Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on December 2011

“Camellia flowers bloom in the winter, that’s what’s so special about them,” says Tekeo Ogawa, Oshima’s resident expert on the camellia japonica. Ogawa has been running a camellia nursery on the island, famous for the flower, for 50 years.

Japan’s native camellias (called tsubaki in Japanese) can be found from Okinawa to Aomori, but it is the Goto Islands near Nagasaki and the Izu Islands near Tokyo that are most famous for them. The volcanic island of Oshima, 100 kilometers south of Tokyo, is literally covered in yabu tsubaki (bush camellia). The whole, sparsely populated island blazes magenta when the flowers bloom in January.

Tourists arrive by the boatload to see the blossoms; however, for local residents, it is the seeds that drop in the fall that are the bigger event.

Every year, from late September to early November, islanders collect the seeds that fall naturally to the ground and sell them to one of two camellia oil manufacturers on the island. One yen per seed may seem like small change until you realize that there are, by Ogawa’s estimate, some 3,000,000 wild camellia trees on the island.

A good year will turn out 50 tons of seeds. This fall, Ogawa and his wife collected about 100 kilograms of seeds from their property. They decided to sell them at the standard rate of ¥550 per kilo. They could also have exchanged them for oil: Takada, the oldest camellia oil manufacturer on the island, still practices “butsu butsu koukan—the exchange of pressed oil (in old ishoo bin sake bottles) for crates of seeds.

Islanders who use the oil get it this way—the retail price is way more expensive.

Valuable camellia oil has been used for centuries as a hair tonic, adding sheen to the elaborate coiffures of ages past. It is still used on the hair of sumo wrestlers; though, today the oil is perhaps best known as the key ingredient in Shiseido’s popular line of “Tsubaki” hair products.

Still, with natural cosmetics on the rise, camellia oil—in its more pure form—seems primed to make a comeback. At least that’s the thinking behind Japoneira, an Oshima-based brand of premium camellia oil. The manufacturer, which set up shop just ten years ago, is the first to bring contemporary buzzwords like “cold press” and “oleic acid” to the table.

It is the high content of oleic acid that makes camellia oil such a marketable commodity, even more so as a skin care product than a hair care one. Camellia oil contains upwards of 85% oleic acid, compared to olive oil—often touted for its health and beauty properties—which has just 75%.

“Human skin contains a lot of oleic acid too, so camellia oil is naturally a good moisturizer,” explains Genki Fukui, who manages the presses at the small, one room Japoneira factory.

A sample proves that skin does in fact drink it up. It is light enough to even use as a day-time moisturizer. Unlike other manufacturers, Japoneira uses a cold-press system followed by a refining process that results in a clear, odorless product. According to Fukui, cold-press oil is better absorbed by the skin.

“We had some masseuses try it out but they complained that it wasn’t slippery enough—the skin absorbed it too quickly,” says Fukui.

Local resident Ichie Kawasaki is a big fan of camellia oil—though she uses the cheaper Takada brand. Kawasaki, now 62, says she started using camellia oil in her 30s, after someone told her it would help erase the dark sun spots she accumulated working an outdoor summer job. She’s been using it ever since.

“I wash my face with ordinary soap and then just massage this oil onto my face,” she says picking up a bottle off the shelf of her souvenir shop at Okada port. “It really works. I hardly wear any make-up and nobody believes me when I tell them how old I am.”

True, Kawasaki is a saleswoman. But, for whatever reason, she also has smooth, barely-lined skin.

Both Takada (www.tsubaki-abura.com) and Japoneira (www.japoneira.jp) products can be purchased online and in Oshima.