochi rice is steamed prior to mashing in a mortar. Later when the individual rice grains can no longer be seen, it is pounded. The correct mochi strike is very similar to a kendo shomen. The wooden mallet must hit the rice flat, perpendicular to the mortar (usu) surface. I f the mochi is struck by pounding diagonally by pulling the kine over the shoulder, there is a good probability that the kine (mallet) will strike the usu (mortar) surface at an angle, thus causing small wooden splinters to become embedden in the mochi rice.. After pounding , mochi is handed shaped into small cakes and powdered with a sweet flour. The cakes can also be stuffed with food and / or dyed. The mochi elasticity symbolizes strength and the white color purity.
