お正月の三日間、床の間や神棚に飾っておいた鏡餅を、昨日のうちに下げて、今朝は「鏡開き」をしました。
カチンコチンになったお餅を切るには「注意と気合い」が要ります。先ず、深鍋にお湯を沸かして包丁を温めて布巾で包丁の背を抑えながら怪我をしないようにゆっくりと切っていきます。すぐに食べないお餅は袋に入れて冷凍室へ。Fさんから自家製豆乳を頂戴したので、夕食は餅入りクリームシチューでいただきました。
多賀大社の干支の「延寿すず」は、N様が毎年年始にお持ちくださるもので今年もありがたく頂戴しました。
「多賀あさひや」と書いた小さな徳利は、骨董好きの幼なじみのSNさんが以前、京都の骨董屋で見つけたものらしく、カフェを開業して間もなく、うちのものではないかと持ってきてくださったのです。昔一時期、曽祖母や祖母が「多賀あさひや」という土産物屋をしていたことがあって、その時、「延命酒」なるものをこの徳利に入れて売っていたようで、それを誰かが買って、それが巡り巡って販売元の我が家に戻ってきたという数奇な運命のシロモノです。
令和８年（２０２６年）が順調に滑り出しました。数々のご縁に恵まれていることを感謝しながら、新しい日々に挑戦できればと願っています。今年もよろしくお願いいたします。
On the evening of Jan.3rd, I took the round rice-cakes offered to the deity from alcove and cut them into pieces for eating.
They became too hard to cut in a regular way, so I prepared hot water in a deep pan. I put a knife in it to make it warm, then cut the rice cake slowly holding the top of the knife with cloth. You need to pay attention not to cut yourself with knife. I put most of the slices of mochi into plastic bags and put them in the freezer.
I received a zodiac bell for the New Year of the horse in Taga Taisha from Mr. N who has been bringing it every year since I opened the cafe. I thank him a lot for this. The small bottle with the letter of Taga Asahiya on it is from my childhood friend who collected antiques.
When he brought it, he said that he had found it at the antique shop in Kyoto before and when he knew that I opened a cafe of the same name, he wondered if it was a selling item of Taga Asahiya a souvenir shop which my great ground mother and my grandmother opened around 1915 for about ten years. Somebody came to the shop and bought it around the time, and I don't know why but it came back to the original place. It is a sake bottle which went through a strange and mysterious fate. I was very surprised when I received it.
The days of 2026 have already started. Thinking of how fortunate I am to meet many precious people, I would like to challenge myself in the new days of this year.
