By Isla Quinn
Peel. Tie. Hang. Wait. That is the plain outline, and in southern Nagano, late autumn and early winter are when the fruit goes up. One regional article says the sweet scent spreads through the town.
A name on a register
The Ichida-gaki entry on the national register of geographical indications is number 13, in the class of processed foodstuffs. The date of protection is 12 July 2016. The applicant is JA-Minami Shinshu, an agricultural cooperative based in Iida city, and the register site is managed by Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.
The register names the producing area as Nagano Prefecture: Iida city in Shimoina district, and Iijima town and Nakagawa village in Kamiina district. It says the product is made only from persimmons grown in those places.
What the register says it is
A dried persimmon with a fine, distinctive texture and a white powder coating. The entry says it is light brown with soft, chewy flesh. The Ichida persimmon has a sugar content of 18 per cent or more at maturity, and when dried that rises to about 65 to 70 per cent. The sugars are mainly glucose and fructose. The white powder, the entry says, is glucose that seeps from the pulp and crystallises on the surface.
A regional promotional article describes the finish a little differently: tight vertical wrinkles on the surface, white powder, and a bright orange, yōkan-like pulp. It calls the powder sugar, which crystallises out of the fruit during drying.
Why the fog matters
The register describes the growing area as a fruit orchard zone on river terraces along the Tenryū river. Morning and evening chilling produces river fog that rises up the terraces, and the entry says this gives a temperature and humidity that slowly dry even small Ichida persimmons. The regional article makes the same point with the local word for morning fog, asagiri, and says the aim is to remove water while keeping the surface soft. Drying continues, it says, until the fruit weighs about 35 per cent of its original weight.
Our reading: the protected name is attached to a place partly because the place does some of the work.
Peeling, hanging, kneading
The general method, from a retailer’s blog, runs like this. Persimmons for drying are the astringent kind, called hachiya, and not the rounder fuyu. The tops are cut off with the stem left on, the skin is peeled, the fruit is tied together by the stems and hung. The fruit is left for a week before daily massaging starts, and the whole process takes four to six weeks. A co-operative’s magazine article about home drying gives a similar rhythm but says the first massage comes after seven to ten days, and the whole process takes over a month. Wikipedia says the fruit is massaged daily once drying begins and that the massaging gives Japanese hoshigaki a distinctive shape and texture.
For Ichida-gaki specifically, the register entry says thorough drying and proper kneading both matter. It says the fruit is kneaded many times by machine, with the amount of fruit and timing adjusted, and that small Ichida persimmons respond well to kneading, which brings out their chewiness. The regional article says that traditionally the powder was brushed or shaken off by hand on baskets, and that now a machine rotates or massages the fruit to remove water, after which it is dried again so the surface dries evenly. It adds that peeling machines and hygiene controls are in use.
How the name came about
The register says bitter persimmons were reportedly grown and processed in the region from the Kamakura period. In 1921, it says, volunteers from the then Ichida village developed a dried persimmon of excellent colour and taste, shipped it to the Tokyo markets and named it after its birthplace. The regional article agrees on 1921 and adds Nagoya and Osaka as destinations, and says the Ichida persimmon celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2021.
Silkworms and persimmons
The regional article says that from early Meiji to early Shōwa, sericulture was the main industry. Persimmon astringent was used as a preservative on silkworm baskets and nets, which the article suggests helped the crop spread. After the Second World War, it says, many sericulture farmers switched to fruit, and persimmons were chosen over apples and peaches because they need less work and provide winter income.
Eating it
The register says it is eaten as a preserved food from January to February and is a regional New Year tradition called Hagatame, teeth strengthening. The retailer’s blog says a finished fruit stored in an airtight container keeps for several months, or can be frozen. Wikipedia lists uses on its own, with walnuts, or with traditional sweets such as dango and mochi.
Dates in order
- Kamakura period: bitter persimmons reportedly grown and processed, according to the register.
- 1800s: the Ichida variety said to come from an old tree on shrine grounds, according to the register.
- Late Edo period: trees said to come from Mino Province, according to the regional article.
- 1921: named Ichida-gaki and shipped to Tokyo, according to both.
- 1926: the Shimoina branch of the prefectural agricultural experiment site established, according to the regional article.
- 12 July 2016: protection under the register.
- 2021: 100th anniversary of the name, according to the regional article.
Side by side
Origin of the variety: the register says it comes from an old tree on shrine grounds in the 1800s; the regional article says trees were brought in the late Edo period from Mino Province. Area: the register lists Iida, Iijima and Nakagawa; the regional article and the retailer’s blog also name the town of Takamori. Drying: the register stresses machine kneading; the regional article says it was once done by hand. Timing: four to six weeks in the retailer’s blog, over a month in the co-operative article. We do not reconcile any of these.
What kind of sources these are
The register is a government database, managed by the ministry, though the text is the applicant’s own. The regional article is promotional and appears to be linked to the prefecture, and its translation is partly garbled. The retailer’s blog is from an online shop. The co-operative’s magazine item is an uncredited home-drying piece. Wikipedia is an open encyclopaedia.
What the register does not tell us
It does not say what a seller outside the area may call a similar fruit, and our sources do not either. We make no legal claim.
What we left out
We left out calorie and vitamin figures, the regional article’s remarks on exports, warming and ageing farmers, and the retailer’s note on where persimmons first came from. We left out all prices.
Roam first. Shop later.