【Reading】しゃもじ

【English Name】Shamoji / Rice paddle

A shamoji is a tool for scooping and mixing cooked rice, and is also indispensable in sushi making. Its formal name is "meshi-jakushi" (rice scoop), formed by attaching the court-lady-language (nyobo-kotoba) suffix "-moji" to "shakushi" (scoop). It eventually came to be distinguished from the "otama" (ladle) used for soups. Wood and bamboo have long been the mainstream materials, and in modern times resin products with embossed surfaces are also common. In finishing sushi rice (shari), "kiri-maze" (cut-mixing) is important: vinegar is drizzled over freshly cooked rice and mixed with a cutting motion using the shamoji, and for sticky japonica rice, soaking a wooden shamoji in water beforehand is the basic countermeasure. Miyajima (Itsukushima) in Hiroshima is a famous production area for shamoji; its origin is said to date to the Kansei era (1789–1801), when the monk Seishin spread, as a souvenir, a shape resembling the biwa lute of the goddess Benten, and from the pun "to capture (meshi-toru) the enemy" it also became established as a good-luck charm for praying for victory.