How old is the longest-lived tea tree in Japan? The answer is over 300 years old! Currently, the longest tea tree in Japan is over 300 years old. This large tea tree is located at an altitude of 210 meters on the eastern slope of Mount Kokuzo, which straddles Higashisonogi Town in Nagasaki Prefecture and […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
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 […]
Tamaryokucha is a green tea that has a curved (curled) shape like a ball. Types of Tamaryokucha Currently, there are two types of Tamaryokucha due to differences in the manufacturing method. The first is Kamairi Tamaryokucha, which is made by the pan-fired method. The second is Tamaryokucha, which is made by the steaming method. These […]
“Tea, please!” If you were to ask a Japanese person that, they would probably offer you sencha. In the West, most people think of tea as black tea, but for the Japanese, tea means sencha. When did sencha start to be drunk in Japan? There is no doubt that sencha, like matcha, was introduced from […]
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 […]