It is considered that rice arrived to Japan approximately 2700 years ago at the end of the Zemon's period through the Korean peninsula and Taiwan. At the beginning it appeared in the North of Kyushu, but in 200 years it extended up to Northeast areas of the country. People began to move down to places much favorable for rice. Many villages also began to appear in these places. Rice became the center, around which there was a development not only of the agriculture of Japan, but also of its society and culture.

The ancestor of the Japanese rice is the red rice called akagome. When it appeared, the dishes made of it, were considered very expensive. That's why the ancient people gave it only to gods and ate it only on holidays. This custom was kept after the appearance of the white rice, which is much tastier. On holidays or when a happy thing has happened, people cook the red rice porridge. They add red beans into the white rice.

Ine is annual grass of the grass family and kome is its seed. While ine is ripening, fruits in the form of uncleaned grains are formed on its heads. With the beginning of the picking time, ine's culms are stubbed and threshed. Straw separates while threshing. Further more a disintegration into brown rice and rice hulls takes place. Brown rice is cleaned and as a result the milled rice and rice hull are got. Depending on a level of milling rice, this rice is divided into rice with germinated grains, rice with the level 0.5 or 0.7 and milled rice etc. Straw and hull, got when cleaning rice, are also found application.

You can get such dishes as cooked rice, festive red rice-milk, thin rice-milk, rice flat cakes, sushi, different sweets, sake, rice tea, soy paste miso, soy sauce, vinegar, glue from rice grits.

Stone bran is used in wheat mixed feed, enzymic matter, fertilizer materials, and perfumery.

Rice hulls are used as fillers for fruit containers and pillows, and as fuel.

Rice straw is used as wheat mixed feed, fertilizer materials, beddings, cords, straw bags, mats, straw floor-mats called tatami, material for roofs, shoes called zori, toys, paper, fuel.

Besides rice grits get different names, depending on the structure of the grains. Starch content differs as well.

Uruchi is rice, which is consumed routinely.

Mochi-gome is one of the ancient types of rice. It becomes sweet when chewing it for a long time. It is notable for glutinosity and is used for cooking rice flat cakes and red festive rice-milk.
Aka-gome is one of the ancient sorts of rice. It becomes sweet when chewing it for a long time.
Rice groat koshihikari are referred to the sort called japonika and are cultivated on flood plain. It is referred to the sort called uruchi.

Previous