December 27–31: Deer shed antlers
To play Shoko Hikage's original music for this micro-season
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Pocket Grandma Wisdom - Akitababa Edition
Preparing for the New Year
Pounding rice to make mochi (rice cake) has been a traditional practice to prepare for the New Year in Japan.  Mochi is also used in one of the few decorations for the New Year, namely,  Kagami Mochi, an offering to gods and ancestors.  Usually consisting of two round mochi and a Japanese Daidai orange with a green leaf attached on top, it may also have a sheet of dried Konbu seaweed, a skewer of dried persimmons, and a few other symbolic pieces.  In my region, we also have Medama-mochi for children, which are treats but also serve as emergency food.
Osechi are traditional Japanese New Year’s food placed in beautiful Jubako boxes. Although the assortment may vary by households/regions, there are special items with meaning/play-on-words that should be included, such as sweet Kuromame beans for health and diligence as well as Konbu seaweed dishes for happiness.
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Shoko Hikage’s octogenarian mother Yoshie Hikage (aka Akitababa) had a dedicated career in the field of education for young children. After retiring, she has been engaged in making haiku and tanka poetry featuring wild flowers. She became active in disaster recovery efforts after the Great East Japan Earthquake by housing mothers and children who lost their home due to the quake, tsunami and the radiation from the nuclear plants. After 2013, she started to read her poetry works in public in the U.S. (Santa Cruz and San Francisco) and South Korea as well as in Japan. 
Shoko Hikage began playing koto at the age of three. Her first teacher was Chizuga Kimura of the Ikuta-ryu Sokyoku Seigen Kai in Akita Prefecture, Japan. From 1985, she received special training from the 2nd and 3rd IEMOTO Seiga Adachi. In 1988, Hikage graduated from Takasaki College with a major in koto music. She was then accepted as a special research student  in Sawai Koto Institute under Tadao and Kazue Sawai, where she received her master's certificate. Hikage also completed a one-year intensive seminar at the Sawai Sokyoku In. In 1992, she moved to Honolulu, Hawaii to teach koto at the Sawai Koto Kai Hawaii and at the University of Hawaii. There she held her first American solo recital at the Honolulu Academy of Arts Theatre as part of the New Music Across America Series. In 1997, she moved to San Francisco where she continued her concert and teaching activities. Hikage premiered Hyo-shin Na's “Crazy Horse" for Korean Traditional Orchestra and Koto Solo with the National Orchestra of Traditional Instruments in Seoul, Korea in November, 2011. In the Bay Area, she also premiered Hyo-shin Na’s " Night Procession of the Hundred Demons", "Koto Music" and "Koto Ninano". In 2014, Hikage gave a solo recital with a program devoted to Hyo-shin Na's music for koto/bass koto at Buam Arts Hall in Seoul, Korea. In 2017, Hikage organized historic concerts “Hengenjizai World of Koto Music” featuring two koto virtuosos, Soju Nosaka and Kazue Sawai at Herbst Theater in San Francisco. In 2022, Hikage moved back to Japan and is currently based in Fukushima, Japan.
This project is made possible through the support from the California Arts Council, WESTAF (the Western States Arts Federation), the National Endowment for the Arts, and generous individual donors.