Preserving the Mikekado Pumpkin
and Its History
for Future Generations

Buzen City, Fukuoka Prefecture, situated right on the border with Oita Prefecture, is home to a traditional vegetable that has been designated as a Cultural Property by the national government: Japan's oldest variety of pumpkin, the Mikekado Pumpkin. The history of this designation goes back many years. "I don't think any vegetable is quite as special as this pumpkin," says Preservation Society Chair Nekota with pride.

Pumpkins That Supported Life in the Local Community

Pumpkins are said to have first arrived in Japan around 1540, when Portuguese missionaries arrived by ship and presented them to Otomo Sorin, the lord of Bungo Province (which occupied most of modern-day Oita Prefecture). The shogun Ogata Shigemori from the village of Mikekado in Buzen Province (part of modern-day Fukuoka Prefecture) brought some pumpkins back to his domain and began cultivating them, which is the origin of the Mikekado Pumpkin we have today.
"Ever since then, we have cultivated the Mikekado Pumpkin in this region," says Nekota. "It's a remarkably strong pumpkin—even if I just dropped some seeds beside the asphalt on the side of the road there, they would sprout. During the droughts and famines of the Edo Period, they helped sustain local communities as an essential food source. Generally speaking, they have only been grown on a small scale—not in high enough volumes for shipping to other regions—and been consumed right here in the local market. However, records state that, during the Meiji Period, production volumes were very high and some of the crop was shipped off to the nearby Tagawa coal mine*. So, at that time, Mikekado Pumpkins fed the coal miners working out there."

Later on, the opening of a silk mill in the area caused increasing numbers of farmers to cultivate mulberry, which serves as feed for silkworms, and production of the pumpkin declined markedly. Regardless, these pumpkins helped people in Mikekado survive food shortages during and following World War II.
"When I was a kid, we ate pumpkin for three meals a day, so I came to hate it. Even after growing up, I couldn't bring myself to eat it very often," chuckles Nekota, who turns 85 this year.
"But when I started to grow pumpkins myself, I tried it for the first time in years, and found it to be quite tasty. Over its long history, our Mikekado Pumpkin has helped people overcome a lot of tough times. They're real life savers."

The Importance of Learning the History First, and Then Growing and Consuming

This pumpkin has another interesting story. In 1928, a Mikekado Pumpkin was presented as a gift, representing this unique local product, to the Showa Emperor at the Daijosai Rite. The same field where that pumpkin was once grown, is still used every year by third-grade students at Mikekado Elementary School to grow pumpkins.
"Every year, I put on a kamishibai [a form of Japanese storytelling using illustrations] for Mikekado Elementary School third graders explaining the history of the Mikekado Pumpkin," explains Nekota. "After learning about the significance of this vegetable, the kids try growing and harvesting it for themselves, then cook and eat the resulting produce. I think that providing these experiences for young kids is the best means of keeping this traditional vegetable around for future generations."

The Distinctive Appearance is the Hallmark of the Mikekado Pumpkin

The perfect local dish for this traditional pumpkin is dango-jiru, traditonal dumpling soup. You start by skinning Mikekado Pumpkin, boiling it down into a porridge-like soup, flavoring it with sugar and salt, then adding in kneaded-flour dumplings. The result is a vivid-yellow soup, like a yellow sweet red-bean soup.
"Back in my day, people ate this dish at home all the time, but now fewer people make it. The Mikekado Pumpkin Preservation Society holds seasonal events, and uses these as opportunities to serve pumpkin dango-jiru to visitors from both near and far," says Nekota.

One of the Preservation Society's regular events is a contest to determine the year's best Mikekado Pumpkin crop. Everyone who grows the pumpkins is eligible to submit an entry. The judges include Preservation Society members as well as workers from government institutions such as city hall and the Fukuoka Office of Agriculture and Forestry, Japan Agricultural Cooperatives (JA) members, and others.
As Nekota describes it, "The contest is, in part, held for purposes of preserving the Mikekado Pumpkin as a vegetable. Each pumpkin is carefully judged based on the quality of its chrysanthemum-shaped form, the amount of white particles that slowly rise up and stick in response to heating, the shape of the pentagonal stem, its size and weight, and other such distinctive features."
We asked Nekota if there is any restriction on production location, to which he responded, "No matter where you grow it, the Mikekado Pumpkin can easily be recognized by its appearance. If someone is interested in keeping this pumpkin variety alive and continuing to grow it over the coming years, we're happy to provide them with some of our seeds, even if they don't live in Mikekado."

Preserving the Mikekado Pumpkin Tradition While Continuing to Evolve

There is a region that is already growing this pumpkin using seeds provided by Mikekado: Usuki City, Oita Prefecture. Explains Nekota, "These pumpkins originally came from Oita to Mikekado, so this development is like a homecoming for the vegetable. Oita had stopped growing the crop, but they wanted to bring it back. To this end, Usuki City asked for us to send some of our seeds. Now, they're being grown under the name Sorin Pumpkins."
Just as these pumpkins came from Oita to Fukuoka's Mikekado, then went back to Oita later, many heirloom crops across Japan have migrated to other places for continued cultivation. New stories are woven in various places, while in others, history continues to build as it always has—all passed on into the future.
"Recently, a lot of young people are stepping up to grow the Mikekado Pumpkin. Moreover, the Preservation Society is developing products such as Mikekado Pumpkin shochu liquor and ice cream to expand the consumer market base," says Nekota. "Agriculture as an industry is continually changing. The Mikekado Pumpkin has always been grown in outdoor fields. In the future, however, they may be grown in greenhouses, too. There may be new agricultural technologies involved. By continuing to pursue such changes and advances while faithfully passing down the Mikekado Pumpkin's history of more than 450 years, we can preserve this vegetable, which is truly a treasure of Mikekado. That's what I think, at least."

The Mitsui Tagawa Coal Mine formerly operated in Tagawa City, Fukuoka Prefecture. It was an important source of coal from the late 19th century until the mid-20th century and closed down in 1964.