Tanaka: Citrus Fruits of Japan 



247 



food. The primeval forest of Tachibana 

 found at Tsuro-mura, in the country 

 of Aki, prefecture of Kochi, has been 

 officially registered as a Natural Monu- 

 ment Reservation of Japan. The 

 Tachibana orange grows wild in great 

 abundance not only in the prefecture 

 of Kochi but also in the province of 

 Hyuga, and a locality named after the 

 Tachibana appears in the earliest 

 mythology of Japan. - 



THE TACHIBANA 



The handsome fruit of the Tachibana 

 orange and its fragrant blossoms have 

 for centuries been celebrated in poems 

 by the Japanese, in whose coats of 

 arms they also appear. Some of these 

 poems are given in the Mannydshu, 

 or "Myriad Leaf Collection," a most 

 brilliant relic of the ancient people of 

 Japan, compiled about the year 750 

 A. D. It might be interesting to quote 

 the following poems, in which so many 

 centuries ago the Tachibana is named. 

 These, like all Japanese poems, are 

 characterized by their brevity. Each 

 poem is a single thought embodied in 

 a certain number of lines each com- 

 posed of a definite number of syllables. 



Wagimogo ga yado no Tachibana ito chikaku 

 Ueteshi yue ni narazuba yamaji. 



This may be rendered as follows : 



My lady's cottage very near 



I set a Tachibana tree, 



That its bright fruits from year to year 



Might tell her of my constancy. 



Another poem pictures the Tachibana 

 in bloom: 



Waga yado no hana Tachibana ni Hototogisu 

 Ima koso nakame tomo ni aerutoki. 



Oh Cukoo, in my blooming Tachibana tree, 

 Sing loud with joy ! My friend has come to me. 



Flowers and fruits were formerly 

 strung into garlands and necklaces by 

 the ancient Japanese, as they still are 

 strung by the Hawaiians of the present 

 day. This ancient custom in connec- 

 tion with the fragrant blossoms and 

 golden fruits of the Tachibana is com- 

 memorated in the following verses, 

 written in the eighth century of the 

 Christian era, when the Anglo-Saxons 

 were still pagans and European litera- 

 ture was at its lowest ebb. 



Satsuki no hana Tachibana wo kimi ga tame 

 Tama ni koso nuke chiramaku oshimi. 



May offers thee fair Tachibana flowers, 

 Like beads to string into a garland sweet. 

 Oh hasten, lest the fleeting hours 

 May strew them withered at thy feet. 



-oOo- 

 Waga yado no hana Tachibana no itsunikamo 

 Tama ni nukubeku sono mi narinam. 



My Tachibana's fragrant flowers of spring 

 Caressed b}- summer's fervid, quickening air 

 Have borne fair fruits, like beads of gold, to 



string 

 In necklaces to grace my lady fair. 



These ancient verses show that the 

 Tachibana is not an imported plant, 

 but one that has grown in Japan for 

 many centuries. The identity of the 

 citrus fruit introduced by Taji Mamori 

 still remains in doubt. That he did 

 bring a foreign plant into the Island 

 Empire about the year 70 of the 

 Christian era can hardly be ques- 

 tioned; for the incidents of his cele- 

 brated expedition and his tragic death 

 form one of the most important chap- 

 ters of the Chronicle handed down to 

 us. This early account of an agricul- 

 tural explorer sent on a mission for the 

 purpose of discovering and bringing 

 back desirable plants to his native 

 country deserves to rank with that of 

 the Queen Hatshepsut's expedition of 



^ In the account of the Creation, Izanagi, the Adam of Japan, had become separated from 

 Izanami, his Eve, and sought her in every corner of the world. At last he went to the land of 

 Darkness, where he found her indeed, not in the perfection of her loveliness, but in the form of a 

 repulsive corpse, whose touch was pollution. He could not conceal his horror on beholding her, 

 and in her fury she called upon the devils of Hell to expel him. On coming forth into the land 

 of Light, the first act of Izanagi was to purify his body at a place, which the myth calls Tachibana 

 no Odo, in the province of Hyuga. On washing his right eye a god was born, Tsnkiyomi-no-mikoto, 

 the Moon God. On washing his left eye, behold a bright aurora emanated from it; this was 

 Amaterasu, the Sun Goddess, the first Ancestor of the people of Nippon. Thus is the name of 

 Tachibana associated with the very beginning of our race. 



