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Making Mochi with Hamatani’s Judo Club

Kenji Hamatani recalls the campus festivals when his college judo club made mochi and former members came back to visit.

A judo club tradition

Japanese comedian Kenji Hamatani of Hama-kaan tells this story from his college judo club days. At the annual campus festival, the club made mochi: chewy rice cakes traditionally made by pounding sticky rice in a mortar, with one person swinging a wooden mallet while another turns the rice between swings.

On mochi duty

I’m Kenji Hamatani from Hama-kaan.

Back in college, our judo club would get a mortar and a mallet and make mochi every year at the campus festival.

There was this younger guy in the club with a shaved head. He was the helper—is that what you call it? The one who turns the mochi over between swings.

And since it was the campus festival, alumni would come by.

Now, this guy was really polite. He called out, “Good morning!” to one of the older members and gave him this deep bow.

WHACK! The mallet hit him right on the head.

He started bleeding, and we went, “This is bad! We need an ambulance!”

But everyone was drunk, and he had a face drawn on his head…

The blood was coming out right where the nose was drawn. It looked like the face had a nosebleed…

When the ambulance arrived, a paramedic looked at him and yelled, “Don’t draw on the patient!” We got absolutely chewed out.

Close-up caricatures of two men against a white background with orange rays radiating behind them. The man on the left has short black hair and a toothy grin. The man on the right has silver-white hair, black-framed glasses, and a smirk.

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