The Meaning of the Donut-Shaped Pruning in Okinawan Acerola Fields

Walk into an acerola orchard in Motobu Town and you’ll notice the trees take a strange shape. As if the center has been carved out — like a donut. This is not aesthetics. It is a design for flavor.

So that the sunlight reaches every single fruit evenly, growers prune carefully, every day. Acerola that catches every drop of Okinawa’s strong sunlight turns a vivid red, and the sweetness and tartness condense inside. No pesticides. No coloring. That red is made of nothing but the sun and the work of human hands.

The cultivation method itself was something Yasufumi Namizato discovered through research he began in graduate school. The shape of every tree in the orchard still carries traces of his work.

Why Okinawan Acerola Can Be Harvested Five Times a Year

Acerola can be harvested five times a year. For a farmer, this is not just a matter of yield.

In a place like Okinawa, where typhoons are frequent, a crop that depends on a single harvest a year carries enormous risk. With acerola, even if one harvest is destroyed by a typhoon, the next one is already on its way. One of the reasons Yasufumi saw possibility in this fruit lies right here.

Because the farmers can grow it without fear, they grow it with care. Because they grow it with care, the fruit is excellent. That chain is what supports the world of Okinawan acerola today.

1999 — The Day “Okinawan Acerola Day” Was Born

In 1999, the Motobu Town office and chamber of commerce, among others, designated May 12 as “Acerola Day,” timed to the start of the first harvest of the year.

From that same year, Tetsuko has continued to donate acerola jelly, free of charge, to the school lunches of every elementary and junior high school in Motobu Town. Today, recognition among Motobu children is 100%. For children born in Motobu, acerola is now a hometown flavor they have known since before they could form memories.

And in 2015, “Acerola Frozen” by Acerola Fresh won first place in the nationwide “Local Snack Ranking of Japan” — the first grand prize for Okinawa Prefecture. The moment the seeds the couple had planted spread across the entire country.

Come to Senaga Island and Try Okinawan Acerola

At SEE THE SEA, we serve menu items made with Okinawan-grown acerola.

The glass you drink on a terrace overlooking the Kerama Islands contains the trees pruned in the shape of a donut, the Okinawan sun, and sixty years of a couple who refused to give up. You don’t need to know the nutrition. You don’t need to know the history. If you take one sip and feel “this is good,” that is enough.

But — if, after you have finished, you happen to remember this article — the meaning of that tartness might change, just a little.

Reflecting on the Acerola Series

▶ [A Couple’s Challenge] Turned Away at Door After Door, They Never Gave Up. — The Story of How Two People Rooted Acerola in Motobu Town.

▶ [Untold History] When Acerola Arrived in Okinawa in 1958 — Why It Was Forgotten for More Than 20 Years.

▶ [Did You Know?] Acerola Only Grows Outdoors in Okinawa. — The Story of a Tiny Red Fruit with Astonishing Nutrition.

A Couple Who Knocked on More Than 200 Farmers’ Doors

The first thing Yasufumi did was try to convince local farmers. Together with his wife Tetsuko, he walked from door to door across Motobu Town, visiting more than 200 farms.

“This will become the industry that supports the future of Motobu,” he would say. But the responses he received were cold. “What scholars say is just theory on paper.” “If we fail with a crop no one has ever grown, who will take responsibility?” There were many doors that didn’t open at all.

Even so, the couple refused to stop walking. Yasufumi knew there were many farmers exhausted by the heavy labor of sugarcane and worried about who would take over their land. Acerola, he believed, was a crop the elderly could manage. That conviction kept him moving.

In the end, eight farms agreed. Out of more than 200 visits, eight. We would like to never forget the weight of that number.

Tetsuko’s Solution to the Biggest Challenge in Acerola Processing

In 1989, the eight farms came together to form the “Tropical Fruit Research Association.” But here, another wall stood in their way.

Even if you could harvest acerola, it meant nothing if you couldn’t sell it. The fruit spoils within three days. Distributing it raw was impossible. How could the farmers’ harvest be turned into income? The person who found the answer was Tetsuko, Yasufumi’s wife.

She developed an “acerola puree” that could be processed the moment the fruit was picked, and opened a sales route to restaurants. Then she built a system where “every fruit the farmers grow will be bought.” By taking production, processing, and sales into their own hands, acerola finally became viable as an industry.

