Pounding glutinous rice to make mochi rice cakes, used in the traditional New Year dishes.
This image is part of The New Year in Japan, a book published by Kobe-based photographer Kozaburo Tamamura in 1906. Original text1:
Our foreign friends indulge in plum pudding; our pudding, mochi (a dough of rice), is the national diet for the celebration of the New Year Era, and also for sacred celebrations during the year. Men, with boilers and dough tubs, pound the rice into dough, and nearly every family engage these dough pounders, to save time and trouble. The pounding begins about the 25th December, and continues until the end of the year.
See all New Year images on Old Photos of Japan.
Notes
1 Tamamura, Kozaburo (1906). The New Year in Japan. Tamamura Shashinkan.
Published
Updated
Reader Supported
Old Photos of Japan aims to be your personal museum for Japan's visual heritage and to bring the experiences of everyday life in old Japan to you.
To enhance our understanding of Japanese culture and society I track down, acquire, archive, and research images of everyday life, and give them context.
I share what I have found for free on this site, without ads or selling your data.
Your support helps me to continue doing so, and ensures that this exceptional visual heritage will not be lost and forgotten.
Thank you,
Kjeld Duits
Reference for Citations
Duits, Kjeld (). Kobe, 1906: New Year Celebrations 2, OLD PHOTOS of JAPAN. Retrieved on June 29, 2026 (GMT) from https://www.oldphotosjapan.com/photos/681/new-year-celebrations-2
There are currently no comments on this article.