Second Month of the Video Series “Tea Regions of Japan”

Video series “Tea Regions of Japan” were launched in September, and the first tea region that was introduced was Kagoshima Prefecture. In October our series ran for the second month, and tea in Shizuoka Prefecture was the main focus. Through the program we could explore five tea growing areas of Shizuoka.

Ashikubo in Aoi Ward was the first tea area introduced in the program, and in fact, is believed to be the place the birthplace of Shizuoka’s tea. We also looked at a few large tea producing areas on the flatlands: Kakegawa and a fairly recent area – Makinohara. But Shizuoka has some tea production in the mountains as well, and it was great to learn more about the tea practices in Tenryu and Kawanehoncho.

The tea producers from each area were very kind to share their stories and tell more about their area. Takeda-san from Ashikubo shed some light on why tea production of Shizuoka started declining about 10 years ago. Matsuura-san from Kakegawa shared his aspirations about the efforts to keep the tea area going by attacking young people to tea farming. Yamamoto-san from Makinohara told a fascinating story of how the tea area was created from scratch about 150 years ago. Ota-san from Tenryu shared his history of how he started to work with tea by marrying into a tea family.  In Kawanehoncho Tsuchiya-san showed us some stunning views of tea grown on the mountains.

The program was released weekly through the month of October and now is public to watch. On the 8th October we also held 2 special events to watch the full 1h program together with our members and featured tea producers.

In November the video series will focus on tea in Kyoto Prefecture. Here too we will be able to learn more about the tea of the whole prefecture as well as to explore 5 tea growing areas of Kyoto: Uji, Ujitawara, Wazuka, Minami Yamashiro and Ayabe. 

The special events, that give a chance to watch the whole 1h program together with the featured tea producers and ahead of the release schedule, will be held on 12th November. Register now!

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