Yasufumi sowed the seeds with his power to believe in the future. Tetsuko let them take root with her power to move the present. The roles of the two complemented each other beautifully.

The Passion Passes to the Next Generation

Yasufumi Namizato passed away in 2009 at the age of fifty — before acerola had become known across Japan.

The will to continue his work was inherited by his second son, Kojiro Namizato. In 2019, at the age of 31, Kojiro became president of the company. He continues to expand the integrated six-sector system his parents built, while working to establish “Acerola Fresh” as a brand.

“I want this company to become something the region cannot do without. I want it to be a place where the local children, when they grow up, will want to come back and work here.” In Kojiro’s words, you can feel the same heat as when his father walked between 200 farms.

A single young man’s conviction, joined with his wife’s power to act, became an industry. And that industry is still growing — now in the hands of the next generation. The small red fruit of acerola contains a story like this.

1958 — Acerola Arrived in Okinawa as One of Six Tropical Fruits

To help rebuild post-war Okinawa, Professor Henry Nakasone of the University of Hawaii brought in seedlings of six different tropical fruit trees. The year was 1958. Mangoes and papayas — fruits now firmly established as Okinawan specialties — were introduced during the same effort.

Acerola was one of those six.

But while the other five fruits gradually adapted to Okinawan soil, acerola alone refused to take root. The climate and soil at the time did not suit it well, no one had the know-how to cultivate it, and even when fruits finally appeared, they would spoil within about three days. A crop that could not be turned into cash gave farmers no reason to plant it.

And so acerola was left as a small handful of seedlings at the Okinawa Prefectural Agricultural Experiment Station, forgotten by almost everyone for over twenty years.

The Paradox of Why Okinawan Acerola Was Forgotten for Two Decades

The biggest reason acerola failed to spread was, ironically, the very delicacy of the fruit itself.

To protect its vitamin C, acerola has a thin, soft skin — and precisely because of that, it spoils easily. It cannot survive shipping. It cannot be stored. To make it work as agriculture, you would need a system to process it the moment it was harvested. But at the time, no one was thinking about building that system.

Looked at another way: acerola was a fruit so rich in nutrition that it stood, for years, in front of the wall called distribution.

The Turning Point Came from a Single University Student

In the late 1970s, a student at the University of the Ryukyus encountered acerola in an agricultural class. His name was Yasufumi Namizato — the man who would later found Acerola Fresh.

What he learned in class was this: acerola contains more vitamin C than any other fruit on earth. And at that very moment, a vitamin C boom was sweeping across America. “It will reach Japan within ten years,” he was convinced. He spent the next six years, all the way through graduate school, immersed in acerola research.

He sought out the single remaining acerola tree at the Okinawa Prefectural Agricultural Experiment Station and began to study how it could be grown. The passion that began there would eventually transform Motobu Town into the only acerola-producing region in Japan.

That story is for the next article.

“Acerola” is not “Acerola” — How Okinawa Pronounces It

Let us start with the name.

In Japan, the fruit is most commonly written and pronounced acerola — a-se-ro-ra (アセロラ), four short syllables. But the proper botanical name is Acerola (Malpighia emarginata), and in Central and South America — its place of origin — people still pronounce it with a longer middle vowel: a-se-rō-ra (アセローラ). Okinawan growers preserve this original pronunciation, and we choose to spell it the same way — as a small mark of respect for the fruit and for the people who grow it.

It is a small detail, but we believe details like this carry the background of a thing.

The Real Story Behind Acerola’s Vitamin C

When you say acerola, most people think of vitamin C. That is not wrong — but few people know just how much.

According to Japan’s Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Standard Tables of Food Composition, the sour variety of acerola contains about 1,700 mg of vitamin C per 100 g. That is roughly 17 times more than a whole lemon, and about 34 times more than lemon juice. Compared to an orange, it’s about 28 times more. The numbers are almost hard to believe.

The fruit also contains anthocyanins — polyphenols that work alongside vitamin C to produce a strong antioxidant effect. That combination is the reason it is often called a “superfruit.”

Why Fresh Okinawan Acerola Never Reaches the Mainland

Despite all that nutrition, fresh acerola is almost never seen on supermarket shelves outside Okinawa.

