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Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past decade or so, you’ve
probably seen pictures of Japan’s square watermelons doing the rounds
online. I know I have, but what I never knew was that these
weird-looking fruit are basically inedible.
Perfectly sized and shaped fruits are big business in Japan, and it’s
not uncommon for the rarest and most coveted varieties to sell for
thousands of dollars a piece. Back in 2016, a supermarket owner made
international news headlines after paying $11,000 for a bunch of Ruby
Rose grapes, the world’s most expensive grape variety. But it’s not just
grapes, specialty fruit shops charge hundreds, even thousands of dollars
for fruits of all types, which may seem strange, but it is closely tied
to Japanese culture. Rare and expensive fruits are traditionally offered
as gifts to clients, business partners or relatives, and people will
gladly spend a small fortune on a single fruit just to show their
respect for someone. But while most of these expensive fruits can be
savored by the recipient, there is one that has a purely decorative
purpose – square watermelons.
Developed about 50 years ago by farmers in Takamatsu, Japan’s Kagawa
Prefecture, as a way to raise their community’s profile among the
country’s farmers, square watermelons have become both an iconic symbol
of Japan and a very valuable commodity. It’s not uncommon for these
unusually shaped watermelons to be sold for around $100 apiece, much
more than what a regular watermelon of the same variety would fetch.
Rather peculiar, especially considering that square watermelons aren’t
even edible, let alone tasty.
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“This fruit is meant to be a feast for your eyes, but they don’t taste
very good,” luxury fruit shop manager Mototaka Nishimura said. “They
should be displayed as ornaments, maybe mixed with flowers.”
Square watermelons are grown in special acrylic boxes, and in order for
them to attain and maintain the desired shape for the longest possible
time, they are not allowed to mature, so they are not what you would
call tasty. Still, if you plan on buying one such fruit, you should know
that they can last up to a year.
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While in most of the western world the taste of fruits is definitely the
main quality people look for, in Japan, there are those for whom
geometrical shape is infinitely more important. So much so that taste is
forfeited completely.
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