| ANNUAL LITTLE TOKYO COMMUNITY MOCHITSUKI
LOS ANGELES, LITTLE TOKYO DECEMBER 19, 1999 |
The Little Tokyo Community Mochitsuki, sponsored by Little Tokyo Community Mochitsuki Committee and the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center (JACCC), is an annual tradition in the Los Angeles Japanese American community since 1977. The year 2000 approaches us rapidly. For many, the next year hopes to be a bright, better and productive one. Many of us have begun to prepare for the next year. In the Japanese American community, a tradition which has continued has been the Mochitsuki, the making of mochi, a plain rice cake, made of Japanese sweet rice. Eaten on the first day of the new year, the mochi is prepared days ahead of time. This preparation and effort to make the cakes outweighs the market value, but it is the spirit and unifying strength of what goes into the making of the little balls of pounded rice that makes it all worthwhile. During this time of steaming, mashing, pounding, forming and eating of mochi gives everyone the opportunity to share with others our experiences of the past year and our hopes and plans for the next.Mochitsuki has been a tradition in the Japanese American Community in some form or another. From the first immigrants, to the concentration camp days and now today, this tradition has continued through the efforts of the temples, churches, Kenjin Kai, Boy Scouts or business social organizations but this tradition is dwindling. For much of the Japanese American community, we live farther and farther away from our cultural roots and historic Little Tokyo's. Many buy mochi from the market and eat it on New Year's Day. Commercial confectionery shops as Fugetsudo and Mikawaya in Los Angeles' Little Tokyo continue to produce machine-made mochi for the ever-growing Japanese American community. Our mochitsuki is an effort to continue this "hands-on" tradition, to preserve a part of our cultural roots and to bring our community closer together. |
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