Star-Bulletin staff
By Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
Friends and family of Gordon and Gayle Lum add
azuki beans and mold mochi into treats.
For the Japanese, mochi plays the same central role for New Year's as a turkey does for an American Thanksgiving. There are get-togethers with family and friends for traditional mochi making as the end of the year approaches. The stickiness of the mochi signifies family togetherness, according to "The Food of Paradise."
By Dennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
Tiffany Cabanilla, left, and Lisa Siu pound rice into
mochi as Bert Morikawa waits to fold the mochi over.
ByDennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
Hiroshi Kobayashi tends to the fire that is needed to
cook and steam the rice in the square wooden boxes.
ByDennis Oda, Star-Bulletin
After the rice is pounded into mochi, it is molded into
shape and placed into a cardboard container before it is
boxed to be given away to the participants.
Armed with long mallets similar to those used for croquet, two people stand on either side of a narrow cylinder. Into the hollow at the top goes steaming hot rice. The people with the mallets then take alternating swings, like chopping wood. A third person dodges in and out, occasionally shaking in a little water and then flipping the rice over so that it gets thoroughly pounded. After 5-10 minutes, the rice is a glutinous mass. Then it is cut into chunks and molded into treats.
ByKen Ige, Star-Bulletin
This "usu" was given to Norman Yonekura by his
grandparents. Norman says his son, Nolan, is at least
the fourth generation of the Yonekura family to use
the "usu." They were pounding mochi at
Norman's Wahiawa home.
By Craig T. Kojima, Star-Bulletin
Maybe in a few years: Shinju Hasegawa, top, grabs a
mochi pounder as mom Kazuko looks on during a mochi
making get-together at the home of Roy Maruoka in Makakilo.
ByKen Ige, Star-Bulletin
Lynda Nagai closes a mochi after stuffing it with
"an," or azuki bean paste, at the home
of Norman Yonekura.
ByKen Ige, Star-Bulletin
Norman Yonekura shaves splinters from the "kine"
or mallet, which he made out of guava wood. He was
pounding mochi at his Kinipopo Street home in Wahiawa.
By Craig T. Kojima, Star-Bulletin
As Corrine Gyotoku shapes mochi, her daughter,
5-year-old Kelli Ann, tries too.
By Ken Ige, Star-Bulletin
A rice paddle decorated with a Japanese maiden sits
at the ready at the Yonekura household in Wahiawa.
Three 5-lb. batches of mochi rice are cooked at once.
