There are two more occasions to prepare rice cakes called chikara-mochi other than during childbirth. One of them is closer to the meaning of the Benkei's chikara-mochi, and the rice cake made for carrying or holding a one-year-old child is called chikara-mochi. Although the origin of this custom is unknown, it can be assumed that it is an old custom because it has spread to almost every corner of the country. In some regions, if a baby starts to walk before the age of 12 months, which is considered an undesirable sign, a giant rice cake is made on purpose and made to be carried by the baby on their back, and if the baby is still standing, the baby is made to stumble, but this is a kind of magic invented in later times. Considering that in many other regions, there is a custom called mochibumi (stepping rice cake), in which a baby who can't walk yet and is wearing new sandals is held and made to stand on the rice cake, there has been only the event of pounding rice cake to celebrate the first birthday (tanjo-mochi) since ancient times. There is an example where this rice cake is called chikara-mochi in Toyoura County, Yamaguchi Prefecture, where people just pound 1 sho of rice into rice cake and let infants hold it (Nagato Hogen Shu). Tanjo-mochi is also called chikara-mochi in the area extending from four counties in the Uwa region of Ehime Prefecture to Okinoshima Island in Tosa Province. Here, only the rice cake that is carried on the back of a toddler who starts walking before their first birthday, which is known as tattara-mochi in other regions, is called chikara-mochi, which is usually also referred to as tanjo-mochi. Since the process of pounding rice cake on a birthday is the same, parents were simply worried that a baby with too much growth might be Onigo (demon's baby) as described in the story of Benkei's upbringing, and they became excessively cautious. The name of chikara-mochi might have already existed before then. In the mountainous villages of Higashi Chikuma County, Shinano Province, there was a custom of having many rice cakes put on the baby's back or hitting the baby's head, shoulders, and knees with five rice cakes made as offerings on their first birthday, and the family ate the rice cakes, called chikara-mochi, the next morning (Mura no Shirabe). Putting rice cakes on a baby's back, hitting a baby with rice cakes, and having a baby step on them all have the same meaning; originally, it was just a ritual to pray that the baby would receive the power necessary for life from the rice cakes.

occasion（名）儀式

undesirable（形）好ましくない

stumble（動）つまずく

toddler（名）よちよち歩きの幼児

upbringing（名）養育

mountainous（形）山地の

offering（名）捧げもの

On the other hand, there is chikara-mochi that is made when a person dies. In Higashi Murayama Village, Kita Tama County near Tokyo, it is customary for relatives to cut rice cakes from the bottom of a 1 sho measure box and eat them before taking out the coffin. This practice is called chikara-mochi or dokyodameshi (gut check) (Kawagoe Chiho Kyodo Kenkyu Vol.1 No. 1). There are also examples in this area where people who were responsible for washing the dead or digging graves took a sip of sake and called it chikara-zake (power sake) and ate chikara-meshi (power rice) before taking out a coffin. This is considered to be a form of kuiwakare (meal as a separation), a means of giving strength to the survivors and preventing them from being defeated by the impurity of death. However, in this case, making 49 small rice cakes and one oyamochi (parent rice cake), and cutting the larger one to eat, may be confused with the ceremony after the mourning period. This must be a kind of example of chikara-mochi, but I have yet to hear it being called that.

coffin（名）棺

separation（名）別離

impurity（名）穢れ

mourning（名）服喪期間