The reason is simple. The skin is thin, the fruit spoils within about three days of harvest, and even refrigeration cannot extend that window. It does not survive shipping. So acerola travels the country as juice, puree, or jelly — processed forms that can outlast the journey.

Put the other way around: tasting fresh acerola is something you can only do in Okinawa, where it grows.

The Fact That Acerola Only Grows in Open Fields in Okinawa

Open-field acerola cultivation in Japan happens almost entirely in Okinawa Prefecture. The subtropical climate, the strong sunlight, the distinctive soil of Motobu Town — these conditions converge nowhere else in the country. Okinawa is considered the northern limit where acerola can be grown outdoors, in nature.

When a traveler drinks an acerola juice or smoothie in Okinawa, it is a glass that could only have been made here — climate, soil, and the hands of the people who grew it, all folded into that one red color.

Why acerola took root in Okinawa in the first place is a story for the next article.

■ A Question We’d Been Thinking About Since Day One

Even before opening SEE THE SEA on Senaga Island, we had already decided to feature Kibimaru Pork on our menu. But deciding “what dish to make with it” was far from simple.

The defining characteristic of this pork is its fat melting point of 30 degrees — a sensation of melting in your mouth. It’s rich in free amino acids, has high moisture retention, and its umami is sealed deep within. In other words, if you let that escape during cooking, there’s little point in using Kibimaru Pork at all.

Shabu-shabu would let the umami dissolve into the broth. High-heat grilling would drive moisture from the surface. No cooking method seemed to fully honor what this pork had to offer. We spent months thinking, testing, and thinking again.

■ The Answer Was Roast Pork

The answer was hiding in simplicity. Roast pork.

Slow sous-vide cooking at low temperature. The meat is sealed in a vacuum bag with nowhere for its goodness to escape, then gently heated over time. We chose this method more by instinct than by theory. We simply felt that this pork deserved time.

When you think about it, Fukumaru Farm spent over six years developing Kibimaru Pork. There was something that felt wrong about transforming all that work in an instant with high heat.

By cooking slowly at low temperature, the umami and moisture stay locked inside the meat. That sensation of flavor gently spreading when it reaches your mouth — that’s proof that what the ingredient originally held is being delivered intact. We believe the cooking method, too, is a form of respect for the ingredient. The same principle applies to our Pork Franks — “sealing in the umami” and “easy to enjoy” go hand in hand.

■ Beyond “Delicious” — What We Want to Deliver

The idea that “if it tastes good, that’s enough” is perfectly valid. Even without knowing the details, if a single bite makes you happy, that’s the essence of food.

But we want to reach one step further.

We want the roast pork you eat while gazing at the Senaga Island sea to become a lasting travel memory. We want you to wonder, “What was that?” — and when you search, to find this series. To read it and understand the reason behind that one bite. And every time you return to Okinawa, to want to taste it again.

A single dish can take you that far. That is our small yet enormous wish.

■ We’re Waiting for You on Senaga Island

SEE THE SEA is located at Umikaji Terrace on Senaga Island, just a 15-minute drive from Naha Airport.

On our terrace overlooking the Kerama Islands, we have Kibimaru Pork roast pork waiting for you. Whether you stop by at the start of your Okinawa trip or as a final destination before heading home. When you have a little time before your flight, or when the thought simply crosses your mind.

If this series has sparked your curiosity, please come and try a bite. Six hundred years of history, the number 30, the landscapes of Okinawa — we believe it’s all there in that single bite.

Before logic, your body knows. Feel it for yourself, with the sea breeze of Senaga Island.

— Also Read —

Previous: Why We Chose Kibimaru Pork
Back to Part 1: Why Okinawa’s Pork Is So Special

▶ [The Reason] Why SEE THE SEA Chose Kibimaru Pork — An Honest Story.

▶ [Okinawa’s Bounty] Sugarcane Molasses, Purple Sweet Potato, Fuchiba — Kibimaru Pigs Eat This Island Itself.

▶ [Surprising Fact] Fat That Melts at 30°C — The Science Behind the Melt-in-Your-Mouth Sensation.

▶ [Compare & Discover] Agu vs. Kibimaru Pork — A Deeper Look at Okinawa’s Pork.

▶ [Did You Know?] Why Okinawa’s Pork Is So Special — 600 Years of Food Culture, and What Lies Beyond.

