Rice Cake Making Event at Keio Yochisha

Keio Yochisha Elementary School held its annual rice cake (mochi) making event on December 20.
This event was first held in December 1947 and has been held every year since then, right after the second semester closing ceremony.
In August 1944, towards the end of the Pacific War, the Yochisha Elementary School was temporarily relocated to Shuzenji in Izu, Shizuoka prefecture. Despite the stress of being separated from their families, the children persevered with their studies. At the end of 1944, the first rice cake making event was held thanks to the kindness of the student residence manager at the time. Most of the Yochisha students had been brought up in the city and had never seen or participated in rice cake making before. After seeing the happy faces of the children that participated in the event, the teaching staff decided that they would like to hold a similar event at their school once peace was re-established.
The second rice cake making event was eventually held in 1947. The rice pounding began at dawn and continued until 10 am, producing 273 kilograms of rice cake from one bale of glutinous rice. The pounded rice was then formed into small, round rice cakes for the children to take home with them.
This year, children in the first and second grades pounded 80 kilograms of rice, together with teaching and administrative staff. For many of the children, it was their first experience of holding the mallet used to pound rice and everyone did their best to make the rice cakes. A student representative also handed out rice cakes made by the children to transport companies and train stations used every day by Yochisha students. Just as in 1947, the children held on tightly to their precious rice cakes on their way home.