🍡 Ibara Mochi

“Ibara mochi” is a rice cake wrapped in greenbriar leaves. “Ibara mochi,” which was eaten during the May Festival, has different names depending on the region. In Tsu City it's called “ibara mochi,” but in the eastern Kishu region it's called “osasuri.” In the Chunansei region around Ano Town it's “ibara manju,” while in Takenari in the Hokusei region it's “gandachi mochi,” and finally in Kameyama City it's called “dokkan mochi/doukan-mochi.” It's said that dokkan mochi is named after a person named “Doukan” who made mochi wrapped in greenbriar leaves in celebration of Noagari, and gifted them to the villagers to their great delight. The villagers then followed suit and made similar mochi. In the Iga region, it's called “ibara dango.” Note that Noagari is a celebration of the end of farm work such as rice planting. It's also called “noagari manju,” named after this event. In addition to the May festival, it's eaten as a snack between farm work, and it's a custom to eat it together with people who helped with farm work at the Noagari event to thank them for their hard work. In other prefectures, kashiwa mochi is one of the steamed sweets made by wrapping a rice cake with red bean paste in leaves. Kashiwa mochi uses kashiwa leaves, but the greenbriar leaves used for ibara mochi are round and have a smooth surface, so they are perfect for wrapping mochi rice cakes. It's also said that since Kashiwa leaves are scarce in western Japan, greenbriar leaves were used as a substitute for kashiwa mochi rice cake leaves.