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It is a common practice throughout Southeast Asia’s rice-growing cultures to eat mochi on such special occasions as festivals and religious ceremonies. In China, sweet mochi cakes are eaten at times of celebration, and in South Korea there is a type of zoni soup with mochi called ttok. It is not known exactly when zoni was first introduced into Japan, but it does seem to have existed in the Muromachi period (1392–1573). By the Edo period (1603–1867), zoni was a common food and it is from around this time that we see the emergence of regional variations of zoni.
Miso-based zoni was prevalent in western Japan, most likely because home-made miso was readily available and economical. In eastern Japan, where society was dominated by the warrior class, the term “miso” implied failure and loss of face, and as a result the more auspicious clear-soup zoni was preferred. As for the shape of the mochi in the soup, mochi squares were a convenient portable food for soldiers on the field; the practice of grilling the mochi was a way to make the mochi swell to more closely resemble the orthodox round shape originally required for zoni.
These kinds of regional and household traditions are reflected in the many variations of zoni to be found in Japan today. There are as many possible combinations of zoni ingredients as there are households in Japan, and the way zoni is prepared and served can vary from home to home. It may be customary, for example, in a household where husband and wife each comes from a different part of Japan, to have miso-based zoni on the first day of the new year and a clear-soup zoni on the second day.
Yasunao Kitamura is the owner-chef of Kitamura, an unusual restaurant specializing in mochi cuisine. He says, “In the restaurant, we serve a conventional refined zoni with small rounds of mochi, slices of giant white radish, taro, and carrot, and a few strips of fu [a soft, bread-like substance made of wheat gluten].
At home, however, I prepare a more robust stew with bigger pieces of mochi and lots of vegetables and meat. There are a lot of zoni traditions peculiar to Kyoto. In some Kyoto homes, they will use special zoni bowls embossed with the family crest and in others, for example, men and women will be served different kinds of taro in the soup.”
Traditional annual events and customs are not as carefully observed in Japan as they once were and mochi, which can be time-consuming to prepare, is not eaten as often as it used to be. Zoni, however, remains a popular dish, and zoni recipes continue to be faithfully passed on within the home as an important part of family history and tradition.
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Yasunao Kitamura is the owner-chef of “Kitamura,” a mochi-specialty shop in Kyoto. Mochi dishes can be ordered ala carte or as part of a full-course meal. |
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References
Yasumuro, Satoru. Mochi to Nihonjin [Mochi and the Japanese]. Yuzankaku, 2001.
Sakamoto, Sadao. Mochi no Bunka-shi Nihonjin no Hare no Shoku Seikatsu [The Mochi Magazine: the hare cuisine of the Japanese]. Chuo Koronsha, 1989.
Oshima, Tatsuhiko. Mochi. Iwasaki Bijutsusha, 1989.
Watabe, Tadayo and Fukazawa, Sayuri. Mochi. Hosei University Press, 1998.
“Shoku o Himotoku” [Delving into cuisine], TV Mook special issue. Nippon Television Network, 1986.
Konishi Brewing Co., Ltd. Web site, Fujiyama-NET: Nihon no Oshogatsu Ozoni o Meguru Monogatari [The Japanese New Year: tales of zoni]: http://www.konishi.co.jp/fujiyama/index.html
The editors would like to thank an unusual restaurant specializing in mochi cuisine of Kitamura for their cooperation in the compilation of this article. |
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