# Gohei-mochi ｜ Our Regional Cuisines

**Cuisine Name**: Gohei-mochi

**Region**: Our Regional Cuisines

## Main Lore Areas
Tono Region, Hida Region

## Main Ingredients Used
Polished rice, walnuts, white sesame, peanuts, soy sauce or miso

## History, Origin, and Related Events
A local dish made by shaping mashed rice around a skewer, dipping it in sauce, and grilling it. It is mainly eaten in the Kiso and Ina regions of Nagano Prefecture, the eastern part of the Tono region of Gifu Prefecture, and the Mikawa region of Aichi Prefecture.It is said to have originated in the mid-Edo period, when lumberjacks in and around the Kiso area, located between the Central Alps and the Ontake mountain range in Nagano Prefecture, used to eat rice that was shaped around wood pieces from cut lumber, which was grilled on a bonfire and seasoned with miso paste. Eventually, gohei-mochi came to be offered to the gods to pray for safe work in the mountains, and was also used as offerings and eaten at harvest celebrations and other festive occasions.It is generally held that the name was derived from its resemblance in shape to a gohei, a small oval shaped paper money offered to the gods, but there is also a theory that it was first served to soldiers by a Mino native named Gohei during the Battle of Kawanakajima between Shingen Takeda and Kenshin Uesugi in the mid-16th century.

## Opportunities and Times of Eating Habits
Gohei-mochi is made from newly harvested rice after the fall harvest, and offered to the gods to express gratitude for the harvest as well as to pray for a bountiful harvest next year, on top of filling people’s stomachs. In addition to being served as offerings, gohei-mochi is also a popular meal during the busy farming season, and in the Ena and Nakatsugawa areas, it is served to guests.Today, it is sold mainly at holiday resorts as a local dish that can be easily enjoyed by tourists as well as locals, and it is popular among locals as well as visitors from outside the prefecture.

## How to Eat
The shape of gohei-mochi varies from region to region and from household to household, and they can be found in the shape of a straw sandal, a flattened dumpling, or a round dumpling. There are three types of sauce: miso-flavored, soy sauce-flavored, and a mixture of the two. Gohei-mochi is generally eaten with soy-sauce flavored sauce to the north of the Nakasendo and with miso-flavored sauce to the south, with scattered areas in between where it is eaten with a mixture of the two.Walnuts and peanuts are popularly used as the secret ingredient for the sauce, but “hebo”, the larvae of the common Asiatic yellowjacket wasp, is used in some areas of the Tono region. One of the charms of gohei-mochi is that each person who makes it comes up with their own unique taste.

## Efforts for Preservation and Succession
(Outline of the traditions, the preservation society, social media use, modern approaches at commercialization)Gohei-mochi is often sold at specialty stores, service areas, roadside stations, and snack stores at tourist spots in Gifu prefecture. Gohei-mochi kits that can easily be made at home are also sold as souvenirs.

## Ingredients
- Polished rice: 320g
- 【Sauce】 Peanuts: 24g
- 【Sauce】 Walnuts: 12g
- 【Sauce】 White ground sesame: 40g
- 【Sauce】 Roasted white sesame: 2g
- 【Sauce】 Dark soy sauce: 64g
- 【Sauce】 Caster sugar: 80g
- 【Sauce】 Refined sake: 24g
- 【Sauce】 Mirin (with alcohol): 32g
- Skewers: As needed

## Recipe
1. 1. Cook rice and grind it with a wooden pestle to a sticky consistency. Shape the rice into balls. Pass a skewer through the center of the balls of rice and shape the rice into straw sandal-shaped balls around the skewer.
2. 2. Grill the rice in 1 until lightly browned.
3. 3. Grind the peanuts and walnuts. Mix the ingredients for the sauce and simmer.
4. 4. Dip 2 in the sauce from 3 and grill again.

## Provider Information
provider : Recipe provided by: Gifu Prefecture School Nutritionists Association

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