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Hatsunishiki

Parents: Norin No.22 (seed parent) and Norin No.1 (pollen parent). Crossed in 1944. Bred by Niigata Prefectural Agricultural Experiment Station (cross) → MAF Fukui Experiment Station → Tohoku Agricultural Experiment Station.

Ou No.224 OOU0002240

Pedigree

Skip the diagram and read the list
Norin No.22 → Koshihikari Norin No.1 → Koshihikari 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.22 → Honenwase Norin No.1 → Honenwase Norin No.22 → Hatsunishiki Norin No.1 → Hatsunishiki Norin No.22 → Yamasenishiki Norin No.1 → Yamasenishiki Norin No.22 → Koshijiwase Norin No.1 → Koshijiwase Norin No.22 → Yo 44 Norin No.1 → Yo 44 Norin No.22 → Yo 45 Norin No.1 → Yo 45 Norin No.22 → Yo 46 Norin No.1 → Yo 46 Norin No.22 → Yo 47 Norin No.1 → Yo 47 Norin No.22 → Yo 48 Norin No.1 → Yo 48 Norin No.22 → Yo 49 Norin No.1 → Yo 49 Hatsunishiki Ou No.224 Norin No.22 Kinki No.34 Norin No.1 Hokuriku No.4 Moritawase Rikuu No.132 Rikuu No.20 Kamenoo No.4 Aikoku Norin No.8 Kinki No.15 Norin No.6 Kinki No.9 Joshu Sen'ichi Ginbozu Asahi Koshihikari Etsunan No.17 ・ 32.6% Honenwase Etsunan No.14 Yamasenishiki Ou No.225 Koshijiwase Sei 40 Yo 44 Yo 45 Yo 46 Yo 47 Yo 48 Yo 49
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

Siblings

  • Koshihikari Etsunan No.17
  • Honenwase Etsunan No.14
  • Yamasenishiki Ou No.225
  • Koshijiwase Sei 40
  • Yo 44 Yo 44
  • Yo 45 Yo 45
  • Yo 46 Yo 46
  • Yo 47 Yo 47
  • Yo 48 Yo 48
  • Yo 49 Yo 49

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.

One of eleven

At the Ministry's designated paddy rice breeding trial site in the Niigata Prefectural Agricultural Experiment Station, an artificial cross was made in 1945 taking Norin No.22 as the mother and Norin No.1 as the father; from the F3 in 1948 it was bred at the Ministry's Fukui Agricultural Improvement Laboratory, and from the F5 in 1950 selection and fixing were carried out by line breeding in Cultivation Section One of the Ministry's Tohoku Agricultural Experiment Station.

A line from the same cross as Koshihikari. Its line number is Ou No.224, fixed at the Tohoku station.

Seed from one cross was distributed to Fukui (Etsunan No.14, No.17) and to Tohoku (Ou No.224, No.225), and selected separately in separate places. Each became a different variety.

The document disagrees with itself

In one place, this historical document says:

from the F7 in 1952 it was distributed to the relevant prefectures under the line name Ou No.244

No.244, not No.224. The database's line number is Ou No.224, and the ineCode matches 224.

One of the two is wrong, but the document does not say which. It is left uncorrected and noted as a discrepancy.

Early-maturing, with a mid-season yield

Productivity is extremely high for an early variety, at the level of a mid-season variety. Leaf and panicle blast resistance are strong for a Japanese variety, and sclerotial resistance, submergence tolerance and cold tolerance are also strong.

An early variety ripens sooner at the cost of yield. This one is said to yield like a mid-season variety while staying early.

Why Yamagata took it

The varieties grown in the poor-environment belt of diluvial clay soils are mostly panicle-weight types; in trying to secure panicle number, cultivation tends to run to excess nitrogen. When abnormally low temperatures then arrive, the damage is aggravated.

With only panicle-weight varieties available, growers pushed nitrogen to get panicle number. Then cold weather made the damage worse.

So a panicle-number type with strong disease resistance and good ripening colour was wanted, to stabilise yield. A recommended variety from 1954, with about 5,000 cho expected, replacing Okunihayase, Hinomaru, Obanazawa No.2 and Obanazawa No.5.

When the variety changes, the way of farming changes with it. The document says so.

Sources disagree

Which parent of Koshihikari was the seed parent

The NARO historical document states in words that Norin No.22 was the seed parent and Norin No.1 the pollen parent. Niigata Prefecture, which bred the variety, states the reverse. The diagram follows the historical document; Niigata's account is recorded here. We call neither wrong.

The year of the cross

The NARO documents appear to reproduce the prefectures' original applications for recommended-variety status and give 1945 — and the documents for Honenwase, Hatsunishiki and Yamasenishiki, all from the same cross, give 1945 as well, four in agreement. Niigata's own account says the cross was made in 1944 and that the 1945 planting was skipped for lack of hands. We use 1944 and note the discrepancy.

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「越南17号（コシヒカリ）」品種来歴文書 — 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 交配系譜図「越南17号」 — 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「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
  4. 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
  5. 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
  6. 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
  7. 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
  8. 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
  9. 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
  10. 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
  11. 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
  12. 新潟コシヒカリの軌跡 〜誕生から定着に至るまで〜 — Niigata Prefectural Government ・ primary source ・ accessed 2026-09-10
  13. 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
  14. あきさかりの良さを引き出す栽培法 — Fukui Prefectural Government ・ primary source ・ accessed 2026-09-10
  15. ぎふクリーン農業／県産品種 ハツシモ — Gifu Prefectural Government ・ primary source ・ accessed 2026-09-11
  16. 水稲「あさひの夢」の奨励品種採用（研究成果情報） — National Agricultural Research Center, NARO ・ primary source ・ accessed 2026-09-11
  17. コシヒカリのエピソード2 〜奨励品種への採用から〜 — Niigata Prefectural Government ・ primary source ・ accessed 2026-09-10
  18. コシヒカリBLの導入のねらい — Niigata Prefectural Government ・ primary source ・ accessed 2026-09-10
  19. 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
  20. 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
  21. イネ品種データベース検索システム「越南14号（ホウネンワセ）」品種来歴文書 — Institute of Crop Science, NARO ・ primary source ・ accessed 2026-10-01
  22. イネ品種データベース検索システム「奥羽224号（ハツニシキ）」品種来歴文書 — Institute of Crop Science, NARO ・ primary source ・ accessed 2026-10-01
  23. イネ品種データベース検索システム「奥羽225号（ヤマセニシキ）」品種来歴文書 — Institute of Crop Science, NARO ・ primary source ・ accessed 2026-10-01
  24. イネ品種データベース検索システム「近畿34号を親とする品種一覧」（全167行） — Institute of Crop Science, NARO ・ primary source ・ accessed 2026-10-01
  25. イネ品種データベース検索システム 交配系譜図「生40（越路早生）」 — Institute of Crop Science, NARO ・ primary source ・ accessed 2026-10-01
  26. 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
  27. 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