History And Origins
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Where did it come from?
Gamgyuls originated from Assam, India, and spread globally through China, giving birth to new varieties. It is deemed that they were introduced from China to Korea before the Three Hans Period, and the unshiu orange was introduced from 1911, with its cultivation area starting to expand industrially from the 1960’s.
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Why is it called gyul or gamgyul?
Gyul is a collective term for gamgyul that has been cultivated in Korea for a long time.
Unshiu orange, orange, lemon, grapefruit, kumquat, and trifoliolate orange genus are collectively called gamgyuls, but the unshiu orange, the typical mandarin that represents gamgyul, is called gamgyul or gyul in Korea.
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History of Jeju Gamgyul
The history of Jeju gamgyul has been recorded in many history books.
According to the History of Goryeo, there are records that indicate that a ‘local specialty was offered’ and a ‘local product was offered’ starting from a ‘Local specialty offered from Tamna (Jeju)’ in April in the second year during the reign of King Munmu of Baekje (476) and a ‘Local specialty offered from Tamna (Jeju)’ in November in the winter in the eighth year during the reign of King Taejo (Cheonsu) of the Goryeo Dynasty (925).
It is estimated that gamgyul was included in the references to ‘local specialty’.
Volume 7 of the Record on the Royal Family of the History of Goryeo shows that ‘the number of gyul offered from Tamna (Jeju) shall be revised to 1,000 sacs’ in March in the sixth year during the reign of King Munjong (1052), which indicates that gamgyul of Jeju had been offered before then.
The records about the offering of Jeju gamgyul continued from the first year during the reign of the founding king of Joseon (1392), and the Ministry of Taxation ordered each office in Jeolla-do and the south coast of Gyeongsang-do to plant citron and citrus leiocarpa trees during the eighth year of the reign of King Sejong (1426).
Volume 2 of the King Sejo Chronicles indicates that ‘The use of gamgyul is very important, as it is used during the ancestral service at the Royal Ancestral Shrine and when treating guests’.
It also describes the grade of gamgyul by variety, such as the kumquat, yugam, and dongjeonggyul as high grade, followed by gamja and cheonggyul and then yuja and sangyul (jingyul).
Because gamgyul has been ascribed great importance as medicine, fruit, and an item for ancestral services as described, ‘Dogam Sangseo (Illustrated Administration)’ of the King Taejo Chronicles indicate that the royal family established the fruit tax to cope with the demand and also a system for state-operated orchards.
According to ‘Tamnaji Gwawon Chongseol (Outline of Orchards in Jeju)’ written in 1653 in the fourth year of the reign of King Hyojong, there were 36 state orchards in three towns on Jeju, and the fruits grown were of 12 varieties.
There were 3,600 trees and the volume of offerings to the palace consisted of 8 different types of 86,053 fruits and 70kg of medicinal materials.
However, it was difficult to fill the quantity based on the products of state orchards and there were difficulties in transportation such as marine accidents.
The state orchards increased in number to 42 in 1704 when the governor of Jeju was Hyeong-sang Lee.
Gamgyul in these periods was cultivated mostly through the coercion of officials and caused even greater burden for people due to the successive increases in the volume of offerings each year, and the tyranny of local government officials, which led to a gradual reduction of cultivation toward the end of the Joseon Dynasty and the abolition of the offering system in the 31st year of the reign of King Gojong (1893).
As for the cultivation of gamgyul in Jeju, except for native varieties, the fifteen trees of unshiu orange brought by Frenchman Fr. Esmile J. Taque from Japan in 1911 became the beginning of the unshiu orange currently widely cultivated in Jeju.
Later, it became the highest earning crop in Jeju from the 1950’s, so much so that it was called the ‘College Tree (the tree that earns enough to support a child through college)’ in Jeju and the gamgyul cultivation area expanded from then on.
In the 1960’s, it made a great deal of progress through a project intended to increase the income of farmers and fishermen in 1964 as the number of gamgyul farms increased.
Currently, it is the highest agricultural income generating crop.