The World of Apples

Growing regions

Aomori

Its first three Western apple trees were planted in 1875; in 2025 Aomori grew 61% of Japan's apples

How apples came

In June 1871 Kuroda Kiyotaka of the Hokkaido Colonisation Office brought home from America young trees of 75 apple varieties, and from 1875 trees propagated from them were sent out to the prefectures1. Aomori’s first three apple saplings came from the Home Ministry in April 1875 and were planted in the grounds of the prefectural office; that Christmas John Ing, an American missionary, gave apples to his pupils and congregation, the first Western apples introduced to the prefecture2. Ing had come to Hirosaki at the end of 1874 to teach at the Tōō Gijuku3. A second delivery that autumn brought 75 apple trees, planted out by Kikuchi Tatee, Yamano Shigeki and others, and in August 1877 Yamano’s tree bore the first fruit: three apples, far bigger and better than the native kinds1.

Kikuchi, a former samurai of the Hirosaki domain, learned grafting at the Colonisation Office’s nursery at Nanae in Hokkaido in 1877 and found that sanashi, a wild shrub common all over Tsugaru, made a good rootstock, which brought the price of trees down1. That year he and other former samurai founded the Kaikusha, a society for the study of farming4, and Hirosaki remembers him as the man who handed the government’s trees to former samurai across Tsugaru5. The first orchards stood on the old samurai estates in the centre of Hirosaki and spread south as landowners and merchants put money into them1.

Pests and disease brought crisis: in 1900 monilia disease destroyed the whole crop at Shimizu, now part of Hirosaki2. Tonosaki Kashichi, remembered as “the god of apples”, bagged his fruit against pests in 1905, and within a year bagging had spread across the prefecture5. The prefecture’s apple research, begun in 1911, became an independent experiment station at Kuroishi in 1931, which the prefecture calls Japan’s only research body devoted to the apple; it bred Mutsu (registered in 1949), Sekai Ichi (announced in 1974) and Tsugaru (1975). Fuji came from a national horticultural station set up at Fujisaki in 1937 and was named in 19622, and Saitō Masami, a Hirosaki grower, spread it by giving grafting wood from his trees to growers who asked5.

In 1968 the price of small Kōgyoku and Kokkō collapsed and more than 10,000 tonnes were dumped in the hills and rivers, the “mountain-and-river market” (translated); the shock hurried a change to Delicious-type apples and Fuji, which became the leading variety in 19822. On 28 September 1991 Typhoon No. 19 brought Aomori city a record gust of 53.9 m/s and blew down the unpicked fruit2,6, damaging 22,400 ha of orchard, 90% of the total, and 388,000 tonnes of apples2. At Fujisaki the apples that had held on were sold as charms to candidates for entrance examinations7.

How they’re grown

Hirosaki, the chief town of Tsugaru, lies on the Tsugaru plain, where the orchards favour sloping ground and the natural levees of the rivers16; its weather station stands at 30 m8. The station’s 1991–2020 normals give a mean of 10.6 °C, 23.5 °C in August, 1,255.3 mm of precipitation and 679 cm of snowfall over a winter9. The prefecture asks of an apple site at least 1,400 hours of winter chill and snow no deeper than about 2 m10, and credits its cool weather with firm apples that keep well2.

The district of Hirosaki, Kuroishi and Hirakawa holds about 66% of the orchards in the prefecture’s 2025 count, the north-west around Goshogawara and Tsugaru 19%2. There were 11,464 apple-growing farm businesses in 2020, working 1.7 ha each on average by 2024. Most orchards still stand on maruba rootstocks, which were in use before dwarfing stocks spread16: 15,067 ha in 2024, against 5,074 ha of dwarfed trees and 64 ha planted at high density. The prefecture’s plan sets a figure of 7,500 businesses for 2030, and calls the shrinking, ageing population behind this a “quiet crisis” (translated)10.

The work is nearly all by hand, about 213 hours for every 1,000 m² of orchard, and it is said that nobody is fully fledged until they have “pruned a thousand trees” (translated). Mason bees and machines do more and more of the pollinating, and the paper bags that once kept off pests now go on for colour and keeping. The June–August mean of 2010, 23.6 °C, was the highest in 80 years, August 2023 set a record, and in 2025 record snow did about ¥20.6 billion of damage2. The plan promotes varieties that colour well in heat, Aori 16 and Benihatsumi10.

