ChinaVoodoo
Moderator
I've been interested in growing Awa (from Northwood Seeds) for some years but just haven't. This upcoming year will be the year.
In previous discussions about kizami tobacco, and attempts at translating the kizami video, it was implied that certain tobaccos might be in the blend, including Suifu and Awa. See:
fairtradetobacco.com
It's really not clear. Anyway, to add depth, but not clarity, I read this study on mildew resistance in Japanese tobacco varieties, and realized there is much history.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Tobacco was introduced to Japan by the 1500s, and because Edo periodically banned tobacco growing in rice growing regions (to prevent starvation) tobacco growing became isolated to more remote regions where rice didn't grow well. This isolation lead to distinct groups of tobacco, based on leaf shape: Daruma, Nakano, Usuha, Hatano, Suifu and Kokubu. Over 170 varieties in these classes were officially recognized by the end of the 1800s.
Northwoodseeds.com has 4 Japanese tobaccos,
1. Awa, which according to the study (there's a great list, check it out) is a Daruma leaf shape, from Tokushima.
2&3. Matsukawa and Matsukawa Kantu 201, which the study says are Suifu leaf shaped, from Fukushima
4. Suifu... Here it gets muddy. Because if the name of this seed merely puts it in the Suifu class, it's like calling a tobacco 'burley' and could be one of many. But there are three varieties listed in the paper that have Suifu in the variety name:
Suifu Kataikari - Suifu leaf shape from Ibaraki
Suifu Mineshima - no shape noted, from Ibaraki
Suifu Oh-ha - hatano leaf shape from ibaraki.
Chances are it is the first one, Suifu Kataikari because the original documentation from ARS-GRIN was Kataikari.
Since the Matsukawas and Suifu are petiolate, I can't help but wonder if there is a connection to Ainaro.
If anyone else has any old variety Japanese seeds to explore, I would be happy to try them out.
In previous discussions about kizami tobacco, and attempts at translating the kizami video, it was implied that certain tobaccos might be in the blend, including Suifu and Awa. See:
Kizami tobacco
A friend was asking me about Kizami tobacco. It is the tobacco they use in the little Kiseru pipes in Japan. The two brands are called Koiki, and Takarabune. It is not legal to export tobacco from Japan. I was looking into growing it, wondering what variety of tobacco it might be. There are...
It's really not clear. Anyway, to add depth, but not clarity, I read this study on mildew resistance in Japanese tobacco varieties, and realized there is much history.
The origin and distribution of ‘Kokubu’-type splice-site mutations of the MLO genes in tobacco varieties
The Japanese domestic tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.) cultivar ‘Kokubu’ shows high powdery mildew resistance that is controlled by splice-site mutations of two MILDEW LOCUS O genes, NtMLO1 and NtMLO2. We investigated the existence of the ...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Tobacco was introduced to Japan by the 1500s, and because Edo periodically banned tobacco growing in rice growing regions (to prevent starvation) tobacco growing became isolated to more remote regions where rice didn't grow well. This isolation lead to distinct groups of tobacco, based on leaf shape: Daruma, Nakano, Usuha, Hatano, Suifu and Kokubu. Over 170 varieties in these classes were officially recognized by the end of the 1800s.
Northwoodseeds.com has 4 Japanese tobaccos,
1. Awa, which according to the study (there's a great list, check it out) is a Daruma leaf shape, from Tokushima.
2&3. Matsukawa and Matsukawa Kantu 201, which the study says are Suifu leaf shaped, from Fukushima
4. Suifu... Here it gets muddy. Because if the name of this seed merely puts it in the Suifu class, it's like calling a tobacco 'burley' and could be one of many. But there are three varieties listed in the paper that have Suifu in the variety name:
Suifu Kataikari - Suifu leaf shape from Ibaraki
Suifu Mineshima - no shape noted, from Ibaraki
Suifu Oh-ha - hatano leaf shape from ibaraki.
Chances are it is the first one, Suifu Kataikari because the original documentation from ARS-GRIN was Kataikari.
Since the Matsukawas and Suifu are petiolate, I can't help but wonder if there is a connection to Ainaro.
If anyone else has any old variety Japanese seeds to explore, I would be happy to try them out.
