Sun-colored Hyuganatsu Citrus from the Town of Organic Farming

Screenshot of the original article

This article is on the Hyuganatsu Citrus, a fruit that originated in the Miyazaki Prefecture in Kyushu, and is currently being grown exclusively in Japan. The author, Asako Inoue, presents an overview of one of the towns growing this fruit, Aya’s, farming practices, as well as information on how Hyuganatsu are cultivated.

Aya Town has devoted itself to organic farming for over 30 years and takes pride in maintaining a traditional recycling-oriented agricultural system that “respects natural ecosystems” (Guide to Aya Town’s Agriculture 4), and limits the use of insecticides and chemical fertilizers. In accordance with Aya’s regulations, Kenji Hanada, the farmer featured in the article, and owner of an Hyuganatsu orchard, uses only manure from livestock farming to maintain his soil. The indigenous variety of Hyuganatsu grown outdoors, the “best Hyuganatsu citrus”, thus require lots of upkeep; they must be bagged to prevent scarring, and weeded regularly. Additionally, Hanada shares with Inoue how to eat and “savour” Hyuganatsu. Since the “yellow flesh is very sour” and the white pith is sweet, the best way to enjoy Hyuganatsu, Hanada says, is to have it with the pith. Ever since Aya Town adopted natural and ecological farming practices, it has become the pioneer of organic farming in Japan, growing products that are highly rated and branded as “Aya products”, and attracting visitors from all across Japan.

Image of Aya

 

The idyllic, picturesque satoyama comes to mind when reading this article. Inoue suggests that Aya has a very pristine environment — without any air, water, or light pollution — when she writes that Aya is “80%… covered in forest”, has “one of the best 100 waters”, and has “one of the 100 best starry skies of Japan”. Aya is also bountiful, being “blessed” with “fertile lands” and a “richly natural environment” (Inoue). Though Aya uses no herbicides and chemical fertilizers, it nevertheless is able to resourcefully prepare enough healthy soils to sustain both a prosperous agricultural economy, and a dynamic and engaged citizenship.

As Inoue emphasizes the region’s picturesqueness and abundance, she is not only describing what Aya is like, but drawing special attention to these qualities in order to appeal to the aesthetic tastes of Japanese locals, and further promote the ideology of Nihonjinron to foreigners. The magazine which this article was written for, Shun-Gate’s, mission is to introduce “the rich culinary culture of Japan” to readers through an examination of the “perfect seasons of Japan” (@shungate.jp). The magazine presents a nature that has been “idealized as an object of aesthetics” rather than nature in the wild (Moon 229). Although Hanada’s Hyuganatsu orchard is sensitive to the regional climate, typhoons, and he must constantly weed it and protect it from pests, Inoue downplays the difficult conditions Aya’s farmers must face, writing that Hanada never thought of everything he did to maintain his orchards as “hard work” but rather an activity he seems to really enjoy — he “works on the fruit every day, telling them to become tasty”. To promote Aya’s organic farms and sustain their customers’ trust in the produce, Shun-Gate ‘wrapped’ Aya in the notion of seasonality and images of furusato, thereby further reinforcing the ideology of Nihonjinron, but perhaps not focusing enough the environmental benefits of organic farming, and trivializing the potential negative consequences that it has had on Aya and its people.

Laurel forest of Aya

Hanada’s Hyuganatsu orchard

 

Another idea from class that this article relates to is the parallel between Aya’s development of organic farming, and the general trend in improving the quality of life of the Japanese. As discussed by John Knight in “Timber to Tourism”, one of the goals of the post-war Japanese society was to realize more balanced lifestyles as the Japanese believed that this was a hallmark of a “fully modern” society (Knight 354). This change in mentality along with the Japanese government’s role in it, in the 1980s and 1990s, is also reflected in Aya Town’s planning. Aya Town had started farming organically since 1973, but it was not until 1985 that the town began conducting PR activities for their products, possibly in reaction to the Muraokoshi ūndo movement. Hyuganatsu and other regional products, bountiful natural resources, along with Aya’s local culture and its rich history as “a hub for materials and human activities” (Guide to Aya Town’s Agriculture 2) fulfill all three categories of items, proposed by Moon, developed into tourism commodities (222). Additionally, all of Aya’s awards for best water, air, sky were received between 1985 and 1996. This is further evidence of the Japanese government’s efforts to encourage urbanites to increase leisure hours to counterbalance their hectic urban lifestyles, and promote sustainable living. Consequently, urbanites started becoming more environmentally conscious and preoccupied with leading balanced, healthier lifestyles. Organic farming is neither a concept unique to Japan, nor is it novel; however, the way that it has been promoted and written about in Japan attempts to reinforce the notion that the Japanese have a special relationship and love for nature, an effort that is evidently part of their larger endeavour to characterize Japanese society as one that lives in harmony with nature.

Word count: 821

References

Guide to Aya Town’s Agriculture. (n.d.) Retrieved October 16, 2018, from http://www.town.aya.miyazaki.jp/ayatown/agriculture/images/EN_agriculture.pdf

Inoue, A. (2017). Sun-colored Hyuganatsu Citrus from the Town of Organic Farming. Retrieved October 16, 2018, from https://shun-gate.com/en/roots/roots_59.html

Knight, J. (2000). “From Timber to Tourism: Recommoditizing the Japanese Forest.” Development and Change Vol. 31 (2000), 341-359.

Moon, O. (1997). “Marketing Nature in Rural Japan.” Japanese Images of Nature. P. J. Asquith and A. Kalland. Richmond, UK, Curzon.

SHUN GATE (@shungate.jp) • Instagram photos and videos. (n.d.). Retrieved October 16, 2018, from https://www.instagram.com/shungate.jp/

 

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