On New Year’s Eve, campuses across the nation froth with college parties sporting fizzing drinks, ticking countdowns and balls dropping on television screens and town squares alike. But slightly over a week later, a different kind of celebration lit up UTD with music and laughter, trading the champagne for something a little sweeter.
Hundreds filled the Athenaeum Jan. 11 to celebrate mochitsuki, a Japanese tradition of making mochi for the new year. The event also featured drummers, calligraphy, multiple music acts, and fresh mochi for visitors to sample as they learned more about Japanese culture and traditions. Kicking off the afternoon event was an energetic performance from daiko drumming group Dallas Kiyari Daiko.
While the event was sponsored by the DFW Japan-America Society, Dallas Japanese Association and UTD’s Center for Asian Studies, both attendees and performers alike boasted diverse backgrounds. Daiko drummer Grace Chalker finds her performances a lifeline to the country she once called home.
“I lived [in Japan], I studied abroad there, I worked there, and when I came back, I wanted to have that connection with Japan,” Chalker said. “I had a good friend of mine who got me into it and sort of inspired me to play the drums.”
Meanwhile, Cody Gonzalez, an event volunteer, said he got involved to help share Japanese culture with the people of DFW and highlight the local Japanese-American community.
“I always loved Japanese culture since I was a kid, and I wanted to give something back to the Japanese-American community,” Gonzales said.
After the daiko session was the actual mochitsuki, or mochi making. Visitors crowded around to watch two performers take turns pounding the mochi dough with a wooden mallet, called a kine, in a large mortar, called an usu. While the mochi made was just for demonstration and was separate from the mochi being offered inside, the crowd was captivated by the speed and efficiency as they pounded the dough, pausing briefly only with a shout to rotate the dough in the usu.
Then came a myriad of musical acts, martial arts performances and calligraphy lessons where attendees got their hands dirty practicing their hiragana. Volunteers taught participants of all ages how to write ゆめ, the Japanese word for “dream,” and もち, the hiragana form of “mochi,” to celebrate the event and bring in well wishes for the new year. Participants wrote with calligraphy brushes and got to take their work home with them as a souvenir.
All the while, the crowd lined up for and munched on mochi prepared before the event. Groups went on tours of the Athenaeum focused specifically on Japanese art history. Others drank green tea in white styrofoam cups. But one artform in particular caught the eye of attendee Alex Nguyen: the kendo performance, a martial art involving bamboo swords.
“I just like the energy that they put into it,” Nguyen said. “You could tell that they were very committed to their craft.”
Eli Hatch, membership director for JAS’ DFW chapter, said the mochitsuki event has blossomed after facing difficulty from social distancing requirements and a lack of available indoor, outdoor and kitchen spaces during the COVID-19 pandemic. For Hatch, mochitsuki is critical to his organization’s mission: connecting the U.S. and Japan to each other.
“The Japanese community in North Texas is growing. It’s second right now in Texas only to Houston in terms of size,” Hatch said. “One of the areas we focus on [connection] is in cultural exchange and understanding.”
And for performers like Chalker, community events like mochitsuki transcend cultural boundaries and become almost familial.
“An event like this, it’s important because it connects people,” she said. “I was looking out at the crowd, and I saw people from all different parts of the world, all different parts of life, and they’re like, wow, these drums are really cool.”
