On the morning of March 16th, Mocchi had been kneading rice cakes in the kitchen since before dawn .
One, two… sixteen. Counting as he went, he rolled each one carefully into an even size.
“A spring offering for the Dragon God.”
Sonchō, watching from a bench in the plaza , asked, “Mind if I eat one?”
“It’s an offering.”
“For after the Dragon God has had his fill. Surely a seventeenth one isn’t necessary.”
Mocchi frowned. “You haven’t eaten one.”
“Perhaps I’ve been eating them where no one can see. Feh-feh.”
Sonchō popped one into his mouth. He chewed for a while, narrowing his eyes.
“…Delicious. The Dragon God will be pleased with this.”
Mocchi, embarrassed, straightened the row of rice cakes again. The light of the spring morning fell quietly over the sixteen rice cakes.
Margin note: After the offering was set down, the surface of Dragon God’s Pond stirred once, quietly, and was still again.
【Today’s Drop】
- Sixteen Dumplings Day (March 16): A custom of offering sixteen rice-flour dumplings to the mountain god, marking the traditional start of farm work for the season.
This is an English translation of “十六個の団子”, part of Tales of Amencho Town (蛙鳴町奇譚).