A long-established farmer in Chiba, Japan’s largest pear producer for over 200 years.
Chiba’s pears are the best in Japan in terms of cultivated area, harvest volume, and production value.
The pears are also called “anari no mi,” which means “pear fruit” in Japanese, to bring good luck.

Chiba, Japan’s Number One Pear Growing Area

When one hears the word “pear,” Tottori and Yamanashi come to mind. However, although it is not well known, Chiba Prefecture is Japan’s largest pear-growing prefecture in terms of acreage, harvest volume, and production value. This is a fact that even Nakata, who says he loves pears the most among fruits, did not know.

In Chiba Prefecture, there is a long-established farmer, Yosayemon, which has been growing pears for more than 200 years. The company has been growing pears for 60 years and won the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Award (first prize) in the “Chiba Pear Taste Contest” held in 2010, and grows most varieties, including Kosui, Toyosui, Akizuki, Niitaka, Kaori, and Ohaki. The pear season is from August to October. The ability to grow almost any variety that can be harvested at any time of the year is a skill made possible by Yosayemon’s 200-year history.

Sticking to the Soil and Moving to a New World

We have a special way of growing pears that is different from other pear farms,” says Sokichi Tanaka, the eighth generation owner of the farm.

The conventional method of pruning and pulling was only available to experienced workers, but the “H-shaped four main branches” method invented by the previous generation allows even part-time workers to do the work.

Our house is in Ichikawa, and it takes us three hours to get here and back. So we use this method to shorten the time and labor required for the work, and to produce a better product.

Ichikawa is also famous for pears, right?　Why this place and not Ichikawa?

Ichikawa is the birthplace of pear cultivation in Chiba Prefecture with a history of over 200 years, but on the other hand, it is close to the city center and there are many residences. The most important thing in farming is soil preparation, but it is impossible to make compost in Ichikawa. The smell, the dust, and the noise of the machines also disturb the neighbors. That is why we took the plunge and set up our farm here.

Since the time of his predecessor, he has spent 20 years improving the soil in Tomisato’s fields, and has finally come to produce delicious pears.

Nakata also praises the superb pears.

At the Tomisato farm, Mr. Tanaka selected “Hosui” pears for me, and I picked them off the tree and ate them with their skins on the spot.
The taste was delicious!
Every time I bit into a pear, the juice would overflow and drip down to the ground.
Toyosui is said to be a variety characterized by its high acidity, but this pear was less acidic and its flesh was soft and fresh. The soil was carefully selected to ensure that the pears were full of sweetness and nutrients. Nakata praised the pears, saying, “I have never tasted anything like this before.

With the store name of “Yosayemon,” the farmers are proud of their tradition.

With such a long tradition as this, did you easily decide to take over the family business?

He said, “Well, I can’t touch insects yet (laughs). (Laughs.) I have always hated farming, and even as a child I hardly ever went into the fields. When it came to helping out, he would just run around.

I happened to work for an agrochemical manufacturer, and as I went around to producers and talked to them about various things and helped them in ways I had never done at home, I thought, “Farming is great. Looking back, I realized that I knew nothing about my own family. I had never really looked into the work that my father and mother had done.

Since then, he has revived the family name “Yosayemon” as the name of the farm, and has devoted himself to establishing the “Yosayemon’s Pears” brand.

He has not yet found the answer to the question of how delicious they are. I am making pears with the thought that the answer may not be found until the very end.

Nashiya Yosayemon is also particular about the “season” of its pears. Instead of harvesting pears early and shipping them out early, the company picks pears according to the “best time to eat” for each variety. We want our customers to enjoy our pears at their best, which is why we are so particular about “season”.

The post Delicious pears” made by a 200-year-old farmer: Sokichi Tanaka, the 8th generation of Nashiya Yosayemon/Ichikawa City, Chiba Prefecture first appeared on NIHONMONO.

Fruit Kingdom, Fukushima

Fruit can be roughly classified into two types, warm region and cold region fruits. Fukushima Prefecture is blessed with great climate, so both types of fruit can be grown. Various fruits such as peaches, pears, apples, cherries, grapes, and persimmon are cultivated and shipped throughout the year. Within Fukushima Prefecture, Fukushima City in particular is referred to as the ”fruit kingdom”. Delicious fruits, mainly peaches and pears, are delivered to the whole country.

Cultivating pear varieties such as “Asazuki” and “Oshu”

We visited Koichi Haga, who grows pears in Fukushima City. He was originally an agricultural coop employee. After retiring, wanting to use original ”Kayaba” land which had been used for pear production, he tenanted an abandoned pear orchard and planted pear trees such as ”Asazuki” and ”Oshu” for cultivation. Besides pears, he also grows small chrysanthemums.
Following Haga, we entered the pear tree orchard. Pears are mainly harvested from September to October. The day we interviewed Haga was at the end of the harvest period and Haga commented ”You may be a bit too late.” Still, there were many pears left on the trees. Haga looked at them and said ”They’re a little too soft now.”

