Wheat flour is kneaded with warm water and salt, rolled flat, and cut into rectangles about the size of a matchbox. Each rectangle is folded in half and the inner corners are pressed together. What you have then is a shape that looks like an ear, which is where the name stops being metaphorical.

The ear is said to belong to a demon. Eat it at new year, the saying goes, and for the following twelve months you will not hear anything bad. A gloss adds that you will not hear the neighbors talking about you either, which keeps relations in the village smooth. In Sano people pick one up, hold it to the side of their head, and say ii mimi kike, hear good things.

It belongs to Kuzuu in Sano and to Shiroyama in Utsunomiya, where it was served at shrine festivals.

There is a second reason it exists, and it is entirely practical. Made at the end of December and kept in cold water, these will feed whoever turns up during the new year holidays without anyone having to cook. A charm against gossip and a practical solution to unannounced visitors, folded together into the same small piece of dough. These days it is eaten all year, not only in January.