The most famous Amber producing site in Japan

There must be many people who have heard of ”Kuji Amber” before. Kuji city has the biggest amber producing site in Japan, on the northern coast of Iwate. We visited ”Kuji Amber Museum” where they excavate, research, and exhibit amber.
Amber is a type of fossil that is the petrified resin of the trees that existed when the dinosaurs were alive several millions to billions of years ago. Normally when the plants are buried in the soil, the bacteria breaks down and carbonize the resin, and with time it is returned to soil so it is rare to see a fossil of plants. There are many places in the world where amber was discovered, and here in Kuji a lot of amber was discovered also. It is considered to have a huge reserve. Sometimes there are insects trapped in the amber and in recent years, there have been research extracting the DNA from the fossils which provides important information for the field of biology.

What color is Amber?

The 1st floor on the main building of the museum is an exhibition room called ”Message from the past”. You can learn about how amber is made within the history of the earth and see the exhibition of various ambers with gem stones and insects inside.
Here is a question. What color is amber?
In fact there are more than several hundred colors of amber. It is because the color changes depending on the type of the original tree. In Japan the term ”amber color” suggests a warm tone of yellowish brown, but in reality they have excavated clear, solid brown, or multi colored ones that are red, green, black and white.
On the 2nd floor on the main building of the museum, there is an exhibition room for ”Man and Amber”. It follows archeological and cultural aspect of when humans started using amber. Around the world, there have been amber products that were excavated from ruins that are older than 10 thousand years. In Japan, they have found ”magatama” balls made of amber from a ruin older than Jomon Period, 20 thousand years ago (Pre ceramic Age).
There are also studies on the stone balls that was excavated from a ruin in Nara from the Tumulus period (3 to 7 centuries AD) which were made from amber from the Kuji area. Amber mining became commercialized in Kuji area in the Muromachi Period and became controlled by Nambu Clan as their regional specialty in the Edo Period. In reality, amber has been cherished as a valuable item and was traded among the people since olden times.

There are still many new discoveries

Within the museum, you can look at the mining trail that was used for amber mining and also experience digging the stratum from Cretaceous Period. Nakata also tried excavating with a staff from the museum. It was only for a short time but he dug out a small piece of amber.
There was a major discovery from this mining site in 2012. A boy who joined the excavation experience discovered a small fossil of bone. After further study at the research institute, they found out that it was a bone of a foot from a small carnivorous dinosaur. It was the first time that they found a carnivorous dinosaur in the Tohoku region, and they are paying attention to future excavation and research.
From old times, amber has been treated as valuable gemstones. At the Kuji Amber Museum, you can experience the charm of amber and feel the history of the past. And there may even be major discoveries that can change history.

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Birthplace of “Koshihikari”

”Koshihikari ”is a standard brand rice that most people have eaten, and the birthplace of ”Koshihikari is Fukui Agricultural Experiment Station. This is a research institute that conducts research to develop improved methods of cultivation as well as selective breeding for rice, fruit and vegetables.

Nakata visited the research facility in mid-July when the rice flowers in full bloom.
Rice flowers are the chaff of the ear and is very small. Over a period of about a month, the small flowers are cross pollinated with various varieties.
Nakata had a try at the cross pollination process.
There cannot be any movement in the air to prevent the pollen from being spread, and the room needs to be kept around 40℃ to facilitate the blossoming of the flowers.

Repeating cross pollination to create better rice

First, the rice plant, referred to as ”bohon” or mother plant, is immersed in hot water of about 43℃ to stop the pollen’s function. After about 7 minutes, the rice plant is removed from the hot water, and any unopened flowers are removed, one by one with scissors. Then pollen from the ”fuhon” (father plant) is then sprinkled on to the ”bohon”. The pollinated flowers transform into rice which will be used as seeds in the following year.
About 200 to 250 pairs are bred annually, resulting in nearly 100 thousand varieties of rice.
From these, 6000 of the best varieties are selected, and their seeds are planted in the following year. The flowers are bred again the following year when they begin to bloom. Because it takes several years to determine the good varieties from the bad ones, only about three varieties can be introduced annually despite the large number of plants that are cross-pollinated.

Looking at “food” and “eating” 10 years in the future

The latest hit is ”Ikuhikari”, introduced in 2004. It is shorter than Koshihikari and is easier to grow. The rice remains fluffy even when it is no longer warm, maintaining the ”umami” flavor.
“There are already varieties of rice that taste better than Koshihikari. But Koshihikari is a difficult brand to exceed. Whenever we introduce a new brand, we have the challenge of developing an effective sales and branding strategy.” This was explained to us by a representative of the facility.
The summer of 2010 had record temperatures, and the nationwide average temperature has continued to rise over the last 50 years. Because of this, rice breeding is conducted with consideration for change in the environment as well as people’s lifestyles over the next decade. The delicious rice we are able to enjoy are due to the efforts of people like those working at the agricultural experiment station.

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