Production of mosquito coils using home-grown pyrethrum has resumed after a long interval in Arida, Wakayama Prefecture, regarded as the birthplace of "katori senko," Japan's spiral version of mosquito repelling incense.
The coils are produced manually at Ishii Jochugiku Kogyosho K.K. by workers who press paste made of pyrethrum powder and other materials, each measuring about 12 centimeters square, onto cutters. They then dry them on a net and check for any cracks in them.
Eiichiro Ueyama (1862-1943), founder of Dainihon Jochugiku Co. known for mosquito coils of the Kincho brand, obtained seeds of pyrethrum, called "jochugiku" in Japanese, from a U.S. company and successfully grew them in Arida for the first time in Japan around 1887, according to Akira Misaki, an instructor at the department of economics at Wakayama University. Ueyama developed mosquito coils using the plant around 1900.