What’s picked

Japan harvested 577,400 tonnes of apples in 2025, on the agriculture ministry’s provisional figures, and Aomori 351,400 tonnes of them, 61%11, from 18,900 ha of orchard12. The 2024 crop was 370,500 tonnes. Fuji fills about half the orchards: of the 19,500 ha bearing in 2023, 9,300 ha were Fuji, 2,250 ha Tsugaru, 2,030 ha Orin and 1,850 ha Jonagold2.

Picking runs from August to November, variety by variety: Tsugaru in early and mid September, Jonagold in mid to late October, Orin in late October and early November, Fuji from late October to mid November and Kinsei last2.

In 2025 the prefecture’s 686 stores could hold about 340,000 tonnes, and in 2023 almost half the space was controlled-atmosphere storage; from store, Fuji is shipped until August of the next year. Exports began in 1894, from Hakodate to Qing China; of Japan’s 30,202 tonnes of apple exports from the 2024 crop, more than 90% of them thought to be Aomori’s, about 76% went to Taiwan. About 17% of the 2024 crop was processed, some 83% of it into juice2.

On the table

Most of the crop is eaten fresh, and the stores keep it coming all year; juice takes most of the rest, and the prefecture’s processors also make preserves, cider and brandy; apple wine was first brewed and sold here in 19012. Hirosaki cooks by variety: Kōgyoku for apple pie, jam and baked apples, Tsugaru in stews and curry, Jonagold in curry rice and apple shiruko, a sweet soup13. Kōgyoku is the American Jonathan, which keeps its shape in the pan14. In autumn Hirosaki families are given more apples than they can eat, and many turn the surplus into pie or jam; the city’s tourist information staff mapped 34 apple pies in 2010 and 43 in 202215.

Apples are charms too: since 1973 volunteers in Itayanagi have grown apples marked “praying for success” (translated) for examination candidates7. The word is ringo; the imported apple was at first written 苹果, to tell it from the smaller native kind1,16.

Notes

  • Japan’s oldest apple trees, three Benishibori and Iwai planted in 1878, grow in Tsugaru city and have been a prefectural natural monument since 19602.
  • Hirosaki’s apple park grows 80 varieties2 and keeps the Fuji tree from which Saitō Masami gave away grafting wood5.
  • A Japanese dictionary’s earliest example of Kōgyoku as an apple is a Tsugaru scene of 1935: “when the boughs bend with bloom-dusted Kōgyoku” (translated)14.

Where the sources disagree

  • Orchard area. MAFF gives 18,900 ha for 202512, the prefecture’s own count 19,961 ha2; the prefecture’s count is used here only for the shares of each district.
  • Kikuchi’s name. The city history reads it Tateei1, Hirosaki city Tatee5.
  • Ōringo. The Heibonsha encyclopaedia says the imported apple was at first called ōringo16; the city history says that reading, set by the government’s list of 1874, never really took hold, and people said seiyō ringo or simply ringo1.
  • The typhoon charms. Web accounts of tens of thousands sold at shrines across Japan were not verified, so no figure is given.
  • Elevation. The 30 m is the weather station’s8; no official figure for the height of the orchards was found.
Aomori
Where Aomori is.

