Mochi (omoti) is a dish made from Japanese rice. Boiled rice is placed in a wooden tub and beaten for a very long time with a special mallet (pestle). The result is a delicious, homogeneous white viscous mass. If this mass is dried, it can be stored for a very long time. After storage, it is held over the fire until it begins to puff up - the result is something super tasty. Traditionally, before the New Year, the Japanese prepare omochi (omoti), give it the shape of our loaf, put it in a tokonoma (a kind of red corner of the house) and hang a beautiful scroll with good wishes over it. New Year's omochi (omoti) is eaten on January 7th.
In ancient times, a kind old woman lived in a village. It looked like a reed, but the strength in it was heroic. And here are the miracles: the years passed, but her strength did not diminish.
She lived alone and did everything around the house herself: she worked day after day in the rice field, and in the mornings she went to the mountains - she uprooted old tree stumps for heating.
One day in the fall, an old woman went into the forest, just grabbed a mighty stump, and heard someone calling her:
- Grandma, grandma, help! A horse loaded with bags of rice fell from a bridge into the river! She sees people rushing to her from the village.
“Good owners’ horses don’t fall off the bridge,” answered the old woman. - Okay, I’ll help you. She threw the uprooted stump and ran with the peasants into the village. He looks and sees a little horse floundering under the bridge. The old woman jumped into the water, picked up the little horse and placed it on the bridge.
“Receive your horse unharmed,” he says, “but in future, watch better when he walks across the shaky bridge.”
That old lady was kind. So we heard all around us: “Help me, grandma!”, “Help, grandma!”
Autumn is over. New Year is just around the corner. The peasants began to prepare for the holiday - baking rice cakes-mochi. In all the houses, work is in full swing and contention. Someone beats rice in a mortar with a pestle, someone whose mill hums and sings. People are happy in their souls. The old lady also kneaded the dough and made rosy mochi. And then she went to the neighbors - maybe someone needs help: it’s not a joke to beat with a pestle or turn a mill - you need strength here! The old lady helped many - she was happy and people were happy.
The sound of pestles and mills spread far throughout the area, even in the underworld itself they heard it. The chief minister of demons sits in the underworld and listens:
-What is this strange sound coming from the ground? - he asks. “The peasants are beating rice with pestles - they are preparing for the New Year,” the nobles answer him. The chief minister thought for a moment and said:
— For some reason, few people on earth died this year. Sometimes they would prepare so many treats for the deceased on the way! But now no one will bring us mochi from the earth, how will we celebrate the New Year?
The nobles sighed - what can you do? The chief minister thought and thought about where to get rice mochi, and finally said:
- Throw a cry throughout the underworld! Let the demons hurry here! I came up with a deal for them! By order of the chief minister, demons, young and old, gathered.
“We were left without New Year’s mochi this year,” the chief minister complained to them and ordered: “Go to earth and get me and the lord of the underworld Emma some rosy mochi.” It’s no good staying without them for the holiday!
“We obey,” the demons answered and immediately set off. They climbed to the ground and scattered to different parts. There was one strongman among those demons; there was no one equal to him in strength in the entire underworld. And it so happened that he ended up in the very village where the old heroic woman lived.
The demon climbed the mountain, at the foot of which the village lay, and how he shouted:
- Hey, you little people are trembling! A strong demon has come to you from the underworld! People got scared and hid in their homes. “Save us, fate,” they pray. The demon descended into the village - no one. He had to knock on houses.
“Don’t be afraid of me,” he says, “I won’t touch you.” That's not what I came for. Come out quickly and bring out the New Year's mochi!
People were surprised: “Why do you need mochi?” Is it really possible to celebrate the New Year in the underworld? And then they ask:
- How can we give them to you? After all, the holiday is coming soon, we won’t have time to prepare new ones.
- What do I care?! - the demon answered. “It was said to bring it, so bring it!” People began to bring rice mochi to the demon, and those who didn’t come out were visited by the demon himself. It was the old lady’s turn. The demon looked into her window and saw a grandmother sitting, small, very small, thin, very thin.
“Hey, old one,” the demon rumbled, “do you have New Year’s mochi?” “Who is this impolite person who breaks into someone else’s house?” - the old woman responded. - Like who? — the demon did not understand. “I climbed the mountain and told everyone that I was a strong demon from the underworld!” Are you deaf or what?
“I’m not deaf at all,” the old woman was offended, “and there’s no point in standing under my window and screaming and straining, otherwise I’ll really go deaf.”
The demon was stupefied - no one on earth had ever spoken to him so boldly. “Hey, grandma,” he shouted again, “do you have New Year’s mochi?” “Where can I have mochi?” - the old lady was surprised. — Today there was a bad rice harvest.
- You're lying! - the demon became furious. “Everyone in the village has a harvest, but she alone, you see, has a crop failure!”
“Don’t you really know,” the old lady grinned, “that you should prepare New Year’s mochi with your own hands, and not take it by force from other people’s yards?” You won't get my mochi, and you'll get all the rest back!
- Well, we'll see about that later! — the demon laughed. The old woman got up and came closer to the window. Then the demon grabs her by the hand! And the handle is thin, just not transparent!
- Ha-ha-ha! - the demon thundered. - How can you, grandma, compete with me? You stand and sway. I will break you like a weak straw!
- No one has ever called me a weak straw! - The old lady was now angry. - Do you want to know my strength? Let's compete!
“Come on,” the demon agreed. “Just don’t crush you!” He said and stuck his hand through the window. The old woman grabbed the demon’s hand and squeezed it tightly! The demon even winced.
“I see that you have some strength,” he says. And the old woman squeezes the demon’s hand more and more. A drop of sweat appeared on his forehead.
- Well, demon, am I so weak? - asks the old woman. “No, you’re not weak,” the demon answers, and a tear has already appeared in his eye.
And the old woman squeezed the demon’s hand even more tightly. It was not for nothing that she uprooted old stumps in the forest every day. This will be more difficult work than competing with a demon!
The old woman and the demon fought for a minute, they fought for two... And when five minutes had passed, the demon begged:
- Wait, give me a break! - What are you waiting for? - answered the old woman. “And you will rest in the underworld.” The demon could not stand it here, he began to cry: “Okay, grandma, you defeated me.” Let go of your hand, otherwise you’ll tear it out completely! - Wow! - the old lady was surprised. - How many years have I lived in the world, I have never seen demons cry! We really should let you go, otherwise you won’t get home. Leave our mochi and go in peace.
The demon sighed: what will he say to Lord Emma now? But your life is more valuable!
He left the knapsack with New Year's mochi under the old woman's window and wandered away. The old woman distributed rice cakes to the peasants and they went home to celebrate the New Year.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru