Mochi with Red Bean Paste

Pounded mochi (mochitsuki) is documented in Japan from the Heian period (794–1185) as a New Year offering at Shinto shrines — the round shape echoes mirrors offered to the kami. Daifuku (大福, the bean-filled pocket form) emerges in the late Edo period (late 18th century) as a street snack in Edo, originally called harabuto-mochi (belly-stuffer mochi); the auspicious daifuku rebranding was a vendor's marketing move.

Daifuku — pounded mochigome rice wrapping anko, dating to Edo's 1771 'taiko-mochi.' The skin should stretch, not snap; over-dusted katakuriko means stale.

A round white pillow of pounded glutinous rice, dusted with starch so it doesn't stick, hiding a center of sweet red-bean paste. The skin pulls long when you bite, the filling is denser and grainier. Best at room temperature; cold mochi seizes up, warm mochi over-stretches. One piece is a small-tea portion — two is dessert.

The skin's stretch comes from amylopectin — glutinous rice (mochigome) is nearly 100% amylopectin, vs ~80% in regular short-grain. Pounding aligns the long branched chains into a cohesive matrix; the wood-mortar-and-mallet method (usu and kine) gives a finer texture than mixer-made gyuhi. Two-day-old mochi crystallizes hard — fresh-pounded is the standard, which is why mochi shops still pound to order on New Year.