F. Batrachospermaceae; Batrachospermum gelatinosum
Distribution
Toyama Prefecture: Higashi Tonami-gun, Kita Hannya-mura (東礪波郡北般若村) and River Shō (庄川)
Appearance
Seasonal Association
Notes
In the sole poem which refers to asituki, Ōtomo no Yakamochi describes watching maidens gathering the plant from a river, so it was clearly an edible waterweed, or type of algae. Given that the river mentioned in the poem is located in Toyama (as indicated in the distribution, above), where the ashitsukinori is common, and Yakamochi served there as provincial governor, identifying the asituki with the ashitsukinori is a logical theory, but, as can be seen above, there are others.