Pears shouldn’t be peeled for the best taste!

Hearing Haga’s comments, Nakata asked as he looked at the pears, ”How can you tell a delicious pear?” and Haga answered ”It tastes best just after it starts to ripen and the greenness starts to fade.”
Nakata carefully observed the pears, chooses one, and takes a bite without peeling it. There is a great sound as he bites into the pear and chews. He smiles brightly after swallowing and commented ”It’s sweet!”. The pear that Nakata ate is a variety called ”Akizuki”. It is a cross between Hosui and Shinko. It has high sugar content and is juicy. It’s main characteristic is its large size. It’s large enough that you might become full if you ate a whole pear.
..However, since Nakata loves pears, he takes bite after bite. Seeing Nakata enjoy his pear, Haga commented ”You must really like pears.”, squinting his eyes in joy. He then served ”Shinko” and ”Oshu” pears for us to taste.

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Winning 2 Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Awards

When Nakata asked, ”Was your family originally pear farmers?”
Takashi Akiyama responded ”Actually, no.”
As a pear farmer, Akiyama is the only two time winner of the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Award at ”Chiba’s Best Tasting Pear Contest.”
So naturally, we thought he was born and raised on a pear farm, but actually, he was born in Fukushima, and was set on becoming a professional baseball player until he was 18.
”I was dreaming of becoming a professional baseball player, but I had to give up. Afterwards, I got a job in Tokyo but lived in the area, so after I got married, I started to seriously study about pear cultivation.”

While listening to Akiyama’s story, we walk through an area where the branches of the pear trees have been spread out like a low hanging ceiling.
It looks a bit like an abstract space and is beautiful to look at, but the low height makes it difficult to walk.
”Why are the branches so low?”
”If it’s too high, it’s difficult to prune. At first, we set up the shelves at about 180 cm. Similar to grape shelves. When the fruits grow, they weigh it down to about 1 meter 70 centimeters. Pear fruits are actually quite heavy.”

New varieties competing for taste and popularity

This area has been producing Twentieth Century pears since the Meiji era.
Akiyama also planted only Twentieth Century pears in the beginning. After 3 years, he heard that ”Hosui is good”, so he grafted Hosui to the Twentieth Century trees, and it’s been 35 years since.
He also grows Kosui and Shinko pears.

According to Akiyama, in the world of pears, many varieties are introduced and then disappear.
”Many varieties are created, but none of them can compete with Hosui or Kosui.”
The new varieties that Akiyama has high expectations for are ”Shurei” and ”Akizuki”.
”Shurei” is an especially sweet variety among the Aonashi strain, and is so popular that it sells out quickly. Nakata, who is a pear lover, also praised it highly saying ”Oh, this is good!!”.
The taste is a little different from normal pear. ”It tastes like sweet persimmon rather than a pear.”
We could not try ”Akizuki” since it was too early in the season, but they are the best quality variety mixing Japan’s Three Great Pears – ”Kosui”, ”Hosui” and ”Shinko”. The characteristic of the fruit is that it is soft, sweet and juicy without much acidic taste.

The taste of healthy Hosui

”What is important for pears to become delicious?” asked Nakata. Akiyama responded
”Make good quality soil using organic fertilizer, and grow healthy trees.”
”The taste must be evaluated by the customers. So I ask my regular customers to share their honest impressions.”

When we visited, Kosui season was ending, and Hosui was soon going to be harvested.

Akiyama asked Nakata with an expression of both pride and concern, ”How is our Hosui?”
”It is good. But still a little hard. If I wait a little, it might become softer and more delicious. I predict that after a little while, the acidity and sweetness will balance each other out, and that would make it taste very good.”

It was a little too early, but during the peak season, it will probably be a delicious pear for sure.

The post Underneath the ceiling of pear trees. “Maruyama Farm, Takashi Akiyama” first appeared on NIHONMONO.

Allowing the fruit to ripen on the tree

Entering a narrow road that runs through a residential area, it opens up into a field and at the end is the direct retail store of ”Sakurai Farm”.
In the 2007 ”Chiba Pear Tasting Contest”, Sakurai Farm won the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Award (first place), the first for Yachiyo city.
This shop is like a hideaway, yet many customers gather, hearing of their reputation.
We spoke to Masahiro Sakurai of Sakurai Farm.

”Being sweet isn’t good enough for a pear to be considered declisious, right? What is important?”
”Sweetness is an important factor, but the timing of harvest is also important. They have to be ripe before they’re picked. Most often the fruit is picked when they are still green, and when they arrive at the grocery stores 3 days later, they have some color, but they don’t taste good. So recently, most of our pears are direct retail..”
They allow the fruit to become ripe on the tree, then harvest them to be boxed, and the pears arrive at the customer’s home the next day. That is the best timing to eat delicious pears.
The important thing is the color of the fruit when it’s picked.”