▶ The Birth of Our Handmade Beniimo Tacos

▶ The Birth of Our “Special Taco Rice” — For the Family Who Had Given Up on Eating Out

▶ What We Truly Believe In: The Philosophy of Fashion and Food — A Professional’s Truth After 20 Years

▶ Why Is It Called a “Miracle”? Our Passion That Won Over the Farmer, and the True Story Behind the Chura Banana Smoothie

■ What We Felt First Wasn’t Logic

When we first encountered Kibimaru Pork, it wasn’t our minds that moved — it was our bodies.

One bite, and we knew something was different. Tender, sweet, melting — trying to put it into words makes it sound cliche, but the sensation was unmistakable. The reasons came later: the fat melting point of 30 degrees, the abundance of free amino acids, the high oleic acid content. But those numbers aren’t why we chose it.

One bite, and our bodies said “this is good.” That’s all it was.

For me, this is nothing unusual. Whether choosing fabrics in the apparel industry or selecting ingredients for our menu, it’s always been the same approach. I don’t research why something is good and then choose it. I feel that it’s good, and then find out why. I’ve never reversed that order.

■ What 20 Years of Craftsmanship Taught Me

I spent over 20 years in the apparel industry, involved in the craft of making clothes. Functionality, lightweight design, durability — after creating countless garments packed with “added value,” I arrived at one truth.

“No matter how excellent something is, if it doesn’t move you when you try it on, it won’t be chosen.”

No matter how impressive the specs, no matter how advanced the technology, if you feel nothing the moment you slip it on, that garment stays on the rack. Consumers are honest. They reach for what moves them in the moment — not what makes sense on paper.

I believe food works exactly the same way. No matter how rare, no matter how scientifically superior — if that first bite moves nothing in you, it’s meaningless. The fact that it’s gluten-free, Okinawa-grown, HACCP-certified — all of that was confirmed after we made our choice. The order was never reversed.

Feel first, understand later. That’s the order in which we chose Kibimaru Pork.

■ Good Ingredients Deserve to Have Their Story Told

At the same time, we believe that simply saying “it’s delicious” only fulfills half of our responsibility.

Why is it delicious? What’s the backstory? Who made it, and how much time did they invest? Knowing that story changes the weight of every bite. It creates a sense of understanding that settles in after you eat.

That’s why we wrote this series. The history of Kibimaru Pork, its bloodline, its feed, the scientific evidence — we laid it all out not because we want you to choose with logic. We wanted to create a place where, after eating, you could think: “Now I understand why it tasted that way.”

Emotion is born in an instant. But what makes that emotion richer is knowledge and story.

— Also Read —

Previous: The Feed — Okinawa’s Bounty
Next: The Answer Was Roast Pork (Final Chapter)

▶ [Okinawa’s Bounty] Sugarcane Molasses, Purple Sweet Potato, Fuchiba — Kibimaru Pigs Eat This Island Itself.

▶ [Surprising Fact] Fat That Melts at 30°C — The Science Behind the Melt-in-Your-Mouth Sensation.

▶ [Compare & Discover] Agu vs. Kibimaru Pork — A Deeper Look at Okinawa’s Pork.

▶ [Did You Know?] Why Okinawa’s Pork Is So Special — 600 Years of Food Culture, and What Lies Beyond.

▶ The Birth of Our Handmade Beniimo Tacos

▶ The Birth of Our “Special Taco Rice” — For the Family Who Had Given Up on Eating Out

▶ What We Truly Believe In: The Philosophy of Fashion and Food — A Professional’s Truth After 20 Years

▶ Why Is It Called a “Miracle”? Our Passion That Won Over the Farmer, and the True Story Behind the Chura Banana Smoothie

■ あわせて読みたい

▶ [Final Chapter] The Answer Was Roast Pork — Simply Protecting What’s Good.

■ What They Eat Becomes the Meat

Three factors determine the taste of pork: bloodline, environment, and feed. Among these, feed directly shapes the flavor and quality of the fat.

Standard pig feed is a compound mix based on corn. Designed for efficient growth, it produces consistent quality — but at the cost of individuality. No matter where the pigs are raised, the meat ends up tasting much the same.

Fukumaru Farm chose the opposite approach.

