Inside Yame, One of Japan’s Great Tea Regions
From gyokuro and matcha to old tea merchants and white-walled streets, Yame offers a deeper look at Japanese tea culture.
Over the past few years, I have felt the presence of Japanese tea growing stronger overseas.
Matcha lattes, matcha-flavored sweets, and drinks chosen with health in mind. Japanese tea has come to be enjoyed by people overseas in many different forms. I feel very happy that tea, one part of Japanese culture, is loved around the world.
Tea originally came to Japan from China. After that, it developed in its own way within Japan’s land, climate, daily life, religion, 茶の湯 (chanoyu), the tea ceremony, and the custom of drinking tea in everyday life. It became connected to temples and samurai culture, spread into town life, and in tea-producing regions across Japan, the techniques of cultivation and tea processing were refined.
When you live in Japan, tea is naturally present in daily life. After meals, we drink 番茶 (bancha) or 煎茶 (sencha). With something sweet, we often have tea. When we want to take a short break, we sometimes brew tea in a 急須 (kyūsu), a Japanese teapot. I have always liked tea myself, and after meals I have often drunk bancha or sencha.
Now that Japanese tea is spreading overseas, I wanted to share its background as well. Matcha lattes and matcha sweets are enjoyable entry points into Japanese tea. Some people may come to like Japanese tea through sweet drinks. Some may visit tea fields during their travels. Others may buy Japanese tea and brew it in their own countries.
Behind a cup of tea is the work of people who grow, pick, process, finish, and deliver the tea leaves. That is why I would be happy if people could learn a little about where the tea was grown, how it was made, and how it has been enjoyed, not only its name or its popularity.
In Japan, there are tea-producing regions known nationwide, such as 静岡 (Shizuoka), 宇治 (Uji), 鹿児島 (Kagoshima), 三重 (Mie), and 狭山 (Sayama). Among them, 八女 (Yame), in southern 福岡県 (Fukuoka Prefecture), has long been highly regarded as a region that produces high-quality tea.
In recent years, Yame has also begun to attract interest from overseas travelers. In addition to the scenery of its tea fields and the quality of its tea, I feel that its white-walled townscape, the warmth of local people, and the culture of handwork that has been passed down there are what draw visitors to the area.
This time, I visited that town of Yame.
