RataterraFirst edition in progress
My atlas

Searches names, synonyms and regional names, with or without accents.

    Rice · Rice · Short entry

    Sasanishiki

    ササニシキ

    A Miyagi short-grain cultivar bred at the Furukawa Agricultural Experiment Station, known for a light, less sticky texture than the Koshihikari-type rices that now make up most of Japan's crop.

    A pale polished rice grain, illustrated for Sasanishiki.
    Sasanishiki — editorial grain study, polished, not to scale. Appearance alone does not establish variety or protected origin.

    The other pole of Japanese rice

    More than nine-tenths of the rice now grown in Japan is of the sticky Koshihikari type. Sasanishiki sits at the opposite pole: light in texture, with a taste that does not dominate the side dishes. In Akita around 1992, it and Akitakomachi together covered nearly 80 % of the rice area.

    Because Sasanishiki-type rice is hard to grow to a stable quality, breeders long avoided it. From 2001 the Furukawa station spent more than ten years crossing Sasanishiki with Hitomebore to produce Tohoku 194, named Sasa Musubi, which keeps a Sasanishiki-like eating quality with Hitomebore's cold tolerance and resistance to pre-harvest sprouting.

    [1][2]

    How it connects

    Rice

    Continue exploring