<Begin Segment 13>

MN: Was there mochitsuki on the Johnson ranch?

TY: Yes.

MN: So did it go from one house to another, or was it a, one family just did it and everybody came? Who did the mochitsuki?

TY: Who did the mochitsuki? Most of the, most of the families did mochitsuki in those days, at their home. What I know about mochitsuki is our own home because we don't go to their home, you see, so mochitsuki was a family celebration, I guess, or family tradition, Japan tradition or whatever. So then they would invite the friends to come to mochitsuki, so then they would celebrate New Year together, so and so, and that's how mochitsuki was for 'em, through individual families.

MN: What did your family use for usu?

TY: Well, my folks, when my folks used to, they used to have a -- oh, I'm not supposed to move here -- they used to have a eucalyptus tree trunk carved out as the usu, then they used to use, for kine they used to use a, well, I wouldn't say eucalyptus, eucalyptus was one of the hammers that they used for pounding. And then in those days we had to burn firewood to heat the water to steam the rice, and that's how we done our mochitsuki for Shogatsu. She would make the okasanemochi. She had to make okasanemochi so we had to have mochitsuki every year. So we still make okasanemochi to keep up the tradition, whether we need to or not. That's why we have it. And then right now we have it, for quite a while he have it for the family gathering, which is a good gathering, all the relatives come together, and this way we know our relatives and we know who they are, and if we don't have a mochitsuki at my house we won't know our relatives so we will never see them for ten, twenty, thirty years until a wedding or a, or a funeral time comes. This way we can see them once a year, we can see our grandkids grow up, great-grandkids grow up, so I kind of think it's a nice thing to do and I like having it. This way they know, they know Grandpa, Great-grandpa. Otherwise they won't know, right? So that's the reason why I like to have it. That's why we do have it.

MN: Let me go back to your, your childhood time when you were doing mochitsuki, so to have the okasane and the ozoni on New Year's, did you have to pound the mochi on New Year's Eve?

TY: No, mochitsuki, well, as I can remember, we did mochitsuki prior to the first day of the year, so it could be one week before or two weeks before or whatever. So mochitsuki should be done prior to the new year.

MN: How do you keep the mochi from getting moldy?

TY: Well, freeze it.

MN: In what?

TY: The freezer.

MN: But you didn't have a freezer, you just had an icebox.

TY: Oh, in those days? We ate the moldy mochi. My mother used to say it was good for you, so she used to make us eat it. She would scrape off the mold and she used to feed it to us, so she said, good for you so you got to like it. It's not that we really liked it, but we got to like it.

MY: They soaked it in water.

MN: Soaked it in water?

TY: Yeah.

MN: And then took the mold off, scraped the mold off?

TY: Yeah.

MY: And I guess kind of leave it in water.

MN: And that doesn't, that prevents the mold?

MY: Uh-huh.

TY: Oh, yeah. That's right.

<End Segment 13> - Copyright © 2011 Densho. All Rights Reserved.