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Chidori

Parents: Tedoriwase (seed parent) and Norin No.22 (pollen parent). Crossed in 1953. Bred by Fukui Prefectural Agricultural Experiment Station (Ministry-designated trial).

Etsunan No.37 ETU0000370

Pedigree

Skip the diagram and read the list
Norin No.8 → Norin No.22 Norin No.6 → Norin No.22 Moritawase → Norin No.1 Rikuu No.132 → Norin No.1 Ginbozu → Norin No.8 Asahi → Norin No.8 Joshu → Norin No.6 Sen'ichi → Norin No.6 Rikuu No.20 → Rikuu No.132 Kamenoo No.4 → Rikuu No.132 Aikoku → Rikuu No.20 Norin No.23 → Tedoriwase Norin No.1 → Tedoriwase Tedoriwase → Chidori Norin No.22 → Chidori Chidori Etsunan No.37 Tedoriwase Etsunan No.6 Norin No.22 Kinki No.34 Norin No.8 Kinki No.15 Norin No.6 Kinki No.9 Joshu Sen'ichi Ginbozu Asahi Norin No.23 Kinki No.35 Norin No.1 Hokuriku No.4 Moritawase Rikuu No.132 Rikuu No.20 Kamenoo No.4 Aikoku
The diagram shows this variety's own parents and the line that connects it to Koshihikari. Among the descendants only the main varieties are drawn; the other parent of each cross, and every descendant not drawn here, are listed in full below. Faint boxes are unnamed breeding lines.

Parents

Descendants

Relations are counted along the shortest line of descent. The rows in the diagram follow the order of crosses, so a variety with more than one path down can sit lower in the diagram than its relation here suggests.

In the mountains, equal to Koshihikari or better

Its quality beats "Fujiminori" on the flats and falls a step below "Koshihikari". In the mountains, however, it equals or betters "Koshihikari".

It names Koshihikari and says the comparison reverses with the place.

This is a NARO document from around 1965. On the flats it loses a step to Koshihikari. In the mountains it is equal or better.

That the ranking of varieties swaps with the altitude of the field is obvious enough — and here it is, in one line of a primary source.

The same two varieties met again, one generation out of step

"Etsunan No.37" was crossed in 1953 at the Fukui Prefectural Agricultural Experiment Station (Ministry-designated trial), taking "Tedoriwase" as the mother and "Norin No.22" as the father

The mother is Tedoriwase, itself the child of Kinki No.35 (Norin No.23) and Norin No.1. The father is Norin No.22 — Koshihikari's mother.

So Chidori brings together Norin No.1's line (through the mother) and Norin No.22 (as the father).

Koshihikari is Norin No.22 and Norin No.1 crossed directly. The same two varieties come together again, one generation out of step.

The cross was in 1953, the year Koshihikari received the line name Etsunan No.17.

Written alongside Honenwase

The document describes its character almost entirely against Honenwase.

The culm is longer than "Honenwase"'s, the culm and panicle neck somewhat thicker, the panicle slightly longer and the grain set somewhat denser, but the panicle number is lower than "Honenwase"'s, placing it between intermediate and slightly panicle-number type.

The 1000-grain weight is slightly greater than "Honenwase"'s; white belly occurs rarely, it is glossy, and quality and eating quality differ little from "Honenwase".

Honenwase came from the same cross as Koshihikari. The variety being compared with is chosen from among the relatives. Breed in the same district at the same station for long enough and the comparisons become family.

Sources disagree

How the seed parent of Norin No.1 is written

The two spellings appear in the same NARO database, in the pedigree field and in the historical document respectively. We use the pedigree field's spelling and list the other.

How Kamenoo No.4 is written

We follow the NARO database. The commonly seen spelling uses a katakana no; we prefer the spelling we can cite.

On naming

Variety names are proper nouns. We use a name in this language only where a published source for it can be cited; otherwise the Japanese name stands.

