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Life in Japan Tea, a transcending living culture
Life in Japan Tea, a transcending living culture
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Tea, a transcending living cultureFriday April 19th, a few days before the beginning of the harvesting season of the new tealeaves, I find myself in Makinohara in Shizuoka prefecture in the meeting with Mr. Kiyoyuki Oguri, the president of the Oguri Noen.
 The Japanese tea industry With about 40% of the national production, Shizuoka prefecture is the number one tea-producing region in Japan, and in fact here where we stand there is nothing but tea fields as far as the eye can reach. Kagoshima prefecture in the south of Japan has the second place in regards of tea production, followed by Mie prefecture. The Kyoto region which is the center of the historical development of tea, is actually only ranked as fourth or fifth. Mr. Oguri’s operation is very extensive, production of teabags, packing, distribution, and especially what is called the hi-re (the last phase of the drying of the tealeaves, which is very important for the flavor of the finished product), and the creation of the “blend”. His factory is very impressive, in its degree of modernity, and in respect of severely strict sanitary conditions. However, before arriving at Oguri’s factory the leaves have to go through a veritable combating journey. What happens in the producers’ factories where, after they have been plucked, the tealeaves (which are at this stage called nama-cha) are brought straight to the factory is as follows. In the case of for instance sencha, which represents 80% of the production, the leaves are steamed to stop the oxidation process (green tea is a non-oxidized tea, differently from black, which is oxidized, and oolong tea, semi-oxidized). Subsequently, in an atomized fashion the tea passes through different machines where it’ is dried and rolled, which gives its characteristic needlelike shape. As the process proceeds one obtains ara-cha, which is not yet a finished product, but the operation of the producer ends here. It is at this stage that the tea is sold to wholesalers at the tea markets or, which seems to be a common practice according to Mr. Oguri, going via intermediating agents called satori. Certain producers still bring their production directly to Mr. Oguri. It is in factories such as his that the ara-cha goes through the hi-re to become a finalized product.    Luxury teaAccompanied by Mr. Yoshinobu Watanabe, the president of the “Les Feuilles Bleues” (The Blue Leaves) company, which produces and sells high quality teabags, I am met by Mr. Oguri with, of course tea. It is a sencha with an extremely rare flavor, strong, but without bitterness, really divine. After having put a considerable amount of leaves in the teapot, he meticulously poured hot water into different small containers, before pouring the water on the leaves in the teapot. “ I infuse the tea in a way that exerts the theine”, Mr. Oguri then explained to us. The theine, besides from its stimulating virtues, also is the element that creates the sweat flavor and taste in the tea. It is the catechine that is responsible for the bitter taste in tea. It is proven that the hotter the water one uses to make the tea is, the more catechine will be released in the liquid. On the contrary, with water that is more tepid, the amount of catechine will be less considerable, and, the presence of the theine will be more intensely pronounced. All of the small operations conducted by Mr. Oguri before pouring the water, have the purpose of cooling. One uses water between 90 and 50 degrees according to the type of tea and taste, which is desired. It is one of the great wonders of tea, that its taste changes completely depending on the way of infusion. So, when I ask him which Japanese tea he prefers, Mr. Oguri smiles and says; “ Rather than thinking of which tea one prefers, one should take a look at the tea and reflect on which way of infusion would give the best tea, or, just at this moment, what kind of tea would one like to drink. For example, in a moment like this, if one weren’t thirsty, a tea that one serves to guests in small cups would be the most appreciated. However, for instance after a meal, this type of tea would not be pleasant, then tea served at 80 or 85 degrees would be better. Or further, to get rid of drowsiness, one needs a tea rich in caffeine. For such, one has to use very hot water, and a tea rapidly infused with a small quantity of leaves would then be best”. In result, infusing a considerable amount of leaves over longer time and using very hot water, gives tea that is very rich in catechine, consequently, very bitter. “In accordance with the sought goal, well, such type of tea that is the best today (…) I love all kinds of tea.” However, the wonderful tea that he served us has an important particularity. “On the 22nd of March, we organize an event linked to the hand-plucking and hand-rolling of leaves“. On the occasion of preparing a tea for us, he added, “this is a tea, which is hand-plucked. Drunk normally, it isn’t really good. One has to keep it inside the mouth and let it slowly glide over the tongue like one would enjoy Cognac. It is a luxury tea.” The leaves in this tea are hand-plucked, which is today quite rare in itself, and not to say the least for hand-rolled, which is an even more extremely uncommon practice. “It is something one has to preserve in the respect of its cultural aspects,” Mr. Oguri explained to me. “If the leaves are not rolled by someone who possesses very high leveled techniques, one can not obtain a product as good as by mechanical rolling. Even with 5 or 10 years of experience, one cannot reach a result that is satisfying enough. Also, alone, it takes four hours to gather about 500 grams, and one gets not even 450 grams of tea from 2 kilos of nama-cha. With these conditions, such a production cannot be the subject of a business of large quantity”.  