Mochitsuki Traditions, History, and Songs

By: Lyric ’20

Our Assembly this week was based on a very special tradition, Mochitsuki! We had some birthday books shared, a thank you and goodbye song to Mrs. Molly an ASC teacher who is moving to Oregon, and Nahina shared her dress she made in the Collaborative Studio.

Then the Kukunaokalā kids shared the process of making the rice. First, you put water into the large pot. The pot is put over the fire. Then the rice is washed and cooked. When the rice is done, it goes into the usu and is pounded by the kine. Each class makes 5 pounds of mochi. We then say positive things to make the mochi taste better.

Then Mrs. Inouye talked about how our tradition was started. The Goto family introduced mochitsuki to our school in 1980. That was the first year we started the tradition. That year, Mrs. Mito came to mochi pounding with her kimono. She sang the song, Potan Potan and danced. Mrs. Mito came as much as she could.

The Kukunaokalā kids sang Potan Potan and then we all sang!

After that we all left to get ready for mochi pounding!