Mochi-pounding ceremony

Yesterday, I visited Tanaka Jinja Shrine in Kyoto where mochi-ponding ceremony was held. People living around the shrine were gathering on the grounds of the shrine.

He is cooking glutinous rice (mochi-gome) in front of torii gate of the shrine.

After steaming glutinous rice, it is pounded with wooden mallets (kine) in a big mortar (usu). When I was shooting a video, mochi almost leaped out of the mortar, but an assistant of the mochi-pounder nicely caught it before it touched the ground.

After the mochi-pounding, they put small pieces of it into red bean soup (shiruko) and served it to the people gathered there.