What we have not yet confirmed

We have not looked below the top twenty

The site covers the twenty most widely planted varieties of the 2024 crop and the varieties that connect them back to Koshihikari. Many descendants exist below that line; we have not yet verified them against primary sources.

The year Masshigura was crossed

Neither Aomori Prefecture's table of recommended-variety characteristics nor the NARO database gives the year Masshigura (Aokei No.138) was crossed. The cross itself, Ou No.341 / Yamagata No.40, and its adoption as a recommended variety in fiscal 2004 are confirmed from primary sources; the year of the cross is not. For the same reason we do not say which parent was the seed parent. On 8 October 2026 we went back to the breeder's own side. The Masshigura page in the variety database of the Aomori Prefectural Industrial Technology Research Center's Agriculture and Forestry Research Institute carries a heading reading “The origin of Masshigura” — with nothing under it. Of the institute's bulletins, only No.42 (2015) onward are online, and the issue that would hold the breeding report for Masshigura is not among them. So the year of the cross is absent from the breeder's own published material as well.

Sources

The source document is in Japanese.

  1. イネ品種データベース検索システム 交配系譜図「越南17号」 — Institute of Crop Science, NARO ・ primary source ・ accessed 2026-09-10
  2. イネ品種データベース検索システム「北陸4号（水稲農林1号）」品種来歴文書 — Institute of Crop Science, NARO ・ primary source ・ accessed 2026-09-10
  3. イネ品種データベース検索システム 交配系譜図「北陸4号」 — Institute of Crop Science, NARO ・ primary source ・ accessed 2026-09-10
  4. イネ品種データベース検索システム「北陸4号を親とする品種一覧」（全263行） — Institute of Crop Science, NARO ・ primary source ・ accessed 2026-10-01
  5. イネ品種データベース検索システム 交配系譜図「近畿34号（水稲農林22号）」 — Institute of Crop Science, NARO ・ primary source ・ accessed 2026-10-01
  6. イネ品種データベース検索システム 交配系譜図「近畿15号（水稲農林8号）」 — Institute of Crop Science, NARO ・ primary source ・ accessed 2026-09-10
  7. イネ品種データベース検索システム 交配系譜図「近畿9号（水稲農林6号）」 — Institute of Crop Science, NARO ・ primary source ・ accessed 2026-09-10
  8. イネ品種データベース検索システム 交配系譜図「陸羽132号」 — Institute of Crop Science, NARO ・ primary source ・ accessed 2026-09-10
  9. イネ品種データベース検索システム 交配系譜図「陸羽20号」 — Institute of Crop Science, NARO ・ primary source ・ accessed 2026-09-10
  10. コシヒカリのエピソード1 〜交配から系統の育成まで〜 — Niigata Prefectural Government ・ primary source ・ accessed 2026-09-10
  11. 戦後日本のイノベーション100選「コシヒカリ」経緯 — Japan Institute of Invention and Innovation ・ accessed 2026-09-10
  12. イネ品種データベース検索システム「近畿15号（水稲農林8号）」品種来歴文書 — Institute of Crop Science, NARO ・ primary source ・ accessed 2026-09-16
  13. イネ品種データベース検索システム「近畿9号（水稲農林6号）」品種来歴文書 — Institute of Crop Science, NARO ・ primary source ・ accessed 2026-09-16
  14. イネ品種データベース検索システム「越南6号（テドリワセ）」品種来歴文書 — Institute of Crop Science, NARO ・ primary source ・ accessed 2026-10-01
  15. イネ品種データベース検索システム「越南12号（ヤマコガネ）」品種来歴文書 — Institute of Crop Science, NARO ・ primary source ・ accessed 2026-10-01
  16. イネ品種データベース検索システム「越南37号（チドリ）」品種来歴文書 — Institute of Crop Science, NARO ・ primary source ・ accessed 2026-10-01
  17. イネ品種データベース検索システム「山陰47号（ヤエホ）」品種来歴文書 — Institute of Crop Science, NARO ・ primary source ・ accessed 2026-10-01