Omochi Pounding

At school we began a Japanese cultural study unit and I am learning quite a bit. I am actually really grateful for this unit because there is so much about Japan and the people here that I do not know and haven't been able to learn yet. I am learning right along with my students. 

 

Today we had a school event known as Omochi pounding. Omochi is a sticky rice type of dough that is a traditional Japanese treat.  You can buy it in all kinds of flavors. 

 

My class was given a bag of special white rice and we cleaned it and let it soak overnight. This morning we took our soaked rice to the school community room where it was steamed and cooked by our fabulous volunteer parents.  The steamed rice was then placed in the large wooden barrel, kneaded by hand for a few minutes, and then pounded with a large wooden hammer. As the rice is pounded everyone shouts "yoisho" in a loud voice to add to the fun. Of course I had to join in and give it a quick try. After the rice was pounded, the parents took it and cut it into small round pieces and added different flavors. Unfortunately chocolate was not one of the flavors. The students had fun and it was nice to learn a bit more about this Japanese tradition which is fading out due to the popularity of omochi making machines.

Our wonderful parents decorated the community room with kites, pictures, and flowers.

 

 

 

 

 

Here is the older gentleman who came to demonstrate the omochi pounding for us. He brought two helpers to come and assist the students with the pounding.

 

 

 Here is the barrel where the sticky rice is placed. The blue buckets contain water and the wooden mallets are rinsed in the water after every two pounds or so to keep the rice from sticking to them.

 

 

 

The students got to wear a traditional Japanese Happi and headband. The read symbol on the headband and back of the Happi means "festival." We are looking at the rice before it is pounded.

 

The kneading and pounding of the rice. Students got to pound a couple of times each. Just trust me when I say it was totally cute to see and watch them pound with that giant wooden mallet. :)

 

Teacher Hillary's turn!

Here is the rice after the pounding.

 



 

And here are the samples we all got to try.