 Image search results - "uji-cha" |
This is the Ishitera area of Wazuka (pop. 4,226 as of Feb. 2016), a small town in southern Kyoto with about 301 Uji tea farmers.
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Blessed with rolling hills and clear streams, Wazuka produces about 40 percent of Kyoto's Uji tea production. Wazuka is most suited for tea cultivation because there is a large temperature difference between night and day.
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Fog thereby forms over the tea plants to shade them from the strong sunlight. Tea plants also grow best in well-drained soil, hence the tea plants on sloping land.
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In 1738, Nagatani Soen basically invented sencha green tea by using a kneading process for young tea leaves. He used a hot drying plate called hoiro to knead the steamed tea buds by hand to dry them. The process is called aosei sencha seiho.
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Nagatani Soen's birthplace is not easily accessible unless you have a car.
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His birthplace house is a replica in Yuyadani, Ujitawara. Open only on Sat. and Sun.
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Nagatani Soen's birthplace home (replica).
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Inside Nagatani Soen's birthplace home (replica). There's a video explaining the process.
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Hoiro, a hot drying plate for kneading tea buds to make sencha. It produced excellent color, aroma, and taste of sencha tea. He taught his technique to anybody who flocked to his home. It spread nationwide and his basic technique is still in wide use today.
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Grid underneath the hoiro.
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