Sources

  1. 新編弘前市史 通史編4（近・現代1）: 菊池楯衛とりんご植栽, Hirosaki City, digitised by Hirosaki City Library on ADEAC. Supports: Kuroda Kiyotaka's 75 apple varieties of June 1871, sent to the prefectures from 1875; the 75 apple trees of autumn 1875 planted by Kikuchi, Yamano and others; the first fruit in August 1877, three apples bigger and better than the native kinds; Kikuchi's grafting at Nanae in 1877; sanashi as a rootstock that cut the price of trees; the first orchards on samurai estates and their spread south; the 1874 list's 苹果 to be read ōringo, a reading that never took hold; 西洋りんご as the everyday name; the reading Tateei.
  2. 青森りんご（令和８年３月版）, Aomori Prefecture, 農林水産部りんご果樹課, March 2026. Supports: the three saplings of April 1875 and John Ing's Christmas apples; monilia disease at Shimizu in 1900; the research begun in 1911, the station at Kuroishi from 1931 (as the 苹果試験場 until 1950) and 'Japan's only' apple research body; Mutsu, Sekai Ichi and Tsugaru; Fuji from the Fujisaki station of 1937, named in 1962; the 1968 dumping, the change of varieties and Fuji leading from 1982; the 1991 typhoon's 53.9 m/s, 22,400 ha (90%) and 388,000 t; the cool climate and firm, keeping apples; the district shares of the 2025 count of 19,961 ha; 213 hours per 10 a, pruning a thousand trees, mason bees, bags; the 2010 June–August mean of 23.6 °C, the record August of 2023 and the 2025 snow; Aori 16 as the variety name; 370,500 t in 2024; the 2023 bearing area by variety; picking from August to November and each variety's time; 686 stores, controlled-atmosphere storage and Fuji shipped to August; exports since 1894, 30,202 t in 2024 and 76% to Taiwan; 17% processed, 83% into juice; preserves, cider and brandy; apple wine since 1901; the oldest trees; the apple park's 80 varieties.
  3. 新編弘前市史 通史編4（近・現代1）: ジョン・イングの貢献, Hirosaki City, digitised by Hirosaki City Library on ADEAC. Supports: John Ing's arrival in Hirosaki at the end of 1874 to teach at the Tōō Gijuku.
  4. 新編弘前市史 通史編4（近・現代1）: 組織的活動－化育社, Hirosaki City, digitised by Hirosaki City Library on ADEAC. Supports: the Kaikusha, founded in 1877 around Kikuchi by former Hirosaki samurai who had learned at Nanae.
  5. りんごのエピソード, Hirosaki City. Supports: Kikuchi Tatee as the originator of Aomori's apples, who gave the government's trees to former samurai across Tsugaru; Tonosaki Kashichi, 'the god of apples', bagging his fruit in 1905 and bagging spreading the next year; Saitō Masami giving away Fuji grafting wood, and the tree kept at the apple park.
  6. 台風第19号 平成3年（1991年）9月25日～9月28日, Japan Meteorological Agency. Supports: the peak gust of 53.9 m/s at Aomori and the pre-harvest apples that fell.
  7. 日韓社会における試験と縁起の食物, Kim Tae Ho, 地域と社会 25, Osaka University of Commerce, 30 January 2023. Supports: the typhoon over Fujisaki on 28 September 1991 and the apples that held on, sold as charms for passing examinations; Itayanagi's apples lettered 'praying for success' since 1973.
  8. 地域気象観測所一覧, Japan Meteorological Agency, 24 March 2026. Supports: the Hirosaki station at 30 m, 40°36.7′ N, 140°27.3′ E.
  9. 弘前（青森県）平年値（年・月ごとの値）, Japan Meteorological Agency. Supports: the 1991–2020 normals: mean 10.6 °C, August 23.5 °C, 1,255.3 mm, 679 cm of snowfall.
  10. 青森県果樹農業振興計画, Aomori Prefecture, July 2026. Supports: at least 1,400 hours of chill and snow no deeper than about 2 m; 11,464 apple farm businesses in 2020 and a figure of 7,500 for 2030; 170 a per business in 2024; 15,067 ha of maruba trees, 5,074 ha dwarfed and 64 ha high-density in 2024; the 'quiet crisis'; varieties that colour in heat.
  11. 令和７年産りんごの栽培面積、結果樹面積、収穫量及び出荷量, Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF), Statistics Department, 26 May 2026. Supports: Japan's 577,400 t in 2025 (provisional), Aomori's 351,400 t and 61%, Nagano's 18%.
  12. 作物統計調査 作況調査（果樹）速報: 令和7年産りんごの栽培面積、結果樹面積、10a当たり収量、収穫量及び出荷量, MAFF, via e-Stat, 26 May 2026. Supports: Aomori's 18,900 ha of apple orchard in 2025.
  13. りんごの料理特性, Hirosaki City, apple park. Supports: Kōgyoku for apple pie, jam and baked apples; Tsugaru for stews and curry; Jonagold for curry rice and apple shiruko.
  14. 紅玉（精選版 日本国語大辞典; デジタル大辞泉プラス）, Shogakukan, via Kotobank. Supports: Kōgyoku as the American Jonathan, holding its shape when cooked; the 1935 Tsugaru example from Fukada Kyūya's Tsugaru no nozura.
  15. りんごの街・弘前でアップルパイ巡りが人気：観光案内所スタッフ制作のガイドマップがブーム創出, nippon.com, 7 August 2022. Supports: Hirosaki's autumn surplus of apples turned into pie and jam; apple pies sold by bakers, cafés and sweet shops; the guide map of 2010 with 34 pies and its 2022 edition with 43.
  16. リンゴ（日本大百科全書; 世界大百科事典）, Shogakukan and Heibonsha, via Kotobank. Supports: ji-ringo, the apple grown before the Meiji era, and the imported ōringo that took over the name ringo; maruba and zumi as the stocks used before dwarfing rootstocks spread; zumi, also called sanashi, Malus toringo, used for rootstocks; the Tsugaru plain, with Hirosaki, the centre of the Tsugaru region, and orchards on slopes and natural levees (entry Tsugaru heiya).