The same cultivar is also grown in Fukuyama in Kirishima along Kagoshima Bay, and this is simply called komikan (小みかん, 小蜜柑).

Because the soil is rich in volcanic ash, Sakurajima is not suitable for rice cultivation, so the 'komikan' is an important commercial crop.

The fruits ripen at the beginning of December and it turns into a flattened spherical shape that weighs anything from 20 to 50 grams (0.71 to 1.76 oz).

The third theory is that he brought back "Takada mikan" oranges from Yatsushiro in Higo Province (present-day Kumamoto).

The fruit has become a specialty of Satsuma because Naotomo Yamaguchi, Tokugawa Ieyasu's retainer, admired its great flavour.