By Isla Quinn
Hot water. Yellow fruit bobbing on the surface. The smell comes first, sharp and green-bright, somewhere between grapefruit and mandarin. That is the yuzu bath, taken in Japan on the winter solstice.
The fruit
Wikipedia describes yuzu as looking like a yellow clementine with uneven skin, typically 5.5 to 7.5 cm across, yellow or green by ripeness. It is very aromatic, with a tart flavour close to grapefruit with mandarin overtones. It is slow-growing, taking about ten years to fruit, and fairly frost-hardy for citrus. In the kitchen the zest and juice do what lemon does elsewhere, in ponzu and yuzu kosho.
The bath
Wikipedia says the yuzu bath, yuzuyu, is traditionally taken on the winter solstice. Whole fruits float in the hot water; a fruit may be halved so its juice colours the water yellow-orange; or the fruit may go into a cloth bag. It also says people believe the bath guards against colds, soothes rough skin, warms the body and relaxes the mind. A food blog says the solstice, tōji, falls around 20 to 23 December and that the bath is believed to keep colds away and ward off bad spirits, with yuzu also said to signify good luck. A culture site adds that citrus is not a substitute for medical treatment.
A pun, probably
Wikipedia says the custom “may have been” inspired by goroawase, phonetic matching: the words for winter solstice and for hot-spring cure are both read tōji. The culture site says many attribute the custom’s spread to that pun.
How old
Wikipedia says yuzu baths are said to date to the Edo period (1603 to 1867). The culture site says the exact origin is unclear, and cites the Edo-period Toto Saijiki, a book of annual events, which has an entry reading, roughly, that a yuzu bath is heated at the public bathhouse today. The site suggests the custom began alongside the public bathhouses, and says bathhouse owners added yuzu to attract customers before it spread to homes. We repeat that as the site’s reading, not a document we saw.
Capybaras
Wikipedia and the culture site agree on a modern chapter. In 1982 at the Izu Shaboten Zoo in Ito, Shizuoka, an employee cleaning the capybara enclosure noticed the animals huddling in a warm puddle. The zoo has prepared yuzu baths for its capybaras each winter since, and other zoos have followed.
The other solstice food
The food blog says kabocha squash was a staple when winter vegetables were scarce, and is considered a lucky food. It also mentions itokoni, a dish of kabocha and adzuki beans from some regions.
Where the yuzu comes from
The trade body JETRO says Japan produces about 27,000 tons of yuzu a year, and puts Kochi Prefecture first, with about 52 per cent. It gives no year for either figure. The culture site says only that Kochi produces half. A prefectural tourism page says simply that Kochi has the biggest production in Japan, with no percentage.
JETRO says shipments are concentrated from November to January. Aoyuzu, green-peeled, ships from summer to autumn; kiyuzu, yellow, ships from autumn and is juicier. The tourism page says the harvest runs through autumn and early winter, and that a Yuzu Hajimaru Festival in early November marks its start.
Kochi’s yuzu villages
The tourism page names Umaji and Kitagawa as the “villages of yuzu”, with trees over 300 years old. It says the area was once centred on logging, that logging declined in the 1960s, and that residents turned to yuzu, which suits mountainous land. The old logging railway, now called the Yuzu Road, closed in 1964. A ministry page on traditional foods puts the decline of forestry at around 1965 and says the juice was sold as ponzu because good fruit was hard to sell whole. It dates yuzu ponzu as a product to around the 1960s, with commercial sales taking off around 1986.
The ministry page defines yuzu ponzu as yuzu juice added to vinegar, and notes that Kochi’s is made from trees grown from seed, which it calls uncommon. The tourism page adds that yuzu kosho, a condiment of green chillies, yuzu zest and salt, is a popular gift, and that local inaka-sushi uses yuzu juice in place of vinegar.
Two area figures that look like a conflict
JETRO gives 860 hectares for Kochi’s yuzu in 2016. The tourism page gives 213 hectares for one region, Chugei. These count different areas, so they do not contradict one another. Our reading: Chugei is the core of the trade.
Dates in order
- 1603 to 1867: Edo period; the bath is said to date from then, according to Wikipedia.
- 1960s: forestry declines; yuzu grown for sale, according to the prefecture page and the ministry page.
- 1964: the logging railway closes, according to the prefecture page.
- 1982: the first capybara yuzu bath, according to Wikipedia.
- Around 1986: commercial yuzu ponzu sales take off, according to the ministry page.
What kind of sources these are
Wikipedia; a trade body (JETRO); a prefectural tourism page; a Japanese ministry page; a food blog; and a Japan-culture site. No museum.
What we left out
Prices, recipes, the claims about vitamin content and skin, and any advice on bathing.
Quick answers
When is the yuzu bath taken in Japan? Wikipedia says it is traditionally taken on the winter solstice. A food blog says that falls around 20 to 23 December.
Why do people take a yuzu bath at the solstice? According to Wikipedia, it is believed to guard against colds. It also says the custom may come from a pun: the solstice and a hot-spring cure are both read tōji.
Where is yuzu grown in Japan? The trade body JETRO says Kochi Prefecture is first, with about 52 per cent of production, and that shipments are concentrated from November to January.
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