Create a flavor unique to Okinawa, using ingredients found only in Okinawa. After more than six years of trial and error, they arrived at a proprietary feed blend made from sugarcane molasses, purple sweet potato (beniimo), and two medicinal herbs — fuchiba (mugwort) and chomeiso (long-life grass).

■ What These Three Ingredients Do to the Meat

Sugarcane molasses gives the fat a mellow sweetness and depth. Unrefined molasses is rich in minerals and organic acids, producing not just sweetness but a complex, layered flavor. The elegant sweetness of Kibimaru’s fat comes from here.

Purple sweet potato (beniimo) has a softening effect on the meat. The compounds in this vivid purple tuber are also said to enhance the whiteness of the fat, contributing to the meat’s visual beauty.

Fuchiba and chomeiso are plants long used as medicinal herbs in Okinawa. They suppress the gamey odor typical of pork and, through their antibacterial and antioxidant properties, help keep the pigs healthy. This is one reason why Kibimaru Pork has so little odor and produces almost no scum when cooked.

■ The Landscape Becomes the Flavor

Those sugarcane fields you saw on your drive. The beniimo you picked up at the Naha market. The fuchiba growing wild in Okinawa’s fields.

All of it passes through the pig and becomes the taste of the meat.

“You are what you eat” doesn’t apply only to humans. What Kibimaru pigs eat isn’t something manufactured in a factory — it’s ingredients born from this island’s soil. Perhaps that’s why, when you take a bite, something in the flavor resonates with your memories of traveling through Okinawa.

A single dish eaten at a tourist destination, connecting with the landscape and staying in your heart. That’s exactly the kind of food experience SEE THE SEA wants to deliver — and one of the reasons we chose Kibimaru Pork.

— Also Read —

Previous: Fat That Melts at 30°C
Next: Why We Chose Kibimaru Pork

▶ [Surprising Fact] Fat That Melts at 30°C — The Science Behind the Melt-in-Your-Mouth Sensation.

▶ [Compare & Discover] Agu vs. Kibimaru Pork — A Deeper Look at Okinawa’s Pork.

▶ [Did You Know?] Why Okinawa’s Pork Is So Special — 600 Years of Food Culture, and What Lies Beyond.

▶ The Birth of Our Handmade Beniimo Tacos

▶ The Birth of Our “Special Taco Rice” — For the Family Who Had Given Up on Eating Out

▶ What We Truly Believe In: The Philosophy of Fashion and Food — A Professional’s Truth After 20 Years

▶ Why Is It Called a “Miracle”? Our Passion That Won Over the Farmer, and the True Story Behind the Chura Banana Smoothie

■ あわせて読みたい

▶ [The Reason] Why SEE THE SEA Chose Kibimaru Pork — An Honest Story.

▶ [Final Chapter] The Answer Was Roast Pork — Simply Protecting What’s Good.

■ The Fat Melting Point — A Little-Known Fact

Pork fat has a specific temperature at which it melts. This is called the “fat melting point.”

The fat melting point of typical pork is 37 to 38 degrees Celsius — roughly the same as body temperature. This means the fat doesn’t begin to melt until it’s been in your mouth for a while. That delay is often perceived as “heaviness” or “greasiness.”

The fat melting point of Kibimaru Pork is approximately 30 degrees Celsius.

What does that mean? The moment it enters your mouth, before it even reaches body temperature, the fat is already melting. That “melt-in-your-mouth” sensation isn’t a metaphor — it’s literally what’s happening.

■ Stays Tender Even When Cold

This number tells us something else, too.

A low fat melting point means the fat resists solidifying at lower temperatures. The meat stays tender even after it cools down. That’s why Kibimaru Pork tastes just as good in a bento box or as takeout — right through to the last bite.

This stands in stark contrast to regular pork, where the fat turns white and hardens as it cools, changing the texture entirely.

■ Why Does It Melt at 30 Degrees?

A low fat melting point isn’t determined by bloodline alone. What Fukumaru Farm arrived at after more than six years of research was a specific combination of genetics and feed.

Sugarcane molasses, purple sweet potato (beniimo), and Okinawan medicinal herbs such as fuchiba (mugwort) and chomeiso (long-life grass). Kibimaru pigs are raised on a proprietary blend of these ingredients. Joint analysis with the University of the Ryukyus has confirmed that Kibimaru Pork contains higher levels of umami-producing free amino acids and oleic acid compared to regular pork.

