Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Sakura mochi/Pulut sakura/Sakura rice-cake

Picture courtesy of
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.


  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?..

  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.

  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!

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