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Scorching heat. Clouds like strands of silk printed on a dazzling blue sky. They transform into gently rippling cirrocumulus patterns as the light fades towards evening. A breeze wafts along Yamashita Dori Avenue, lined with restaurants and bars. The street is sometimes referred to as 'Peppermint Avenue'. The breeze carries fragrance from the rustling leaves of peppermint bushes that have been planted beneath a birchwood sign. The 70 centimetre-high bushes have side shoots with clusters of small mauve lip-like flowers that face in the direction of the sun. |
| The name of the variety written on the sign, manyo, refers to its large number of leaves. Agricultural specialist Kasano Hideo, known locally as the 'father of peppermint', bred it by crossing the Japanese strain akamaru, which had been introduced from Yamagata Prefecture and widely grown in the Kitami district in the pre-war years, with the Chinese strain nantsu. When he first distilled oil from the new variety he could barely conceal his delight because of its high mint content. It was also resistant to the rust infection to which peppermint is susceptible. So from the mid 1950's this guaranteed outstanding variety, manyo, came to be widely grown in the Nikoro and Hokuyo districts of Kitami. | |
| Another Kasano bred variety, ayanami, is known for its ability to withstand successive cropping. Western varieties such as mitchum and spearmint have a less camphorated fragrance than Japanese varieties. This makes them more suitable for flavouring drinks and as a spice when cooking game. Some restaurants along 'Peppermint Avenue' used to offer peppermint leaf tempura on their menu, though the variety of peppermint they used is not known. | |
| The history of peppermint cultivation may be as long as the history of mankind, but techniques for growing and producing peppermint in the Kitami region originally came from Yamagata Prefecture in Central Honshu. In 1834 a son, named Chobe, was born to the wealthy Tase family who lived in Urushiyama village, Okitama district in the country of Dewa - now Urushiyama Cho in Nanyo City. When he grew up he became a travelling merchant. One day while he was dining at a house in Nara, or some say at Tomino in Yamashiro, he noticed a peppermint bush growing in the garden. He obtained root stock from it to take home with him and went on to develop techniques for the cultivation and manufacture of peppermint. His display of peppermint crystals and peppermint oil at the National Industrial Exposition held in 1881 was awarded a prize. Japan in those had a severe trade deficit and peppermint caught the eye of the authorities as a possible export product. Exports to Britain commenced from the port of Yokohama, leading to a rapid spread of peppermint cultivation in the Yamagata region. | |
| In 1891, Ishiyama Dentaro, from Takadama village in the Higashimurayama district of Yamagata Prefecture (present day Takadama in Tendo City) brought root stock of the akamaru variety when he came to settle as a soldier-pioneer in Nagayama village in the Kamikawa district. He was the first person to grow peppermint in Hokkaido. In 1894 the herbalist Watanabe Seiji, who had come to Yubetsu from Fukushima Prefecture, bought root stock from Ishiyama and planted it. That is thought to be the beginning of peppermint cultivation in the Okhotsk region. | |
| However the tireless efforts of Oyamada Rishichi and others who came from Yamagata Prefecture to settle on the Gakuden estate in Engaru in 1898 had the greatest impact on peppermint growing in Kitami. It was Oyamada's second attempt at peppermint cultivation, having been unsuccessful with it in Yamagata. In 1899 he obtained a primitive still from his home village in Yamagata and used it to extract 30 kin (about 1.8 kg) of peppermint oil. He sold it through a trader he knew in his home village, receiving the high return of 97 yen and 50 sen. When the estate manager, Shida Toshiyuki, heard about, it he directed each farmer on the estate to sow 30 ares in peppermint, thereby dramatically improving all their returns. | |
| In 1901 peppermint cultivation began in the Nokkeushi area using root-stock obtained from Oyamada and Takahashi Choshiro in Yubetsu. Both men were originally from Yamagata and all the Nokkeushi peppermint pioneers were from Yamagata too. Sagae Naosuke in Tanno was from Otomi village in Kitayamamura district. Maeda Tokugoro in Nokkeushi was from Togo village in the same district and Ito Chojiro in Ainonai was from Takadama village there. | |
| People from Yamagata have the reputation of being hard working and persistent. Okitama and Murayama districts in the country of Dewa were once in the domain of the lords of Yonezawa. A lord of the late Edo period, Uesugi Yozan, was facing financial hardship. As a countermeasure he encouraged the development of skills in the production of distinctive local products such as lacquerware, silk thread, paper and safflowers, used for dyeing. His policies anticipated the modern idea of each village in Japan developing its own special product | |
| It was this tradition of creative technology in Yamagata which led to the development of peppermint as a special product there in the mid nineteenth century. | |
| (from the Kitami City Newsletter, November 1988) | |