xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Japanese Rice Cake (Kagami- mochi) is a traditional New Year's decoration which consists of two round shaped mochi one on top of the other. Kagami mochi is placed in the main room in a house. It serves both as the dwelling place of the god of the harvest and the offering to the god.
In most households, usually women are busy preparing the New Year's food (osechi ryouri). It is traditionally said that people make enough food so that they can take a rest from cooking for the New Year's Days. Since Japanese eat rice cake (mochi) during New Year's Days, at the end of the year, mochitsuki (pounding mochi rice to make mochi) is held at some traditional houses, public places, and shrines. People use a wooden mallet (kine) to pound steamed mochi rice in the stone or wooden mortar (usu). After the rice become sticky, it is flattened and cut into pieces or shaped into rounds. Packages of mochi are available in supermarkets. So, mochitsuki is not as common as it used to be. Some people use automatic mochi-pounding machines at home. The fresh mochi is tasty but is very sticky, so be careful not to choke.
Kagami mochi (鏡餅, Kagami mochi?), literally mirror rice cake, is a traditional Japanese New Year decoration. It usually consists of two[1][2][3][4] round mochi (rice cakes), the smaller placed atop the larger, and a daidai (a Japanese bitter orange) with an attached leaf on top. In addition, it may have a sheet of konbu and a skewer of dried persimmons under the mochi. It sits on a stand called a sanpō (三宝, sanpō?) over a sheet called a shihōbeni (四方紅, shihōbeni?), which is supposed to ward off fires from the house for the following years. Sheets of paper called gohei (御幣, gohei?) folded into lightning shapes similar to those seen on sumo wrestler's belts are also attached.
The kagami mochi first appeared in the Muromachi period (14th-16th century). The name kagami ("mirror") is said to have originated from its resemblance to an old-fashioned kind of round copper mirror, which also had a religious significance. The reason for it is not clear. Explanations include mochi being a food for sunny days,[2] the 'spirit' of the rice plant being found in the mochi,[1][2] and the mochi being a food which gives
strength.[2]The two mochi discs are variously said to symbolize the going and coming years,[2] the human heart,[2] "yin" and "yang", or the moon and the sun.[3] The "daidai", whose name means "generations",[4] is said to symbolize the continuation of a family from generation to generation.[1]
Traditionally the kagami mochi was placed in various locations throughout the house.[3] Nowadays it is usually placed in a household Shinto altar, or kamidana. It has also been placed in the tokonoma, a small decorated alcove in the main room of the home.
Contemporary kagami mochi are often pre-moulded into the shape of stacked discs and sold in plastic packages in the supermarket. A mikan or a plastic imitation daidai is often substituted for the original daidai.
This article copied from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kagami_mochi
