Rice is one of the main staple foods for Taiwanese. Most of the rice we eat with meals today is Japonica rice, whereas many traditional rice-based foods, including radish cake, wagui (savory rice pudding), and rice noodles, are made using Indica rice.

Japonica rice was introduced to Taiwan in the era of Japanese rule (1895–1945), but it has been continually improved over time and today there are more than 200 varieties. Besides edible Japonica rices there are also functional varieties, as well as colorful varieties that are used to decorate rice fields for tourism purposes. The place where the ancestor of these Japonica varieties was first planted in Taiwan is Zhuzihu on Yangmingshan.

Zhuzihu is located in Yangmingshan National Park at an elevation of 650–670 meters. Each spring, the calla lily season there attracts crowds of visitors to admire the flowers, and the calla lily has become virtually synonymous with the place. However, since 2011 Zhuzihu residents and lily farmers have been tracing the history of paddy rice in this area and have restarted rice cultivation here. Farmers have even organized the “Zhuzihu Ponlai Rice Seed Field Club” and have been working with the Department of Agronomy at National Taiwan University (NTU) to promote cultivation of Japonica rice. In 2016 they began replanting the Nakamura variety, the forerunner of Taiwanese Japonica varieties, which had disappeared for decades.

Zhuzihu farmers have organized themselves into a club to resume growing Nakamura rice, a Japonica variety that 100 years ago became the progenitor of Taiwan’s Penglai rices.

Zhuzihu and Nakamura rice

When we arrive at Zhuzihu on a December day, it is drizzling and the temperature is 5°C lower than down in the city. At this time Chen Yongru, head of the Seed Field Club, is carrying three small bags of sun-dried Nakamura rice to Hu­tian Experimental Elementary School, to use their equipment to mill the rice.

The antique winnower that they purchased online seems to have been through a lot. Chen Yongru deftly tips the rice grains into the feeding hopper and uses his right hand to turn the hand crank for the blower fan while with his left he shakes the feed quantity regulator up and down.

“Look, the ones coming out here are all ‘blanks.’” Chen points to rice husks flying out of the device and explains that empty husks and lightweight sundries are blown out by the fan’s draft. Meanwhile full grains of rice, which are heavier, fall down into an outlet.

The rice is passed repeatedly through the winnower to screen out impurities. Next, the remaining plump grains are put into a huller to remove the husks and bran, and then milled to produce polished rice. The husks and bran can be turned into organic fertilizer, while polished rice is eaten as food. “Freshly milled rice tastes best,” says Chen. “Don’t store it for too long, or it will lose its aroma.”

The next day, nearly 20 people, including members of the Seed Field Club and volunteers from the Eikichi Iso Historical Association, gather at the Miau-Ban Garden Restaurant to enjoy a meal accompanied by Nakamura rice. As they eat, they discuss the cultivation of calla lilies and paddy rice and exchange lighthearted anecdotes.

People in Taiwan today frequently eat Taikeng No. 9 rice, which has translucent grains and a pleasantly firm texture. We notice that Nakamura rice is off-white, with a brown line in the middle of the grain, and it has a very mild rice fragrance and a relatively harder texture.

Chen explains: “Back in the Japanese era, this rice was considered to have a very good mouthfeel. But today, for the club members, Nakamura rice is a variety with a meaningful story behind it—it’s not a question of whether or not it is better to eat.”

Chen Yongru, head of the Zhuzihu Ponlai Rice Seed Field Club, operates a rice milling machine. (photo by Mei Kuo)

When students from Hutian Elementary School see this rare old winnower in action, they all want to try their hands at operating it. (photo by Mei Kuo)

The story of Japonica rice

During the Ming and Qing dynasties, when people from China’s Fujian and Guangdong began to migrate to Taiwan, they introduced Indica rice varieties to the island. During the era of Japanese rule, Japanese couldn’t get used to eating Indica rice, which has less flavor and is less sticky than Japonica rice, so they set about breeding and improving Japonica rice for cultivation in Taiwan.

The Yangmingshan National Park Headquarters notes that in 1921 Iwao Suzuta, a specialist in the agriculture department of the colonial government’s research institute, and Kiichiro Hirazawa, a technician in the Taihoku Prefecture farmers’ association, were inspecting farming operations in the Datun Mountains and discovered that Zhuzihu, with its higher elevation, had a climate similar to that of Kyushu Island in Japan. Moreover, it was protected on its eastern, northern, and western sides by mountains, which could reduce hybridization of rice through natural pollination. Hence they established a Japonica rice seed nursery at Zhuzihu. However, while they successfully cultivated Japanese Nakamura rice at this elevation, attempts to do so in the plains met with failure.

Members of the Zhuzihu Ponlai Rice Seed Field Club joyfully gather together to try freshly harvested rice.

What the club members of Zhuzihu most care about isn’t the mouthfeel of their Nakamura rice, but the stories behind it.

Nakamura rice and Taichung No. 65

Hsieh Jaw-shu, professor emeritus in NTU’s Department of Agronomy, states that in 1923 Megumu Suenaga, then director of the Taichu Prefecture agricultural research station (today’s Taichung District Agricultural Research and Extension Station, DARES), with support from Eikichi Iso, a specialist at the government agricultural research station, proposed a new method of planting out seedlings and successfully grew Nakamura paddy rice at low elevations. Cultivation of this variety expanded southward into Central Taiwan.

