Old glue water change 2022
Today was the day known as “Daikan” in the 24 solar terms.
It is said to be the coldest time of the year.
On this day of great cold, we report on our annual “old glue water change”.
Please also see the posts for 2018, 2019, 2020, and
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First, take out the jar those was laid down.
Remove the Japanese paper seal.
At last, the Gokaicho is opened. Can we go without mosaic this year?
I judged it to be OK without mosaic just in time.
(Sorry if you are offended…)
Everything you see is mold.
It is in a layer about 1cm thick and can be easily delonated by grabbing it with your hand.
I removed this mold and dumped it into a bucket.
The front side of the jar, however, was quite grotesque looking, as the back side was delonding, probably due to the part of the jar in contact with water.
these is what the inside of the jar looks like after removing this layer of mold.
It is very clean. There is no smell.
(You can see the mold layer in the lower right corner of the picture…)
Throw away the accumulated water, and also throw away the slightly slimy surface of the glue.
Pour clean water here, cover, and seal with washi paper.
The work is completed. We will leave it like this for another year.
I wonder what kind of mold I will see next year.
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Now, the problem is another jar.
It is a glue made in 2020. When I opened it last year to do a water change, there was no mold at all.
Overall, the glue was also slimy and strange.
I was advised by some of my seniors that I should not use the wet method to change the water every year for this jar,
Instead, we decided to use the dry method, in which we wrap the glue in shoji paper or hand towels and let it sit in the jar.
Let’s open the jar of the dry process.
This one was also judged to be just about ready to be published.
It is wrapped in shoji paper.
It is moved to the workbench to remove mold on the surface of the glue.
There is no particular smell. Last year it was quite smelly.
Finally, let’s turn over the SHOJI PAPER.
・・・Mold had invaded the inside of the glue.
Unfortunately, I will give up on this jar of glue this year.
I have no idea what went wrong to cause this.
But the growth(?) of the old glue is really different from jar to jar. The situation seems to be totally different from jar to jar, even if the glue was cooked on the same day in the same place,
The color of the mold the next year may be blue, green, white, etc.
It seems that the color of the next year’s mold can be blue, green, or white.
I think I was unlucky this time, so I’m taking good care of the 2018 glue while growing it,
I will take good care of the 2018 glue and cook new glue to make old glue again this year.