[Part 2] What is Mochi Honzen in Ichinoseki and Hiraizumi? | Other Honzen Dishes and the Two Major Schools of Mochi Honzen

Examples of honzen cuisine that preserve the traditions of the past

Although we are slightly off topic from the topic of Mochi Honzen itself, we would like to introduce three examples that also convey the legacy of Honzen cuisine.

Both have a strong traditional cultural aspect that values ​​ritual and formality, and by comparing them, let's take a fresh look at the ancient position of mochi honzen.

Tea ceremony

"Chakaiseki" is a type of meal served during the tea ceremony, and is prepared to lightly satisfy hunger before drinking thick tea.

It is characterized by the fact that rice, soup, and mukouzuke (such as sashimi) are served first on an oshiki, which is similar to a tray, rather than on a regular meal tray. This is also considered a style that further simplifies honzen ryori.

There are detailed etiquette rules for the order in which chopsticks are used and how to handle them, but after soup and one dish, an assortment of boiled or mixed dishes such as "soup bowls," "yakimono," "azukebachi," and "shiizakana" are served, and they are taken around in order, starting with the main guest.

In tea ceremony kaiseki, the rice, soup, and appetizer served first are often added to the bowls and grilled dishes that follow, making up the total meal of "one soup and three dishes."The main course of mochi can also be considered to consist of one soup and three dishes if pickled vegetables and pickles are included.

Then, after a light soup called "hashiarai," the host appears with a "hachisun" (snack) of mountain and sea delicacies, and exchanges sake cups with the guests.

There are times during the meal when you can have more rice or soup, called "hanki" or "kaeshi" (refills of soup), and at the end, you pour a "yutou" (hot water mixed with burnt rice) into the rice and soup bowls, wipe them down with pickles, and eat everything, purifying yourself and finishing the meal.

Although the tea ceremony that follows is the main focus of Chakaiseki, the etiquette of purifying the dishes with hot water and pickles at the end is also followed in Mochi Honzen, and the recipients also show the utmost courtesy by eating the food neatly.

Also, in tea ceremony kaiseki, the first rice served is a small amount that is still soft before it is steamed, which is said to convey the idea that freshly cooked rice should be served to guests who are likely to be hungry.

Even in the Mochi Honzen course, you can have as many refills of "anko mochi" and "soup mochi (zoni)" as you like, which are equivalent to rice and soup, which is probably similar to the thoughtfulness shown in tea kaiseki, such as providing rice bowls and soup refills.

As such, we can see that Mochi Honzen, which originated from Honzen cuisine, has many things in common with the meals served in the tea ceremony.

First meal

"Okuizome" is a ceremony held around 100 days after a baby's birth, in which the baby is pretended to eat food from a tray, in prayer for the growth of strong teeth and for the baby to have no food problems for the rest of its life.

Although there are slight differences in each region, this "tooth hardening," and involves placing a stone from the local shrine (or chestnut or octopus in some regions) on a tray and placing it in the baby's mouth, or placing chopsticks with the stone on them in the baby's mouth.

The meal served at this first meal is in the same format as the main meal, with one pattern being rice (sekihan) on the front left, soup on the front right, hot food on the back left, cold food on the back right, and a stone and a pickled plum, a lucky charm for longevity, in the middle.

However, this is not an absolute rule, and there are also cases where another dish such as sashimi is placed in the center, and a teething stone or pickled plum is placed on a separate plate or piece of paper.

Although there are some major differences, it is certainly noteworthy that the traditional honzen format is used for the important ritual of feeding a baby.

Those who have actually witnessed or witnessed the Okuizome ceremony may find it easy to imagine the basic arrangement of the rice cake meal.

Koyasan "Furemai Cuisine"

Honzen cuisine, which is the origin of mochi honzen cuisine, also had a major influence on shojin ryori, the food served to monks in temples.

we would like to introduce a style called "Furemai" from Mount Koya, the sacred site of Shingon Esoteric Buddhism founded by Kukai

This is served by monks to entertain other monks on important occasions such as Buddhist ceremonies, and is of course a vegetarian meal that does not contain any animal protein such as meat, fish, eggs, or dairy products.

Even so, the contents are extremely sumptuous, and the style can be said to be descended from the original honzen cuisine of the Middle Ages, which included two and three courses.

However, there are only a limited number of dishes that can be eaten on the spot, such as rice, soup, and other watery dishes, and it is customary to take most of the food back to one's own temple. For this reason, a "morihoshi" is prepared for souvenirs, such as fruit, sweets, inari sushi, and nori rolls, and this menu is also intended to be shared with disciples and young monks.

This is also true for traditional honzen cuisine from the Middle Ages; when dishes such as grilled fish with head and tail are served as the fourth or fifth course, it is customary to pack these items in bento boxes to take home.

At Mount Koya, even ordinary visitors can enjoy vegetarian vegetarian cuisine at temple lodgings and specialty restaurants, some of which offer luxurious meals in a style similar to the farewell cuisine.

Mochi Honzen is called "honzen" in the sense of the first meal, so it is not included in the second meal and onwards, and it is eaten on the spot and not taken home as a souvenir.

However, you can also experience the elegance of its origin, Honzen cuisine, through the Shojin cuisine of Mount Koya, and if you compare it with Mochi Honzen cuisine, you may notice some interesting similarities.

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What are the Ogasawara-ryu and Shijo-ryu schools that are the origins of Mochi Honzen?

As we have seen, Mochi Honzen follows tradition and formality and is descended from the lineage of historic honzen cuisine.

In particular, the aforementioned speech by the host, "The food is prepared in the Ogasawara style, and the menu is in the Shijo style" suggests that the ceremony is based on the etiquette of formal ceremonial schools.

