In my hometown, we have a custom called midamameshi.
You know, there are festivals after the harvest all over Japan. We also had one, and everyone called it just festival there.
On that night, three large rice balls are placed on a winnowing basket and placed under the altar in thanks to the god of rice paddies.
By the time I was a child, the town had changed from a farming village to an industrial town, but the custom remained. One year, there was a fire and our family was in great financial trouble. That year, there was really no room for living. Even so, my mother made three nigiri-meshi (rice balls) on the day of the festival, as my grandmother strongly insisted that she had to make them as an offering. I was so miserable looking at them that I annoyed my mother by saying, “I want to eat just one.” At first my mother said, “No, you can't have it because it belongs to God.” But then, perhaps she couldn't bear to see me refuse to give up, so she gave me one, saying, “What kind of God would take something from a hungry child? “ I thought to myself, “Oh, no.” I was being selfish because I didn't really think I would get one. But I ate it. My mother took the two remaining nigiri-meshi and made them into three balls by putting soba noodle cups inside to make them look bigger. What I felt sorry for her was that until her death, she was always worried that God would punish me for what we had done. After things settled down at home, my mother secretly made one extra nigiri-meshi and offer it to God.
Some years later, I started working as a town hall employee in a town far away. To my surprise, I found a similar custom in that town. They used a straw raincoat instead of a winnowing basket, but it was exactly the same in that they put three nigiri-meshi on a farm tool. I thought it was a curious coincidence. Nigiri-meshi were also placed under the altar at the town hall, it was the newcomer's job to prepare them. When I did it and turned my back to the altar, I heard a voice behind me saying, “Tell her not to worry.” When I turned around in surprise, I saw the nigirhi-meshi I had just offered. But the number had decreased from three to two. Then I heard the voice again. I'll take it from you.”
At the end of that year, I returned to my hometown and reported this to my mother in the Buddhist altar (it means his mother was already dead). I then put a nigiri-meshi before the alter. It was for my mother. Because when I was hungry, she must have been hungry too. I realized that belatedly.
(Taken in the 1990s in a place in the Tohoku region)
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