If the Japanese cease to drink tea, the Japanese culture will collapse Tea has been firmly rooted in Japanese culture over a very long period of time. It seems like there existed a sort of tea already in the 9th century, made with a complex boiling process, but which seemed scarcely adapted to the taste of that period. It is in the 12th century, during the Kamakura period, that the monk Eisai (1141-1215) brought tea seeds of a new tea from China. Then this type of tea was consumed in a fashion very similar to the macha of today, that is to say that the leaves are reduced into powder that one blends with water. It is therefore really interesting to find that this way of consumption that has been passed on in Japan until today, actually quickly disappeared completely in China in early days. In China, during the Ming period, one started making tea where the leaves was heated in a wok (kama-iri) and then dried. The leaves are then consumed by infusion. It appears that this tea already was imported to Japan in the 16th century, but its use still stays limited. It is the bancha, a more raw tea composed of brown dried leaves, with varied ways of production and consumption, which was consumed by a larger proportion of the population. And these circumstances haven’t changed much since the Edo period (from around 1600 till 1868). In 1738 Nagatani Soen, a producer adjusted a production technique that has given birth to the so-called sencha. Nevertheless, this new tea has staid, due to its price, just as macha and the kamakiri tea, only reserved for a smaller privileged population. At the end of the Edo period, at the reopening of Japan, the sencha production started to increase rapidly, not for the domestic market, but actually for exportation to the whole world, especially to England and America. The main reason for this demand originates from the problematic relations between England and China, which made Japan the unique exporter of tea. In other words as trade with China became difficult, the tea importing countries turned their attention towards Japan. Consequently tea, after silk, represented the second motive power behind the growth in Japanese economy. The production was considerably boosted, and was spread to all over Japan, but as mush as 75% of the gross sales were directed towards exportation. However, very quickly the problems of maintaining the level of quality and with the return of the competition from China, there was in result seen a steep decline of exportation at the beginning of the 20th century. And eventually after the First World War, the westerners shifted to black tea. Thus one had to find a new market, which ended in the countries in Central Asia. However, the Second World War evidently put an end to that trade. After the war, the Japanese tea again profited from the troubles in China, by conquering a new market: the Muslim countries in North Africa and the Middle East. It was a short-lived renaissance, due to a comeback of the Chinese market, with a much more inexpensive production, and with the arrival of a new competitor, Taiwan. At the beginning of the 1960’s, once again, Japan had to find a new market: this time, at last, it was Japan itself, pushed forward by an intense economical growth. For the first time, sencha became a beverage consumed by numerous Japanese. The demand then increased rapidly, to the point that tea had to be imported from Taiwan and China! Nonetheless, since the beginning of the 1980’s, the consumption appears to have tended towards a decline. In response to which Mr. Oguri said to me, “it’s a question of point of view. It is true for tea in the form of leaves. It comes from the change in the way of living. People don’t make tea themselves due to lack in time, or because they eat out. Nevertheless, on the contrary, many people drink green tea from the bottle, when thirsty, for instance when out driving. Before, green tea on bottles didn’t excised, thus then people were drinking coffee or juice. However, today in Japan, people who drink green tea for their thirst are extremely many. (…) From children to elderly, everyone drinks green tea. (…) The Japanese love this tea. Therefore, I rather think that the population that consumes tea actually has increased considerably”. Most of the major Japanese beverage brands, and even a famous American soft-drink company, offers today a large selection of green tea on bottles. At the closing of our talk, Mr. Oguri revealed his vision for tea as an element of Japanese culture, “to me, the fact that there are people who don’t drink tea, it is as if a little bit of Japanese culture has disappeared. (…) It is not just a question of tea, it’s also a problem related to the level of nutritional customs. Rather than running out to buy tea on a bottle, wouldn’t it be better to prepare it yourself, take the time to boil the water. (…) When I prepared this tea for you, I put in a great deal of consideration into it, paid a lot of attention to the temperature of the water, the amount of leaves, and even to the way that it must be enjoyed, the way you would take pleasure from drinking it.” To Mr. Oguri, one puts down love in the making of tea, just as one do in cooking in general. Tea is not simply just a beverage; it is also a product of conviviality, prepared with care, and served to guests as a testimony of one’s feelings. This is the cultural aspect of tea, the characteristics of the scent of hospitality, the way Mr. Watabe wants to stick to producing blended tea in bags, which whether it is green tea, black, or oolong, has a high quality, and a taste that is more authentic than products on bottles. We haven’t looked into anything but sencha, which first developed thanks to exportation abroad, before becoming a product almost exclusively consumed in Japan after the 1960’s. However, recently, the Japanese tea, and particularly the products on bottles have become a great success in the USA. Soon the distributors of these products will rapidly attack the Canadian market, and then the European. “I have a strong belief (in the foreign market)” Mr. Oguri confessed to me, “It’s not just that green tea has success abroad, it’s the whole Japanese cuisine. Together with the Japanese kitchen, people wants to drink Japanese tea. Mind you, as long as the Japanese tea is spread out in the world naturally. Isn’t that a fair return of things?” Today, in Japan, tea isn’t simply a tradition, or testimony of the customs of the past; it is a veritable culture, very much alive. Whether it being the way it is consumed, the Japanese tea, with its multiple varieties, all of the possible ways of preparation, its specter of flavors, has a very strong presence in Japan, and even seem to be on the verge of conquering the world.
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