Southern part of Japan is estimated as one of the places of orgin of lilies. However, lilies have never played important role in horticulture in the region. Gathering of wild lilies in their naturally grown lands has been the principal method to get them. Lilies were thought as wild grasses for long time.<br>However, after the trade between Japan and European countries and U.S.A. begun in the later half of the 19th century, the traders from these areas were eager to purchase beautiful lilies, for lilies have been indispensable to the performance of Christian rites. They and their agents in Japan encouraged the production of lilies.<br>The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the process of commercialization of lilies and to evaluate its impacts on the development of cultivating methods. Two islands are chosen for conducting the field research. One is Koshiki Islands which have become the main producing area of Lilium speciosum, and the other is Okinoerabu Island where main producing variety of lilies is L. longiflorum.<br>1) L. speciosum in Koshiki Islands<br>The habitat of wild L. speciosum is a sloping and sunny grassland dominated with Miscanthus sinensis. The wild lily bulbs were traditionally utilized as emergency food stuffs at the time of famine. Lily bulbs were exported to China for the first time in 1873 as the cooking materials of Chinense dishes. This was the first step into their commercialization. In 1900, lily bulbs were shipped to U.S.A. through the merchandising companies in Yokohama for horticultural purposes. This opened the path to the development of rudimental cultivation of lily bulbs. The villagers gather the bulbs in wild grown places on mountain sides and transplant them in the edges of sweet potato fields. They were customarily permitted to gather them in the village common grassland and to burn the land away once a year to promote the lily growth. They have never developed further cultivation methods of lilies in these islands. Therefore, the cultivation still remains in the transitional stage between gathering and full-developed cultivation.<br>2) L. longiflorum in Okinoerabu Island<br>On the contrary to Koshiki Islands, here, wild lily bulbs were scarcely utilized for eating purposes even during the periods of food shortage, because of their sparse distribution and bitter taste. Therefore, the villagers had no interest in thier utilization. However, as soon as the export of lily bulbs to U.S.A. began in 1904, the farmers with enterprising spirits tried to plant them in their fields and started to select superior varieties from the cultivated lilies as well as from the wild ones. With the success of selection, they have improved cultivating techniques and crop rotation systems including lilies. The cultivated area of lilies increased due to the high profitability and the progress of land reclamation. Their production is found to increase rapidly after 1960's. Now, Okinoerabu Island developed into the most leading producing area of lily bulbs in Japan.