Yamafukumochi

"3*Norin No.22", written out year by year

NARO's listing gives this variety's cross combination as "Wasezakuramochi/3*Norin No.22". The historical document opens that notation out into sentences, one per year.

"Chugoku Mochi No.19" was crossed in 1952 at the Ministry's Chugoku Agricultural Experiment Station (then in Himeji), taking "Wasezakuramochi" as the mother and "Norin No.22" as the father; the following year, 1953, its F1 was taken as the mother and "Norin No.22" as the father for a first backcross. Further, in 1954 the first backcross hybrid was taken as the mother and "Norin No.22" as the father for a second backcross

1952  Wasezakuramochi × Norin No.22   → F1
1953  F1 × Norin No.22                → first backcross
1954  first backcross hybrid × Norin No.22 → second backcross

The same father, three years running. That is what "3*Norin No.22" contains.

It is the same notation as Koshihikari BL's "5*Koshihikari", but this is a 1950s record, surviving as sentences year by year. The notation did not come first; the sentences were compressed into it.

Hatsuminori used Norin No.1 twice. Here Norin No.22 three times. Repeating a good parent is a habit that runs unbroken from the era of numbers.

Numbers inside brackets

Grain set is fairly good and shattering hard (1). The grain is medium, and quality about level with "Kotobukimochi"'s, fairly good (4). To leaf blast it is about level with "Kotobukimochi" (6); to panicle blast it appears somewhat weak (7). To stripe disease it is weak (9), like ordinary Japanese paddy rice. To the stem maggot it is strong (3)

A number follows each word. Hard to shatter (1), quality (4), leaf blast (6), panicle blast (7), stripe (9), stem maggot (3).

It reads as a nine-point scale with 1 the strong or good end and 9 the weak one, but the document carries no key. This site does not assert what the numbers mean; it quotes them as they stand.

The other documents write in words alone — "fairly strong", "somewhat weak". Giving numbers alongside is this document's format and no other's.

They wanted a glutinous rice with a coloured tip

Also, the absence of colour on the husk and the apiculus brings a good deal of inconvenience, and there is strong demand for an early glutinous variety with a coloured apiculus.

Without colour on the tip of the husk, it is inconvenient.

Glutinous and non-glutinous rice cannot be told apart in the husk. Mixed, the quality falls. So a glutinous variety with a coloured apiculus was what was wanted.

Yamafukumochi answers that.

Occasionally short awns are seen, and the apiculus and awn are coloured red-brown. This colouring is clear immediately after heading but becomes somewhat paler by ripening.

Clear just after heading, paler at ripening. Which can also be read as: the colour fades at the very time you most want to tell them apart.

A breeding target can come not from the taste or the quantity of the rice but from the practicalities of the work. Here is one example of it, written down.