About 50 years ago, I was surprised when I heard the first Eucharistic sermon from the famous missionary Verbeck*. I thought Christians might have regarded wine as the blood of Christ, but the analogy of bread to the flesh of the Messiah made me bored. I have had very few opportunities to consider that food makes both the body and the mind of man, much less that I have forgotten, or rather never considered, that this gives rise to new invisible associations between those who love one another. However, although this has now become common knowledge for them, at least within Christianity, there are no efforts to explore whether Japan had similarly simple and traditional ideas, which might be considered the origin of this doctrine. The Japanese are very strange people, who know enough about other countries to teach others, but leave their own affairs to old books. If it's not in the old books, they leave it as it is. It is easy to confirm now that mochi was not exactly the same as the Chinese character for '餅.' The food called mochi, which is written by applying the Chinese character, is always formed into a round shape and stacked two or three high, and is presented in front of the gods on the day of the god festival days, in front of the spirits of the ancestors on the day of the ancestral festival days, and in front of the parents on days of honoring and celebrating the parents, and it is customary to celebrate the New Year by distributing it as soon as these ceremonies are completed, or by offering rice cakes with the name of each family member to the livestock and various tools in the New Year. However, did these customs exist in any other countries? Taking it a step further, is there an example of other cultures where rice cakes are considered a source of power, and where gods and humans, or masters and their retainers, share a meal together on specific dates? If not, could there be a unique reason for this practice in Japan? If this custom existed in isolation in a few regions, it could be said that it was newly created by those who enjoy events. However, since similar examples have already been found nationwide, its origin must be from a long time ago. It may be a small matter, but in this regard, we are still ignorant. We need to reconsider whether what our ancestors called ‘Chikara’ exactly matches the current academic discussion of ‘power.’ In any case, in our native language, taxes were called ‘Chikara,’ and the institution that managed local finances in ancient times was named ‘Chikara no Tsukasa.’ As far as records can be traced, people referred to the rice they paid to the Imperial Court as ‘oo-chikara.’ The dictionary interprets this as the result of the farmers’ efforts, but I alone cannot believe this. As can be seen from the purpose of the customs of eating ‘chikara-mai’ or ‘chikara-meshi,’ which are still widely practiced today, power always belongs to the side to whom it is offered. In a family, it is the patriarch; in a village, it is the local deity (ubusuna) and the people who worship the deity who is nourished by ‘chikara-mai,’ thereby strengthening their power, regain their youth and vitality and renewing their activities for the year. This expectation likely remains an unspoken expectation even today. It may be presumptuous to infer from this, but in the past, the hopes of the entire nation’s people likely did not extend beyond this scope. There was a hidden reason from long ago why rice, beyond its excellent color and taste, unusually suggested our sense of happiness.

Eucharistic（名）聖餐

sermon（名）説教

missionary（名）宣教師

analogy（名）類推

stack（動）積み重ねる

livestock（名）家畜

retainer（名）家臣

ignorant（形）無知な

reconsider（動）再考する

unspoken（形）暗黙の

*Verbeck: Guido Herman Fridolin Verbeck (1830 - 1898) American missionary from the Netherlands. He came to Japan in 1859 and, as a government adviser after the Meiji Restoration, proposed the dispatch of a mission to the United States and the introduction of German medicine.