Events similar to this are still widely held. For example, on Mishima Island off the coast of Nagato, two mortars of small rice cakes are made at the end of the year when rice cakes are pounded, and oiwai-sama, i.e., kagami-mochi, is made from the third mortar. Before pounding the oiwai, a small amount of steamed glutinous rice is put in a sho* measure box and offered to the gods. This rice is called chikara-mochi and is believed to give strength when eaten (Mishima Kikigaki). In Shika Island, Chikuzen Province, chikara-mochi refers to rice cakes offered to Kojin-sama (the god of the hearth) during the New Year. It is taken down on the seventh, wrapped in the white paper that was matted, tied with straw, and put into omi (rice porridge) to be eaten on the fourteenth, a part of which is eaten by roasting at the fire of seven houses on the occasion of onisube (fire festival) held on the same day, and put into red bean rice cooked on the fifteenth. This chikara-mochi should be eaten only by family members and not shared with others (reported by Sakurada). In Miyaki County, Hizen Province, there is a superstition that people will not get sick if they eat chikara-mochi on January 20 (Saga Kenka no Shoku-seikatsu). No one has reported when it is pounded, but it is probably also an offering or decoration for the New Year that was especially left for this day.

mortar（名）臼

glutinous（形）粘着質の

superstition（名）迷信

Farmers especially felt the need for strength at the time of cultivation in early spring, and it was natural for them to want to eat chikara-mochi before that season, but considering carefully, this had something to do with the New Year. We assume that the time of New Year used to be much later than now, around March or April in the old lunar calendar when people started farming, but regardless of that, there are many regions where chikara-mochi is pounded around this time. For example, in Hida, nawashiro-mochi, a rice cake made on the day when rice paddies for growing rice seedlings (nawashiro) are first plowed, is called chikara-mochi (Hidabito Vol. 45). This rice cake actually declares the start of work in the field. I don't know whether it still exists or not, but something called kusa-no-chikara-mochi used to be made in the northern part of Akita Prefecture. On the day when plowing begins in spring, it is pounded at each house and taken to the rice field. I think it is a little too early, but it was written that it is a custom held after February 15 in the old calendar in the area (Susuki no Ideyu). In the central region, villages in Nakakawachi County, Osaka Prefecture had a day for making chikara-mochi, which was usually on the last day of May in the old calendar. Because the region places importance on dry-field farming when the wheat turns red, the ward mayor decides this day considering the climate and the condition of the crops, and the villagers take a day off. It was their custom to pound chikara-mochi and distribute them to each other's neighbors(Kinki Minzoku Vol. 1, No. 3). There was also a custom of making chikara-dango (power dumpling) around Osaka City. The day was June 1, which is said to be the anniversary of the renovation of the Yodo River, but judging from the name of the aki-yasumi (autumn vacation) (Tosei Gunshi), it can be inferred that the day had something to do with farming.

paddy（名）水田

dry-field（名）畑作

*sho: about 1.8 liters