Oleic acid — the same unsaturated fatty acid abundant in olive oil — has the effect of lowering the fat melting point. In other words, that “melting” sensation in Kibimaru Pork is born from the blessings of Okinawa’s land, transformed through what the pigs eat.

■ Once You Know the Science, Every Bite Changes

Honestly, you don’t need to know any of this before you eat. What you feel in that first moment is everything.

But if you’ve ever wondered, “What was that sensation?” — here’s your answer. That tenderness isn’t accidental. It’s the result of over six years of trial and error, Okinawan ingredients, and scientific inevitability — all converging in a single bite.

Your body recognizes what’s good before your mind does. And behind that instinct, there’s solid science. That’s one of the reasons we chose Kibimaru Pork.

— Also Read —

Previous: Agu vs. Kibimaru Pork
Next: Sugarcane, Beniimo, Fuchiba — The Feed

▶ [Compare & Discover] Agu vs. Kibimaru Pork — A Deeper Look at Okinawa’s Pork.

▶ [Did You Know?] Why Okinawa’s Pork Is So Special — 600 Years of Food Culture, and What Lies Beyond.

▶ The Birth of Our Handmade Beniimo Tacos

▶ The Birth of Our “Special Taco Rice” — For the Family Who Had Given Up on Eating Out

▶ What We Truly Believe In: The Philosophy of Fashion and Food — A Professional’s Truth After 20 Years

▶ Why Is It Called a “Miracle”? Our Passion That Won Over the Farmer, and the True Story Behind the Chura Banana Smoothie

■ あわせて読みたい

▶ [Okinawa’s Bounty] Sugarcane Molasses, Purple Sweet Potato, Fuchiba — Kibimaru Pigs Eat This Island Itself.

▶ [The Reason] Why SEE THE SEA Chose Kibimaru Pork — An Honest Story.

▶ [Final Chapter] The Answer Was Roast Pork — Simply Protecting What’s Good.

■ What Is Agu?

Agu is a native black pig breed that came to Okinawa from China roughly 600 years ago. Small, fatty, and slow to mature — it’s not an efficient breed to raise. But its meat has a remarkably deep flavor.

Agu contains about three times the glutamic acid (umami compound) of regular pork, while its cholesterol level is only one-quarter. Despite its generous fat, it feels light, with a natural sweetness and almost no gamey odor — a taste shaped by centuries of adaptation to Okinawa’s climate.

However, the story changes depending on whether the Agu is purebred or crossbred.

The hiragana “agu” (あぐー) you commonly see in supermarkets and restaurants is a registered trademark of JA Okinawa, referring to a crossbreed between purebred Agu boars and Western sows. The katakana “Agu” (アグー) — the purebred native breed — numbers only about 1,000 head across the entire prefecture. A truly rare pig, with prices to match.

■ Why Is Kibimaru Pork a White Pig?

Kibimaru Pork carries no Agu bloodline. It’s a white pig — an LWD three-way cross of Landrace, Large White, and Duroc breeds.

“Why not Agu?” — it’s a fair question.

In Okinawa, pork means Agu. There’s real cultural weight behind that. But what Fukumaru Farm spent over six years pursuing wasn’t the revival of a native breed. It was “the highest achievement of white pig culture that took root in postwar Okinawa.”

Even within Okinawan pork, the destinations are different. That is the most fundamental difference between Agu and Kibimaru.

■ So How Does the Meat Differ?

Agu meat is rich, with sweet fat and deep umami. It has less lean meat and an overall hearty character. You might call it “the taste at the origin of Okinawa’s food culture.”

Kibimaru Pork features fine marbling reminiscent of wagyu beef, with a tenderness that requires roughly half the chewing force of regular pork. It’s also rich in free amino acids and oleic acid — but to keep things simple: “The first bite is different.”

There’s one number that explains this most simply.

It’s the temperature at which the fat melts — the fat melting point. We’ll tell you about that in the next article.

— Also Read —

Previous: Why Okinawa’s Pork Is So Special
Next: Fat That Melts at 30°C

▶ [Did You Know?] Why Okinawa’s Pork Is So Special — 600 Years of Food Culture, and What Lies Beyond.

