The Native Americans are granted thousands of years to cultivate peppers from the wild. But Asia and Korea supposedly cultivated their varieties in less than half a century when Korea theoretically obtained gochu pepper from Japan via the Portuguese.
- “It took many millennia of patience and hard work to develop the innumerable pod types of chile. By the time Columbus arrived, the Aztecs had already developed several pod types, including jalapeños, pasilla, ancho, de arbol, and mirasol.”
A rudimentary Columbus hypothesis (hypothesis before 1971 when the Columbian Exhange was published) was contemplated before the Columbus Exchange Theory was accepted. The Columbus hypothesis contemplated pre-dating Columbian Exchange did not make sense for the case of Asia. The case of Asia was an anomaly under the considered hypothesis.
- “(Newcomb, 1963) Note the wide usage of Capsicum in Korea; also old parts of East Asia such as West China, which is remote and inaccessible…
Yet, chilies are not used in coastal China, which was more accessible to the New World… This is a curious pattern if one assumes Iberian introduction to the Far East.”
But, what about the Portuguese showing up shipwrecked in Japan in 1542? Oddly, the Japanese researchers have two theories about how peppers were introduced to Japan.
Japanese readily admit two options, that peppers either came from Portugal or possibly even from Korea.
Japanese researchers looking into shishito twisty pepper pungency genetic switch repeat an academic theory that Japan got peppers from Korea. During Imjinwaeran invasion, Japan pilfered gochu from Korea, according the Japanese historical documents and current Japanese theory.
Alternatively, Lusitanians brought peppers all the way to Japan.
- Wikipedia: “Most Portuguese consider the Lusitanians as their ancestors.”
Why use a different label “Lusitanians” instead of “Portuguese”? Did pepper arrive in Japan before Portugual existed by ancestral Lusitanians before Columbus was even born?
Alternatively, Meiji Japan seized many agricultural plant species from Korea and now claim them as native to Japan. The rule is that to be considered a landrace species, the domesticated plant has to settle in one localized region for a hundred years. Therefore, even stolen Jeju flowering cherry trees are now on a technicality a landrace claimed by Japan (although wild cherry trees are still yet to be found on the island nation compared to Jeju).
However, Japanese used Portuguese peppers for foot warming chemical agent, so it was never cultivated for consumption. It seems the Portuguese sailors and slave crews grew small malagueta bird peppers in small pots onboard to insert chili pods into their socks during windy ocean voyages. The Japanese contact with the Portuguese exposed them to the practice, so tabe socks were stuffed with whole fresh pods or crushed into dried foot powder warming aid. The Japanese kept the nanbancho “southern barbarian pepper” as a colorful ornamental just as the Europeans did.
• “The first theory suggests that peppers were introduced to Japan in the 16th century from the Korean peninsula.”
Non-pungency in a Japanese Chili Pepper Landrace (Capsicum annuum) is Caused by a Novel Loss-of-function Pun1 Allele
The Horticulture Journal
2017
https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/ho … l/-char/en
There is one possibility that the mutation resulting in pun14 occurred in Japan, and two possible theories have been proposed for the introduction of peppers to Japan.
The first theory suggests that peppers were introduced to Japan in the 16th century from the Korean peninsula.
The second theory suggests that peppers were introduced to Japan by Lusitanians.
In both theories, pungent forms were introduced to Japan.
By the time sweet peppers were introduced from western countries to Japan in the 19th century, several low-pungent landraces had been developed domestically.
So if even Japanese do not assert the Portuguese exclusively are the sole source of chili pepper and even admit the likelihood of getting gochu from Korea, why should Korea blindly accept that chili pepper that became gochu came from Japan?
GochuTruth 