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Hitomebore

Parents: Koshihikari (seed parent) and Hatsuboshi (pollen parent). Bred by Furukawa Agricultural Experiment Station, Miyagi Prefecture.

Tohoku No.143 Suito Norin No.313 TOH0001430

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 Koshihikari → Hitomebore Hatsuboshi → Hitomebore Koshihikari → Hatsuboshi 40-11 → Hatsuboshi Hitomebore → Fusaotome Fusaotome → Fusakogane Hitomebore → Nanatsuboshi Hitomebore → Koshiibuki Hitomebore → Tohoku No.164 Tohoku No.164 → Tsuyahime Hitomebore → Ou No.357 Ou No.357 → Tennotsubu Fusaotome → Yosakoibijin Koshihikari → Yosakoibijin Koshihikari → Kirari Miyazaki Hitomebore → Kirari Miyazaki Hitomebore Tohoku No.143 ・ 8.4% Koshihikari Etsunan No.17 ・ 32.6% Hatsuboshi Aichi No.26 40-11 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 Fusaotome Chiba No.6 Nanatsuboshi Kuiku No.163 ・ 3.4% Koshiibuki Niigata No.56 ・ 1.4% Tohoku No.164 Ou No.357 Kirari Miyazaki Miyazaki No.33 Tennotsubu Fukushima No.9 ・ 1% Tsuyahime Yamagata No.97 ・ 1.5% Fusakogane Chiba No.28 ・ 0.9% Yosakoibijin 高育76号
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

Cross combination: コシヒカリ/初星

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.

Children 4

Grandchildren 4

It inherited the strength, not the weakness

Koshihikari's susceptibility to rice blast is well known. What is less known is that its cold tolerance was among the strongest of any variety. That is what the Furukawa Agricultural Experiment Station in Miyagi went after.

The breeding report says so plainly:

Once cold-tolerance screening facilities were in place it became clear that Koshihikari, with the finest eating quality of any variety, also had cold tolerance of the highest class — so using Koshihikari as a parent, breeding a variety with extremely good eating quality and extremely strong cold tolerance, one that could be grown in Tohoku, was possible.

In July 1982, Koshihikari was crossed with Hatsuboshi.

Look at the diagram again. Hatsuboshi is itself a child of Koshihikari (Koshihikari/40-11). This cross therefore had Koshihikari as both a parent and a grandparent.

1991, and then 1993

In June 1991 it was registered as Suito Norin No.313 and named Hitomebore.

Two years later, the record cold summer of 1993 struck Tohoku. In 1994 the Tohoku branch of the Crop Science Society of Japan published a report titled "Cold tolerance of the rice variety Hitomebore in the 1993 cold-weather damage."

The breeding report's claim — "sterility-type cold tolerance at the booting stage is extremely strong" — was tested in the field that year.

The parents are reversed here too

For this variety as well, sources disagree on which parent was the seed parent.

  • The NARO pedigree field reads Koshihikari/Hatsuboshi. By convention the name before the slash is the seed parent, making Koshihikari the mother.
  • The breeding report from Furukawa, which raised the variety, reads Koshihikari (father) × Hatsuboshi (mother).

This is exactly the same disagreement as for Koshihikari's own parents. Which tells us this kind of discrepancy is not unusual. Both readings are kept below, under "Sources disagree".

Today it is second nationally

In the 2024 crop year it accounted for 8.4% of paddy rice area, second only to Koshihikari's 32.6%.

And Hitomebore is itself the parent or ancestor of Nanatsuboshi, Koshiibuki, Masshigura, Tsuyahime, Tennotsubu and Fusakogane. Those are the lines running down from it in the diagram above.

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.

Which parent of Hitomebore was the seed parent

The NARO pedigree field reads Koshihikari/Hatsuboshi, and by convention the name before the slash is the seed parent. The breeding report from Furukawa Agricultural Experiment Station, which raised the variety, states the reverse. The same disagreement appears for Koshihikari's own parents (D001), so this kind of discrepancy is not unusual. The diagram follows the NARO notation and both readings are recorded here.

