Puget isle residents
keep mochi rites alive

The Japanese holiday tradition
died out after wartime internment

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Associated Press

BAINBRIDGE ISLAND, Wash. >> Decades after the internment camps of World War II, Japanese Americans on this Puget Sound island are again making mochi.

The New Year's ritual of pounding steamed rice into a tasty dough largely died out in the community -- and in the rest of the state -- when the immigrants returned from the camps.

A dozen years ago, however, Japanese Americans on Bainbridge decided to bring it back, and every year it draws more people.

About 300 showed up Saturday for the island's public mochi-pounding ceremony, or "mochi tsuki."

It's one of the only public mochi ceremonies in the state. Many, like Richard Tanaka of Port Orchard, had eaten mochi but had never seen it made.

"It's part of our culture, and we wanted our children to see it," he told the Seattle Times.

Shoichi Sugiyama, who moved from Japan to Bellevue three years ago, came because he missed the tradition.

"I pounded mochi in Japan for 35 years," he said.

The ceremony was held in the Filipino-American Hall, which was lined with photos of Bainbridge Island families being evacuated during the internment.

Tatsu Moritani, the chief rice cooker, said that after the war the tradition was abandoned in the name of assimilation.

"People were embarrassed to be seen making the stuff," he said.

Historically, mochi was made on festive occasions and often left at shrines as an offering.

Easily digestible, it is also supposed to refresh the spirit -- thus, its place on the New Year's menu.

Making mochi is tough work.

After the rice soaks in water overnight, it is placed in wooden crates, which are stacked on top of tins of boiling water. The rice is poured into large bowls of stone or wood and smashed with wooden mallets.

Then it's pounded some more, into a stretchy, sticky paste.