▶ The Birth of Our Handmade Beniimo Tacos

▶ The Birth of Our “Special Taco Rice” — For the Family Who Had Given Up on Eating Out

▶ What We Truly Believe In: The Philosophy of Fashion and Food — A Professional’s Truth After 20 Years

▶ Why Is It Called a “Miracle”? Our Passion That Won Over the Farmer, and the True Story Behind the Chura Banana Smoothie

■ あわせて読みたい

▶ [Surprising Fact] Fat That Melts at 30°C — The Science Behind the Melt-in-Your-Mouth Sensation.

▶ [Okinawa’s Bounty] Sugarcane Molasses, Purple Sweet Potato, Fuchiba — Kibimaru Pigs Eat This Island Itself.

▶ [The Reason] Why SEE THE SEA Chose Kibimaru Pork — An Honest Story.

▶ [Final Chapter] The Answer Was Roast Pork — Simply Protecting What’s Good.

■ “We Eat Everything but the Squeal”

There’s an old saying in Okinawa:
“We eat everything but the squeal.”

Other regions in Japan eat pork, too. But Okinawa’s relationship with it feels fundamentally different. Pork isn’t just a source of protein here — it’s the very core of daily life. Rafute, soki, tebichi, mimiga, nakami-jiru — nearly every iconic Okinawan dish is made from some part of the pig.

That’s no coincidence.

■ Pigs Arrived on This Island About 600 Years Ago

Roughly 600 years ago, pigs were brought to Okinawa from China during the era of the Ryukyu Kingdom. In a land where eating beef and horse meat was forbidden, pork naturally became the center of the food culture.

The native breed descended from those original pigs is known as Agu. Small in stature, rich in fat, and slow to grow — Agu pigs are far from efficient to raise. Yet their meat has a distinctive sweetness and depth of flavor. Over centuries, they adapted to the island’s climate and became inseparable from the people’s way of life.

But after the war, that balance was disrupted.

■ After the War, White Pigs Came from Hawaii

To help feed a devastated Okinawa, the Okinawan community in Hawaii sent white pigs to the island. These Western breeds grew quickly and produced large litters. Farmers rapidly adopted them, and before long, Agu pigs all but disappeared from Okinawa.

It wasn’t until the 1980s that Agu pigs were brought back from the brink of extinction. Starting with just 18 remaining animals, over a decade of careful crossbreeding restored the population.

Meanwhile, white pig culture also took root in Okinawa. Today, both Agu-based and white pig-based brand porks coexist on the island — Agu, Agu crossbreeds, Beni Buta, Pineapple Pork Agu, and many more. Each carries a farm’s unique philosophy and the blessings of Okinawa’s land.

■ Why We Chose Kibimaru Pork

At SEE THE SEA, we serve Kibimaru Pork — a white pig-based brand pork. We deliberately chose a white pig rather than Agu, and there’s a reason for that.

“Before logic, our bodies know what’s good.”

That has always been our standard for choosing. No matter how storied or rare something may be, if that first bite doesn’t move you, it doesn’t matter. And if you feel something the moment it touches your tongue — that’s your answer.

When I first tasted Kibimaru Pork, I felt exactly that. Why did it feel that way? That’s a story for the next article.

— Also Read —

Next: Agu vs. Kibimaru Pork — A Deeper Look

▶ The Birth of Our Handmade Beniimo Tacos

▶ The Birth of Our “Special Taco Rice” — For the Family Who Had Given Up on Eating Out

▶ What We Truly Believe In: The Philosophy of Fashion and Food — A Professional’s Truth After 20 Years

▶ Why Is It Called a “Miracle”? Our Passion That Won Over the Farmer, and the True Story Behind the Chura Banana Smoothie

■ あわせて読みたい

▶ [Compare & Discover] Agu vs. Kibimaru Pork — A Deeper Look at Okinawa’s Pork.

▶ [Surprising Fact] Fat That Melts at 30°C — The Science Behind the Melt-in-Your-Mouth Sensation.

▶ [Okinawa’s Bounty] Sugarcane Molasses, Purple Sweet Potato, Fuchiba — Kibimaru Pigs Eat This Island Itself.

▶ [The Reason] Why SEE THE SEA Chose Kibimaru Pork — An Honest Story.

▶ [Final Chapter] The Answer Was Roast Pork — Simply Protecting What’s Good.