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「越南17号を親とする品種一覧」（全607行） — 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34号（水稲農林22号）」 — Institute of Crop Science, NARO ・ primary source ・ accessed 2026-10-01
  8. 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
  9. 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
  10. 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
  11. 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
  12. 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
  13. 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
  14. 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
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  16. 令和6年産 水稲の品種別作付割合 — Rice Stable Supply Support Organization ・ primary source ・ accessed 2026-09-10
  17. イネ品種データベース検索システム「東北143号（ひとめぼれ）を親とする品種一覧」 — Institute of Crop Science, NARO ・ primary source ・ accessed 2026-09-10
  18. イネ品種データベース検索システム 交配系譜図「千葉28号（ふさこがね）」 — Institute of Crop Science, NARO ・ primary source ・ accessed 2026-09-10
  19. イネ品種データベース検索システム 交配系譜図「山形97号（つや姫）」 — Institute of Crop Science, NARO ・ primary source ・ accessed 2026-09-10
  20. イネ品種データベース検索システム 交配系譜図「東北164号」 — Institute of Crop Science, NARO ・ primary source ・ accessed 2026-09-10
  21. イネ品種データベース検索システム 交配系譜図「奥羽357号」 — Institute of Crop Science, NARO ・ primary source ・ accessed 2026-09-10
  22. イネ品種データベース検索システム 交配系譜図「福島9号（天のつぶ）」 — Institute of Crop Science, NARO ・ primary source ・ accessed 2026-09-10
  23. 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
  24. 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
  25. 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
  26. 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
  27. コシヒカリBLの導入のねらい — Niigata Prefectural Government ・ primary source ・ accessed 2026-09-10
  28. 水稲新品種「ひとめぼれ」について（宮城県古川農業試験場研究報告） — Furukawa Agricultural Experiment Station, Miyagi Prefecture ・ primary source ・ accessed 2026-09-10
  29. 平成5年冷害における水稲品種「ひとめぼれ」の耐冷性（日本作物学会東北支部会報 第37号, 1994年） — Tohoku Branch, Crop Science Society of Japan ・ primary source ・ accessed 2026-09-10
  30. 水稲新品種「ななつぼし」の育成（北海道立農試集報 83, 1-10, 2002年） — Hokkaido Central Agricultural Experiment Station ・ primary source ・ accessed 2026-09-11
  31. ななつぼし（北海道のお米） — Hokkaido Rice Sales Promotion Committee ・ accessed 2026-09-11
  32. つや姫 品種特性 — Yamagata Prefecture ・ primary source ・ accessed 2026-09-11
  33. 良質・良食味水稲早生新品種「こしいぶき」の育成（北陸作物学会報 36, 2001年） — Crop Research Center, Niigata Agricultural Research Institute ・ primary source ・ accessed 2026-09-11
  34. 水稲「天のつぶ（福島９号）」のプロフィール — Fukushima Prefecture ・ primary source ・ accessed 2026-09-11
  35. 中生、耐冷、いもち病抵抗性、良質・良食味水稲新品種「ちば28号」の育成 — Chiba Prefectural Agriculture and Forestry Research Center ・ primary source ・ accessed 2026-09-11
  36. 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
  37. 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
  38. 品種登録データベース「きらり宮崎」登録番号第6387号 — Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries ・ primary source ・ accessed 2026-10-01
  39. 品種登録データベース 品種名検索（品種名のよみ） — Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries ・ primary source ・ accessed 2026-10-01
  40. 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
  41. 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
  42. イネ品種データベース検索システム「中部17号（ミネアサヒ）」品種来歴文書 — Institute of Crop Science, NARO ・ primary source ・ accessed 2026-10-01
  43. 水稲極早生新品種‘よさ恋美人’の概要／‘よさ恋美人’の特性一覧 — Kochi Agricultural Research Center ・ primary source ・ accessed 2026-10-02