By YOSHIHIRO OGINO/Staff Writer
December 10, 2023 at 16:26 JST
Women decorating tree branches with red and white rice cakes that look like flowers in Takayama, Gifu Prefecture, on Dec 7 (Tadashi Mizowaki)
Production of hana-mochi traditional New Year’s decorations is now in full swing in the Hida region of Gifu Prefecture.
In the old days, when fresh flowers for the festive season were hard to come by in snowy Hida, locals enjoyed decorating branches with red and white rice cakes that resemble flowers.
The Takayama Studio of the Hana-Mochi Association in Enako-cho, Takayama, which carries on this tradition, began making mochi flower decorations in mid-November and will continue until Christmas Day. The rice cakes will be shipped mainly to Nagoya and the Tokyo area.
Tomiko Nakano, who is 72 years old and has been making hana-mochi since she was in her 30s, said, “It will make me so happy to know that people are displaying them at home to welcome the New Year.”
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