Since 1992 it has been pounding hot mochi with bare hands in a few seconds: 200 yen a piece.
A shop making yomogi (mugwort) mochi, founded in 1992 and known all over Japan for its ‘high-speed pounding’ technique (高速餅つき): two staff beat the rice while it is still scalding hot with a mallet in a very fast sequence, a technique the founder brought from his home village, Kamikitayama, in the Yoshino district. It is not a show put on for tourists: the speed is needed to knead the hot rice before it cools, to get the soft and elastic texture of mochi. A piece costs 200 yen.
The shop is on Sanjō-dōri, the main street running down from Kintetsu Nara Station towards Nara Kōen, about 5 minutes' walk from the station.
ℹ️ Opening hours 10:00–19:00. Address: 奈良県奈良市橋本町29. The pounding demonstrations do not follow a fixed published schedule: they happen several times a day, whenever a new batch of dough arrives.
🚉 Kintetsu Nara · 4 min walk
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