February 17, 2014

Mochi Maki (lit. Rice Cake Scattering) at Seppu Matsuri/雪譜まつりでの餅まき

On February 15, 2014, the 30th Shiozawa Seppu Matsuri was held in the Shiozawa area of Minami Uonuma city. I went to the festival twice, first around 2:00 p.m. and second around 8:00 p.m. I managed to get seven mochi at the mochi maki (rice cake scattering) event at 8:35 p.m.


2014年2月15日、南魚沼市の塩沢地域で、第30回しおざわ雪譜まつりが行われました。私は午後2時ごろと午後8時ごろの二回、そのお祭りに行きました。午後8:35に行われた餅まきでは、餅を7個取ることができました。


I don't know why, but I can't insert photos into my blog, so I uploaded some photos to my Flickr account.
なぜか分かりませんが、写真をブログに挿入できないので、Flickrアカウントに写真をアップしました。


Flickr photos

8 comments:

Tea Apprentice said...

Interesting! I have heard of mame maki, but not mochi maki. What was the purpose of it?

Hiroyuki said...

Tea Apprentice: While mame maki is limited to Setsubun (March 3 this year), mochi maki can be held on any auspicious occasions. My family held a mochi maki event when we had a house built in 2005, as I described here on eGullet:
http://forums.egullet.org/topic/71004-house-building-in-japan-and-foods/

Fräulein Trude said...

So much snow, the snow cave buddha looks amazing.

Hiroyuki said...

Kiki: Buddha?? That is Suzuki Bokushi.

In this snowy region of Niigata, we had had less snow than usual until last Saturday, when we had a major snowfall. We were not alone. As you may know, Tokyo had as much as 27 cm of snow as reported here:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/16/us-japan-snow-idUSBREA1F02J20140216
Kofu city, Yamanashi prefecture, was even worse. It had more than 1 meter of snow!

Fräulein Trude said...

I did not know anything about Suzuki Bokushi. Now I found his book translated into german: german title "Leben unter dem Schnee - Living under the snow". Looked like a sitting Buddha to me (laugh).
Yes this winter is kind of unusual, heavy floods and storms in England, Snow blizzards and heavy snow in the USA down to the Southern states and heavy snow in Japan but we are the lucky ones: During the middle of the winter (temperatures drop quite often under minus 10 degree Celsius) mild spring weather! I only had to shuffle snow twice during this winter.

Sissi said...

I also thought it was a buddha (though a thin one!).
We are also happy in Switzerland: this winter is particularly mild (especially compared to the previous one!).

Hiroyuki said...

Kiki and Sissi: That book of Suzuki Bokushi is now translated into English, German, and Chinese. The German version inspired a German director, who produced the movie Under Snow.
We talked about this movie, don't you remember (laugh)?
http://hiro-shio.blogspot.jp/2011/10/unter-schneeunder-snow.html

Tea Apprentice said...

Wow, your thread about house building was very interesting to read. Thank you!