Author: Richard Foss / Source: Atlas Obscura
Once a year, Japanese Buddhists and followers of the Shinto religion lay an unusual offering on altars in their temples: sculpted candy most Americans know only as a wrapping for ice cream treats.
It’s mochi, a soft pastry made from sweet, glutinous rice flour, and it has been an integral part of religious ceremonies for centuries.The Japanese strains of Buddhism don’t have many followers in the United States, and Shinto has even fewer, so it’s not easy for mochi makers who follow these traditions in America. But Benkyodo in San Francisco has been in business since 1906, and the oldest, Fugetsu-do in Los Angeles, opened in 1903. That city has always had the largest culturally Japanese population on the American mainland, and the store is within blocks of four Buddhist temples that celebrate the traditional rites.
Brian Kito of Fugetsu-do makes over 100 kinds of mochi, including the kagami mochi that is used for the annual Japanese New Year’s ceremony. This construction of two rounded white discs of mochi topped with a tangerine or orange is meant to symbolize both family ties and the sacred mirror of the sun goddess Amaterasu. (To the uninitiated, it looks a bit like a squashed snowman with an orange head.)
The mochi sculpture is only made for the Japanese New Year celebration, and it sits on the altar for 11 days, developing a hard crust in the process. That crust is broken with a hammer on Kagami Biraki day—literally, breaking the mirror. (It is never cut with a knife, because that would symbolically mean severing a family.) The pieces of mochi are put in a soup called ozone that is eaten with family as the first important ritual of the new year. It’s a joyous celebration whose origins are obscure, though other religions, including Christianity and Hinduism, have also evolved midwinter celebrations that are celebrated with family meals and sweets.
According to Kito, there is an element of divination in the making and displaying of kagami mochi. “Folklore says that if the two layers stay intact, it will be a good year,” he explains. “But if they crack, it will be a bad…
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