Mice on Rice-cake Flowers

Four mice munch on little bits of mochi (rice dough) that dot a plum tree branch, as a baby mouse watches nearby. In Japan, the first full moon of the new year is known as “Small New Year’s Day” (Koshōgatsu). A typical decoration for the occasion includes “mochi flowers” (mochi bana)—small pieces of rice cakes pierced onto a branch of Chinese sumac, Chinese hackberry, or willow—that were made to wish for a good harvest. This image references a haiku for New Year’s by poet Matsuo Bashō (1644–1694): “These rice cake flowers / put up for decorations / for the first mouse.”