A Japanese study of a mikan

A Japanese polychrome ivory study of a mikan (tangerine), called also Satsuma, naturalistically carved to represent a half-peeled tangerine with the orange-stained dimpled and veined skin partially removed to reveal the white flesh underneath.

The tangerine is a fruit originally from China, but introduced in the West from Japan where it is called mikan or Satsuma. The name Satsuma, comes from the province of Satsuma in Japan, the place where the fruit were exported for the first time in the USA in the lower Gulf Coast states. The towns of Satsuma, Alabama; Satsuma, Florida; Satsuma, Texas; and Satsuma, Louisiana were named after this fruit. By 1920 Jackson County in the Florida Panhandle had billed itself as the “Satsuma Capital of the World.” Today the mikan are cultivated in Italy and in other county of the world.

Taisho 1920 – 1930

Sizes: 4 x 5,5 x 6 cm.

Condition report: Good condition