Imported oranges gave the aristocrats of the country the first taste of this fruit. For a long time they were beyond the reach of the common people. A document written in 1420 relates that the lords and ladies of Muromachi Place were very fond of mikan, but that they were very hard to obtain.
Thus at first the fruit was considered a rare luxury. Orange juice and peels have been used since the first introduction of the fruit for curing various diseases. Dried orange peel is still an important ingredient in the so-called herb medicines.
Oranges were so valuable that the people did not waste even the skin which they cooked with sugar to make a sweet paste. Many rural folks still preserve orange peels and make this paste at home.
In some districts, it is believed that for curing one's cold an orange should be roasted in the hibachi or kotatsu, when the skin is burned black, it should be removed and eaten while hot.
Mikan-shu or orange wine is also made by adding sugar and mirin (sweet sake) to orange juice. This is taken more as a medicine than as a drink. It is still believed by many persons that a sip of mikan-shu every evening will relieve fatique and insure health.