Shoji IizukaShoji was born in Chiba, close to Tokyo. He spent over 10 years working in the vicinity of Tokyo, designing product catalogues for a publishing company. Slowly his desire to get out of city life grew stronger, until a few years ago he decided he wanted to move to the countryside. He discovered the […]
In Hirado City, Nagasaki Prefecture, there is the oldest tea plantation in Japan. This tea field is said to have been opened by Eisai, the Zen monk who first introduced tea to Japan over 800 years ago in 1191. This tea plantation is called “Fushun-en,” and at the time when the tea was planted here, […]
Spread a peaceful World with Japanese tea! Ikedoki means “Tea Break” in Nagasaki dialect. Our mission is to “Spread a peaceful world with Japanese tea” from here in Nagasaki. Because of course you may know, tea makes all of us to be peaceful, And when we talk about peace, here Nagasaki is one of the […]
Japanese tea was first introduced to Europe in 1610 when a Dutch merchant ship brought tea back from Hirado in Nagasaki. This was the first tea for Europe. After that, England and other Western European countries became obsessed with tea, changing the world. However, in 1639, the Edo shogunate closed the country to the outside […]
Hidden Christians. It is a well-known term in Japan, but until recently it was almost unknown overseas. Christianity is widely practiced overseas, especially in the West, but in Japan, it was forbidden and suppressed for nearly 300 years until the advent of civilization. The term “hidden Christians” refers to those who secretly kept their faith […]
Under our mission “Spread peaceful world with Japanese tea”, we have 2 activities. Tea Tourism First is tea tourism. The activity belongs to Tourism association in Higashi-Sonogi. We had focused on inbound tea tourism from abroad. But as you know, the situation is really bad for inbound tourism right now. So we are focusing online […]
Tea in Nagasaki, the origin of Japanese tea. If you ask most Japanese people about it, they will probably say they don’t know anything about it. However, Nagasaki is a very important place in the history of tea. It is said that tea was first introduced to Japan in 1191, when the Zen monk Eisai […]
This is a bit of a tricky topic because it requires some historical and geographical understanding. The origin of the name “Ureshino Tea” is Ureshino City, Saga Prefecture, which is also famous for Ureshino Hot Springs. Ureshino Tea Tea production in Ureshino started in 1440 when a potter who came from China began to cultivate […]
Higashisonogi-cho is the largest tea production area in Nagasaki, producing about 60% of Nagasaki’s tea. Higashisonogi-cho is located in the center of Nagasaki Prefecture, on a southwest-facing slope that leads from the mountains of the Tara mountain range to the calm sea of Omura Bay. Therefore, many of the tea plantations overlook the beautiful and […]
Higashisonogi-cho is the largest tea production area in Nagasaki, producing about 60% of Nagasaki’s tea. Higashisonogi-cho is located in the center of Nagasaki Prefecture, on a southwest-facing slope that leads from the mountains of the Tara mountain range to the calm sea of Omura Bay. Therefore, many of the tea plantations overlook the beautiful and […]