Being attentive to the timing

Sakurai who places importance on the peak of the fruit prefers to pick in the morning.
”Once it passes noon, the sunlight is high in the sky and hits the pears directly. It makes the color of the pear too dark. So we try to pick between 6 am to noon.”
”So there is an optimal time for picking.”
”Timing is important. Timing for picking, timing to add fertilizer. Everything is about timing.”

He also says that there is a good timing to pick delicious pears.
”The tree itself can live 100 years or even 200 years, but there is a prime period for every tree, and usually after 25 to 30 years, the tree gradually starts to decline. Beyond that, the tree starts to lose energy. It might not bear large fruit, or the color of the fruit can become dull.”
Many of the pear trees at Sakurai Farm were planted by his father, and since those trees are about 30 years old now, they started to replace the trees when they were about 25 years old.

Enjoying the different tastes from different regions and farms

We went to several pear farmers in Chiba with this project, and surprisingly, even pears of the same variety did not taste the same.
Acidity, sweetness, texture, smell….. Even if they are the same Kosui variety, they taste completely different.
Sakurai Farm’s pear is soft and has a strong sweet taste.
According to Sakurai, pears taste different by farm and region.

Chiba Prefecture is the largest pear production area.
We recommend visiting several pear farms, compare the taste, and discover your favorite.

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Delicious pears” made by a 200-year-old farmer: Sokichi Tanaka, the 8th generation of Nashi… A long-established farmer in Chiba, Japan’s largest pear producer for over 200 years.Chiba’s pears are the best in Japan in terms of cultivated area, harvest…

read more

Suzuki Pear Orchard, a juicy pear that drips with juice The pear won first place in the 2011 Pear Pride Contest! Hirofumi Suzuki’s field was filled with ripe pears hanging from the trees.They were perfect in color…

The post Good timing for delicious pear “Sakurai Pear Farm, Masahiro Sakurai” first appeared on NIHONMONO.

The pear won first place in the 2011 Pear Pride Contest!

Hirofumi Suzuki’s field was filled with ripe pears hanging from the trees.
They were perfect in color and size.
I thought they must be delicious, but Mr. Suzuki said, “They’re not quite ready yet.”
“If you come back a little later, you can pick them and eat them right here,” he said.

To the untrained eye, they looked perfect, but to the professional, they were still “too green.”
Nakata, a pear enthusiast, asked, “But can I have one…?” and took one.
“Hmm, you’re right, it’s a bit green. But it’s still delicious.”
“Actually, they’re best when picked fresh. That’s why I wanted you to eat them here, but I have some that are in perfect condition at home, so please try those.”

Taking him up on his offer, we headed to Suzuki’s house.
The main variety of pears Suzuki grows is Toyo Mizu.
Interestingly, Toyomizu pears can vary in quality.
However, Suzuki-san also says, “The good ones are absolutely delicious.”
They are characterized by their high moisture content and softer texture compared to other pears.
We were served the best pear, which won the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Award at the 2011 Pear Pride Contest.
“Hmm, it’s completely different from before. The texture and juiciness are amazing.”
Saying that, Nakata devoured one after another.

Actually, kiwis are also popular.

Mr. Suzuki also produces a kiwifruit called “Sayaka” in addition to pears.
This variety is also extremely popular, with orders flooding in from all over the country.
“Why did you start growing kiwifruit when you’re already producing such delicious pears? Is it for risk hedging?”
“Exactly. Pears are vulnerable to typhoons, and if one hits, they’re ruined. Plus, the sales season isn’t very long. Considering that, diversifying as a mixed-crop farmer is the best way to mitigate risks. But the kiwis are also gaining popularity now, which is wonderful.”

Finally, when we take a bite of Mr. Suzuki’s pear, juice flows out abundantly.
“Pears are best eaten whole! Let’s spread the word!“ Nakata exclaimed enthusiastically.
”That’s right. They’re delicious,” Suzuki laughed.
In the country’s top pear-producing region, Nakata had discovered the best way to enjoy them.

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Good timing for delicious pear “Sakurai Pear Farm, Masahiro Sakurai” Allowing the fruit to ripen on the tree Entering a narrow road that runs through a residential area, it opens up into a field and at the end is the direct re…

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Delicious pears” made by a 200-year-old farmer: Sokichi Tanaka, the 8th generation of Nashi… A long-established farmer in Chiba, Japan’s largest pear producer for over 200 years.Chiba’s pears are the best in Japan in terms of cultivated area, harvest…

The post Suzuki Pear Orchard, a juicy pear that drips with juice first appeared on NIHONMONO.