What is the "Mirror" to open? Actually it is about the New Year offering of rice cakes which people display in their house for the God of The Year during New Year's celebration period. Mirrors are an important sacred item for Japanese Shinto, and many of Shinto Shrines enshrine a mirror as their main object of worship instead of images of their God or Goddess. Since every year people prepare this offering of rice cakes as shown in the upper photos, and place them in the best spot of their house to welcome the God of The Year, it is probably considered same as a mirror worshiping in a shrine. Therefore the rice cakes are called "Mirror Rice Cakes".
After New Year's celebration period, the function of "Mirror Rice Cakes" as an offering to the God of The Year is done. However since it is just plain rice cakes, people won't waist them. The rice cakes are grilled, broken into lumps and added into sweetened red beans porridge. The sweet porridge is called "Oshiruko" and people eat "Mirror Rice Cakes Oshiruko" on January 11th.
Thus "Mirror Opening" means people open up the offering "Mirror Rice Cakes" into pieces to eat them. By the way, you might worry about the rice cakes would go bad after displaying for more than a week. Traditionally people cook plain rice cakes at home and make into a snowman shape with some starch powder, then display it uncovered as in the upper right hand side photo. So in fact they can get moldy sometimes while they are displayed. However it is still edible after removing the spoiled surface. Moreover, nowadays sealed rice cakes in the shape of "Mirror Rice Cakes" are available as in the upper left hand side photo, it can be kept perfectly until January 11th.
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