Exploring the Deep Connection Between Okayama and Peaches—and Its Mysteries ～ Why Does Okayama Have Momotaro and White Peaches as a Specialty?

A person who devoted their passion to peach research

How are new varieties developed?

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For example, suppose you have a large but sour peach and a small but delicious, sweet peach.

How could you improve these varieties to make them delicious? For example, would pollinating the flowers produce fruit, or would grafting be the way? That is the kind of research they did.

There are genes with all kinds of variations, such as resistance to insects, resistance to drought despite being less tasty, or resistance to flooding.

During the Meiji period, researchers selected the best from many varieties and narrowed down the options, asking which ones were delicious and easy to grow.

People of that time, including Masuta Koyama and Shigegoro Okubo, devoted themselves passionately to improving peach varieties and cultivating them.

And finally, they produced large, sweet peaches.

Ban

Let me tell you about Kurashiki. In Kurashiki, there was an agricultural research institute established by Ohara Magosaburo, called the “Ohara Shono-kai Agricultural Research Institute”—a research institute dedicated to promoting agriculture.

Masuta Koyama from Akaiwa was invited to the institute to teach peach cultivation research.

Later, Ohara Magosaburo and Soichiro are said to have given fruit as midyear gifts and the like. To commemorate Masuta Koyama's achievements, Ohara Magosaburo named the garden “Rakuzan-en,” after Koyama's pen name (another name or familiar name), “Rakuzan,” and Kojima Torajiro designed the wrapping paper for the fruit.

This suggests that the Ohara family may have been the first to try to brand white peaches as a specialty of Okayama.

Incidentally, Masuta Koyama also researched methods for growing pears and grapes in Tottori. He was passionate about cultivating fruit suited to each region.

Others, including Junichiro Watanabe and Encho Nagao of Kasaoka, were also enthusiastic about developing new varieties. Encho, a monk at Chofukuji Temple in Kasaoka, was apparently called the “Peach Priest.” He grew hard, native-variety peaches for export and canning, and peach cultivation is still thriving in Tamashima today.

It is interesting that Okayama had both the cultivation of native varieties in Tamashima and the development of improved varieties.

Peaches in Okayama today

New varieties have been appearing one after another in recent years.

Ban

Today, Okayama promotes white peaches, but there is a rich history behind them. Varieties continue to be improved even now.

After a variety is developed, it is stabilized over three or four generations so that peaches with the same characteristics can be produced consistently. This means it takes many years to develop a new variety.

Sometimes European peaches are crossbred as well. European peaches originally came from China along the Silk Road, but they are darker in color than white peaches. White peaches also turn faintly pink when exposed to sunlight, but they never become this red.

Also, each variety is harvested for about two weeks. Varieties with different fruiting periods are needed so that peaches can be harvested continuously.

In Okayama, peach trees are grown with low branches so they can be harvested while walking. In some regions, the number is limited to 500 peaches per tree, and all the rest are thinned out, allowing the remaining fruit to grow large.

They also go to the trouble of covering the peaches with bags to block the sun and prevent sunburn.

Despite having the most hours of sunshine in Japan, Okayama's white peaches are luxuriously grown by deliberately blocking out the abundant light.

In Okayama, it seems that, much like with fair skin, the whiter the peach, the better.

From the Writer

Having been born and raised in Okayama, peaches have always been familiar to me, and Momotaro has always seemed like a natural part of life.

However, I had never thought deeply about why peaches are a specialty product or why Okayama is associated with Momotaro.

Through the interviews, I learned that the story of “Momotaro, born from a peach” may have emerged from historical connections, including the peach's association with the immortals and the discovery of peach seeds at archaeological sites.

Furthermore, the presence of people such as Masuta Koyama and Shigegoro Okubo was essential to Okayama becoming a major peach-producing region.

Was the birth of the Japan Heritage “Legend of Momotaro” a coincidence or inevitable? This reporting gave me a real appreciation for the fascination of history.

As you eat Okayama's white, smooth peaches, you might enjoy reflecting on the history and archaeological sites connected with the “Legend of Momotaro.”

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