Japanese friendship club hosts festive potluck
The Napa Tomodachi Club founder Greg Matsumoto, right, kneads the mochi dough as Nori Hongo pounds it to make the traditional New Year cake at the Napa Grange Hall on Saturday
The new year got off to a rousing start Saturday when the
Napa Tomodachi Club hosted a traditional Japanese mochitsuki celebration
at the Napa Grange Hall.
The annual potluck, attended by 100
people, began with explosive drumming and choreographed martial
movements by taiko ensembles from Napa and Solano counties. Participants
took turns with a wood mallet, pounding steamed rice into dough balls
that became rice cakes known as mochi.
Some preferred their mochi plain, others with a sweet bean paste in the center.
For
the New Year’s celebration, the club recruited volunteers to pound
mochi the traditional way, rather than resorting to mochi-making
machines. Everyone was promised there would be enough mochi to take home
with them.
In Japan, the new year’s period is a major holiday,
with people taking off from work for a solid week or more, said Gregory
Matsumoto, who launched the Tomodachi Club in 1986.
Napa needed a social group for people interested in Japanese culture, Matsumoto said. Tomodachi means friendship.
Source: http://napavalleyregister.com
The new year got off to a rousing start Saturday when the
Napa Tomodachi Club hosted a traditional Japanese mochitsuki celebration
at the Napa Grange Hall.
The annual potluck, attended by 100
people, began with explosive drumming and choreographed martial
movements by taiko ensembles from Napa and Solano counties. Participants
took turns with a wood mallet, pounding steamed rice into dough balls
that became rice cakes known as mochi.
Some preferred their mochi plain, others with a sweet bean paste in the center.
For
the New Year’s celebration, the club recruited volunteers to pound
mochi the traditional way, rather than resorting to mochi-making
machines. Everyone was promised there would be enough mochi to take home
with them.
In Japan, the new year’s period is a major holiday,
with people taking off from work for a solid week or more, said Gregory
Matsumoto, who launched the Tomodachi Club in 1986.
Napa needed a social group for people interested in Japanese culture, Matsumoto said. Tomodachi means friendship.
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