The Japanese Citrus You’re About to See Everywhere

Although citrus might be more associated with the cuisines of Mexico and Peru, it’s central to Japanese cooking, where it lends tartness and floral aroma to many meals: Sudachi is squeezed over grilled sanma (Pacific saury) to offset its fishiness; kabosu lightens the fattiness of karaage (fried chicken); the acidic daidai makes for a great ponzu sauce (“ponzu” comes from the Dutch word pons, meaning “punch”).

Only a few hybrid citruses are native to Japan, shikuwasa and tachibana among them, but, according to Ryohei Hayashi, the 48-year-old chef of the modern Japanese restaurant Tenoshima in Tokyo’s Aoyama neighborhood, “there are roughly 90 varieties of citrus cultivated in Japan, of which around 30 are used for their juice and skin.” They’re often called kousan kankitsu (literally “aromatic and sour citrus”). “They’re like supporting actors in dishes that reveal the season and bring joy to the meal.” Here are some of the most important ones, which are increasingly becoming popular outside of Japan.

First mentioned 1,200 years ago in the “Shoku Nihongi” — an official record of events at the Japanese Imperial Court — this versatile fruit is green in summer and spring, yellow in fall and winter. It’s commonly found in ponzu, pickles, jams, sweets, miso-heavy sauces and beverages. “The perfume that’s captured from the skin is important,” says the 46-year-old chef Zaiyu Hasegawa of Den, in Tokyo’s Jingumae district, who makes a yuzu kosho paste from the rind, adding salt and red chiles to create a condiment that accompanies smoked kinmedai sashimi.

This limelike fruit is very tart and is paired with dishes such as fugu sashimi and houchou noodle soup.

Particularly popular on warm, beachy Okinawa, its astringent juice is often mixed with soda water for a summery drink, or it’s sliced into thin wheels to garnish chilled soba, udon and somen.

This thin-skinned, dark green fruit is sour — but not mouth-puckeringly so. In Miyazaki, a town on the southern island of Kyushu, it’s used instead of vinegar to season sushi rice.

Its bracing juice is ideal for ponzu, though the entire fruit can also be cooked down to make marmalade.

This golf-ball-size citrus is popular with grilled fatty seafood, like mackerel and yellowtail, and is often thinly sliced atop cold noodles. “Sudachi has a unique, refreshing feel to it,” says the chef Akmal Anuar, 43, of Osteria Funkcoolio in Dubai, where his menu — a blend of Japanese and Italian cuisines — includes a matsutake mushroom spaghettini tossed with sudachi. “It makes the pasta lighter in taste.”

Food stylist: Tokiko Iino. Photo assistants: Yukiko Tanaka, Hiroto Tsuda