Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Sakura mochi/Pulut sakura/Sakura rice-cake

Picture courtesy of furusato.sanin.jp
Now is the season of sakura rice-cake. You cannot make sakura rice-cake without the sakura leave. This is a traditional dessert to be eaten during tea time by the Japanese. The method is to add to glutinous rice flour some pick colour of the sakura. Shape the flour into a ball with red bean paste and go into the steaming pot. Just before serving, wrap the steamed cake with boiled new sakura leave (old leaves have bitter after-taste).
Anyway this is not a receipe entry, though it might be a little useful to know the culture.
Since it is sakura-viewing time now, the season word related to sakura is the in-thing for haiku enthusiast. Sakura mochi is a season word or kigo for haiku.
Let's see some haiku I took from NHK.
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1] 雨の日の 午後しずかなる 桜餅
Read: Ame hi no/ gogo shizuka naru/ sakura mochi
Translation: During rainy day/ in the quiet afternoon/ sakura rice-cake
Narrative: In the quiet afternoon, after the rain, the writer has tea with sakura rice-cake.
Note: the writer's emotion is for reader to guess.
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2] 一茶の句 三つ覚えて 桜餅
Read: Issa no ku/ mittsu oboete/ sakura mochi
Translation: Haiku by Issa/ managed to memorize three/ sakura rice-cake
Narrative: Issa is a famous haiku writer after Bashou.
While eating sakura rice-cake, the writer managed to memorise 3 of Issa's haiku.
Note: readers is to feel the writer's feeling on the impact of eating sakura rice-cake.
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3] 桜餅 正座に強く 育てられ
Read: Sakura mochi seiza ni tsuyoku sodaterare
Translation: Sakura rice-cake/ taught strongly to sit on heels/ growing up that way.
Narrative: Here sakura rice-cake is taken to be a girl, a metaphor.
Growing up in the traditional way, she is trained strictly to sit properly on her heels.
Note: In this haiku, the writer use the image of pretty sakura-cake pink in colour as a girl.
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4] もの言はぬ 男のつまむ 桜餅
Read: Mono iwanu/ otoko no tsumamu/ sakura mochi
Translation: Without any words/ secret bites and snacks for men/ sakura rice-cake.
Narrative: There is some element of eroticm in this haiku. Here the sakura rice-cake is given the image of lady "entertainer". Go figure out.
Note: Once reader catch the image of the "entertainer", this haiku goes deeper that just having snacks for teatime!
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Translation and narrative are my work.
Hopefully this entry would give more lights on how beautiful haiku peoms can be when you read behind the lines.

4 comments:

  1. slm kenal & slm ziarah.. dpt rekemen drp pinatbate tgk sakura mochi kat cni.. sy di fukuoka, kyushu.. okinawa di pulau yg sama gak ke?..

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  2. salam perkenalan...

    sakura mochi tu macam kuih koci jugak la? cume inti yang berbeza and di balut dengan daun yang lain?

    waaa, best2 haiku.

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  3. Salam Kak Jahera

    Maaf lama tak menghantar khabar berita. Sejak saya mula bekerja ni sibuk sedikit. Terima kasih sudi singgah di blog saya.

    Hmmm I wish I can have some sakura moochi. Tak sangka daun sakura tu boleh makan. Saya pernah makan bunga sakura yang diletakkan di dalam jelly. Interesting!

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  4. makann tu kan...unik...mcm sedap jer..

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