The oldest and presumably first PVNA persimmon Zenjimaru.
This is the original clone.
It’s close to Tokyo and not hard to find.
It’s located in Tokyo suburban Ozenji temple.
Fuyu and jiro original cloe are much harder to visit.
Ride train to kakio stations then use bus line kaki1 or kaki4 to Ozenji east 3 （
Bus station
Walk in this trail and u can arrived at ozenji temple main altar. Where the persimmon is.
Beautiful tree! I’m growing it and it fruited for me last year for the first time.
I was wondering what is written on the stone marker and got Google lens to translate it for me… this was the image it came up with in case anybody else was wondering the same thing.
Are there any records about the estimated age of each (intoduced before XIX c.) japanese persimmon cultivar ?
There is no such things as introduced persimmons in japan.
Much like there is no introduced Pokémon.
The damm thing is forged in japan！
To be more precise persimmon is introduced to Japanese in prehistoric age from china.
The oddest Japanese history(700ac)records already has a lot persimmons in it so it is atlest 700ac.
Japanese historian think it comes from china in 1000bc no idea why they think it
Most cultivars has official records on Japanese governments.
Other legacy cultivar has no official records in morden sense.
But since Japan really like there persimmons.
There is a lot of monument or historical records saying some famous guy like particular cultivars.
We can use these to estimate a preety good time stamp of origin.
For Zenjimaru’s case.
It is said that in 1214 a monk in Ozenji
temple accidentally found out the persimmon growing in temple yard is sweet and can be eaten unprocessed.
I can’t find primary source though.
Maybe i will revise after i learned Japanese and read Japanese temple history.
But this is such a huge discovery that a new orchard towns is build next to temple and tones of Zenjimaru is grown therefore.
Giving the town name Kakio.
More over. In pre middle age japan there is no word for fresh persimmon. Because all persimmon are PCA.
But after certain time there’s two different word for processed persimmons and fresh persimmon.
We can safety assume that is because Zenjimaru make eating persimmon fresh possible.