So let's take a look at an overview of what exactly these "Ogasawara-ryu" and "Shijo-ryu" schools are.

Ogasawara Style

"Ogasawara-ryu ," many people probably imagine a school of etiquette in Japanese culture.

Originally a school of archery and horsemanship, as well as the etiquette associated with them, it has been passed down through the generations of the Ogasawara family, whose founder was Ogasawara Nagakiyo, a samurai from Kai Province who lived from the end of the Heian period to the early Kamakura period.

It is still active today as a school of old-style martial arts that practices techniques such as yabusame, and became popular during the Showa period as a famous school of etiquette.

The Ogasawara-style presentation of the Mochi Honzen meal reflects the theory of the "Five Elements" called the "Five Elements Den."

The five elements are thought to make up the world of wood, fire, earth, metal, and water, and all things in the universe can be understood by applying the attributes of these five elements.

The balance of the five elements has been important throughout history and has had a major influence on culture. In cooking, there are the five tastes of sour, bitter, sweet, spicy, and salty; the five virtues that people should follow are benevolence, righteousness, courtesy, wisdom, and faithfulness; and in color, there are the five colors of blue, white, red, black, and yellow.

Mochi Honzen also inherits this concept and utilizes it in assembling five dishes: bean paste mochi, soup mochi, cooked mochi, pickled vegetables, and pickles.

In the Five Elements Dictionary, each dish is assigned a direction.

• Pickled vegetables...Higashi
• Anko mochi...West
• Cooking Mochi... Minami
• Soup rice cakes...Kita
• Pickles...center

It is said that this is the case.

These five elements, along with the properties of "yin and yang," form the basic theory of Onmyodo, and have a wide-ranging influence not only on cooking but also on architecture, art, and everyday codes of conduct.

The five dishes of the Mochi Honzen meal are thus imbued with profound meaning.

Shijo style

Another point that comes up in Otorimochi-sama's speech is the name of the school, "Shijo-ryu."

This is the school of Japanese cuisine itself, and it is still passed down today under the name of "The Way of the Knife."

The founder of the Shijo school is said to be Fujiwara no Yamakage, a nobleman from the early Heian period, who established new cooking etiquette at the command of Emperor Koko at the time.

The techniques and etiquette passed down by the Shijo school are a vast system, with even the dimensions of cooking utensils specified, but the most famous of these is the ritualized cooking process known as the "Knife Ceremony."

Simply put, it refers to the technique of using a knife and chopsticks to prepare food in a specific "form" without directly touching the ingredients.

Wearing eboshi hats and hitatare robes, the chefs prepare carp and sea bream, suggesting that the school also has techniques for butchering birds.

Even today, knife ceremonies are sometimes offered at shrines and other places, so there may be many opportunities to see them in person.

This technique was adopted by samurai families from the Middle Ages onwards, and in the Muromachi period, offshoots of the Shijo school such as the Okusa school and the Shinshi school were founded. In addition, the Shijo Sonobe school, founded by Sonobe Izuminokami, who studied the Shijo school and served the Matsudaira clan, a family of Tokugawa Ieyasu, became the chef for the Tokugawa shogunate.

It is unclear how the Mochi Honzen menu specifically reflects the Shijo style, but it can be seen as a statement that it inherits the ideas of an ancient and orthodox culinary school.

It is said that Date Masamune, the founder of the Sendai domain that ruled the southern part of Iwate Prefecture, personally used his knife to create dishes, which shows the strong feelings the locals have about hospitality meals.

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Why do we wipe our dishes with pickled radish at the end? "Washing the bowl" is also a tradition in Zen Buddhism and other dining etiquette.

As mentioned above, when you finish eating Mochi Honzen , the proper etiquette is to pour hot water into the bowl and then wipe the bowl with the remaining piece of pickled radish to finish the meal

This is also true for tea ceremony and kaiseki cuisine, and is recognized as a universal etiquette for meals at temples, including those in the Zen sect.

So why take these steps?

This is "senpatu ," and by purifying the dishes before finishing a meal, it reduces the effort of washing dishes and is said to show gratitude and thanks to those who have entertained you.

In the past, there was no dishwashing detergent like there is today, so the basic method of washing dishes was to scrub them with straw or something similar and rinse them with water.

Therefore, it is easy to imagine that if you do not wash the dishes immediately after eating, food residue will stick to the dishes and become difficult to remove.

In particular, great care was taken to ensure that highly viscous ingredients such as rice and mochi, which harden when dried, were not left in the bowl.

Pouring hot water and wiping it up with pickled radish is a way to ensure this is done thoroughly, and eating everything without leaving a single grain or drop is also a concrete action to show gratitude to the ingredients and the host.

This not only made cleaning up easier for the host, but it also helped to protect the bowls and other utensils used for hospitality, helping them last longer.

In this way, the main focus of etiquette is for both the host and the guests to show respect to each other and have a pleasant time together, and it can be said that Mochi Honzen continues to carry on this profound tradition of a single-party setting.

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summary

We introduced "Mochi Honzen," a meal made with rice cakes that is a tradition in the Ichinoseki and Hiraizumi regions of southern Iwate Prefecture.

It can be said to be a valuable food culture that conveys the simple and warm spirit of hospitality, wanting guests to enjoy freshly made mochi to their heart's content, and the time-honored etiquette that follows tradition.

In this area, mochi is valued for both celebrations and funerals, but a notable innovation is that when it comes to condolences, zoni, which is often eaten to celebrate the New Year, is made without meat or seafood and instead uses kelp as a shojin ryori (vegetarian dish).

The availability of mochi in abundance is a sign of fertility, and various mochi dishes, including the Mochi Honzen meal, are still cherished and passed down today as delicacies rooted in the culture of daily life.

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