In 1926 a new disease-resistant variety, Chiayi Late No. 2, was bred from Iyo Sengoku rice, and it replaced Nakamura rice throughout Taiwan. The same year, the colonial government chose the name “Horai rice” in Japanese (“Penglai” in Mandarin, often spelled “Ponlai”) as the name for improved varieties of Japonica rice developed in Taiwan. Indica rice was renamed “Zairai rice” (“native rice,” pronounced “Zailai” in Mandarin) to distinguish it from Penglai rice, as these Indica varieties were already widely consumed in Taiwan.

Academics have concluded that the most impactful moment in Taiwan rice history was the breeding of Taichung No. 65 rice by Megumu Suenaga. This variety was selected in 1929 from among breeding lines produced by crossing the Kameji and Shinriki varieties, which Suenaga began in 1924. Hsieh Jaw-shu says that Taichung No. 65 was high-­yielding, of superior quality, and resistant to rice blast. It was cultivated at the Zhuzihu seed nursery and later promoted across Taiwan, becoming the main variety of Penglai rice grown here in the early days of Japonica cultivation.

Hsing Yue-ie, distinguished research fellow at the Institute of Plant and Microbial Biology at the Academia Sinica, says that the most important thing was that Taichung No. 65 could be harvested twice a year. Moreover, it has been a parent plant for many crossbred varieties produced in Taiwan: “Over 85% of Taiwanese Penglai rice varieties are its descendants!”

Meanwhile the Nakamura variety, which is not resistant to rice blast, ultimately disappeared from Taiwan’s fields as new cultivars were developed. But today the Zhuzihu Ponlai Rice Seed Field Club has successfully resumed cultivation of Nakamura rice. Professor Pong Yun-ming of NTU’s Department of Agronomy says: “There is a touching story connected to this.” Thanks to the efforts of Hsieh Jaw-shu and others, in 2014 they received seeds from Japan’s National Institute of Genetics, and with technical support from the Taichung DARES, in 2015 this variety was successfully grown at NTU, while cultivation resumed in Zhuzihu in 2016.

The Penglai Rice Seed Field Office, now renamed the Zhuzihu Ponlai Rice Foundation Seed Field Story House, has been registered as a heritage site, and continues to tell the story of Japonica rices in Taiwan.

Tracing the trail of rice to Zhuzihu

Eikichi Iso worked on paddy rice breeding and research in Taiwan, and he founded the predecessor to NTU’s Department of Agronomy, in Taihoku Imperial University’s Faculty of Science and Agriculture. He had a workshop at the university, now known as the Iso House, for breeding work, and in 1928 the colonial government set up the Peng­lai Rice Seed Field Office (now the Zhuzihu Ponlai Rice Foundation Seed Field Story House). These two locations played key roles as bases for academic study and germplasm propagation of Peng­lai rice in the Japanese era, and today both are Taipei municipal heritage sites.

Eikichi Iso has been dubbed “the father of Penglai rice” by later generations, while Megumu Suenaga is known as “the mother of Penglai rice.”

In recent years the Taipei City Geotechnical Engineering Office (GEO) has rebuilt the banks of many irrigation channels and waterways around Zhuzihu. The Shuicheliao Trail, located in Zhuzihu’s Donghu area, has a branch that leads to the spot where in the Japanese era local gentry used pooled capital to build a rice mill. Although all that remains of it is a waterwheel and a wall, the GEO has put up a glass panel next to the surviving wall that depicts in detail the structure of early mills, awakening our memories and imaginations of life in rural communities in days gone by.

The Zhuzihu Ponlai Rice Foundation Seed Field Story House has many early agricultural tools on display.

Segments of the Taipei Grand Trail

The walking trails that the GEO has created alongside various waterways have become great locations for citizens to enjoy leisure time or get some exercise.

The Shuiweibalaka Trail, the Yangming Creek Creekside Trail, and the Dinghu Circular Trail are all part of the Taipei Grand Trail, which links together Taipei’s five major mountain chains. It offers hiking, tourism, and cultural experiences all in one go.

The Calla Lily Circular Trail, in Zhuzihu’s Xiahu area, follows a stream and winds past calla lily fields. This is the most popular trail with tourists who come to admire the lilies at flowering season, and the city government has thoughtfully laid out a section of trail that is accessible for wheelchair users and other people with disabilities.

A little egret strolls casually among the fields of calla lilies, enjoying the tranquility of its mountain home.

When summer comes to Zhuzihu, blooming hydrangeas take over the show.

A fascinating chapter of history

Zhuzihu has passed through various phases in its economic history. In the Qing Dynasty, the main crops grown there were tea, moso bamboo shoots, and citrus fruit. Under Japanese rule these were replaced by Japonica rice. In the early period after the ROC government relocated to Taiwan in 1949, temperate-zone vegetables and flowers were cultivated in the cool mountain environment here. In the 1980s, in response to growing demand for recreational activities, a shift toward leisure farms began that continues today. A survey by the national park headquarters revealed that farmers introduced Zhuzihu’s most famous cash crop, calla lilies, to the area as early as the 1960s.

“We hadn’t grown paddy rice here for 40 years,” says Chen Yongru. Zhuzihu is where Japonica rice was first cultivated in Taiwan, and Chen adds: “We feel we should bring back the glory of our predecessors and pass it along to the future, so growing Nakamura rice is very significant in terms of helping the next generation to remember the stories of this place.”

The next time you visit Zhuzihu, don’t limit yourself to admiring the calla lilies and hydrangeas and enjoying a meal of free-range chicken with wild vegetables. It is also well worth exploring the many local stories here.

Calla lilies have become synonymous with Zhuzihu.

The Taipei City Geotechnical Engineering Office has used eco-friendly construction methods to manage waterways and create scenic spots, making Zhuzihu an ideal place for hiking and recreation.