Muuchii

Cooks knead mochi flour with kokuto and water until the dough is about as soft as an earlobe, lay it on the underside of a sannin (shell ginger) leaf, wrap and tie it, and steam it for 20 to 30 minutes. The leaf gives the cake its scent. White muuchii skips the sugar, and other versions use beni-imo, turmeric or sorghum, with kuba palm leaves standing in for sannin in some homes. MAFF notes that the aroma of the steaming leaves is said to purify the house.

The name onimochi, 'demon cake', comes from a folk tale set in Shuri Kinjo-cho. A brother left alone after his sister married turned into an oni and began eating livestock and children, and his sister fed him mochi with iron inside, then pushed him off a cliff. Families still sprinkle the steaming water around the house and hang leaves tied in a cross at doorways and eaves. Some string up one muuchii for each year of a child's age. A child's first Muuchii day (hatsu-muuchii) means sharing cakes with relatives and neighbours, and a baby boy gets a large chikara-muuchii wrapped in kuba leaves.

The cold snap around the date has its own name, muuchii-biisa (muuchii cold). Japanese Wikipedia notes that the custom belongs to Okinawa Island and its nearby islands, and Miyako and Yaeyama do not keep it. A February 2027 visit falls after Muuchii day, and lunar new year follows on 7 February 2027 by the same reckoning. Mochi no Mise Yamaya near the Makishi market was selling muuchii in September 2026, according to a Tabelog review.