At Kitanoji Temple monthly market, with everything from street food to antiques to textiles of every weave and embroidery.
Nagatani-San, the founder of Sencha, who was elevated to kami/diety status, the official tea god of Uji- discovered a way to make quality Sencha in the 1700s, and the landscape of Japanese tea was changed forever. It took him 15 years to figure out how to remove the bitterness from the tea leaves by studying how the farmers remove the bitterness from the persimmons when they are making hoshigaki. Carefully rolling the leaves in heated troughs into needle shapes, it would take 5-6 hours to make 500 gms. And it would sell for what is today, 70,000 yen per 100gms- or $600 for ¼ lb! Only the richest merchants can afford the leaves, and after they finish drinking the tea, the second tier merchants would dry the leaves and then drink them again. And then….. The poor samurai class would get to drink the leftovers after that.
Not exactly Nebuta festival but here at the Manga Museum, the tour group gets exposed to the 70 years of rich manga culture as well as what ‘kawaii’ means! Only in Japan can cute and profound meet, and in the world of manga, an unlimited expression of everything that’s on anyone’s mind or imagination can be found. That explains the little cartoon signs in front of 600 year old temples, the appeal of Hello Kitty, and the now worldwide phenomenon of manga culture. Super heroes they may not be- the majority of manga is in the struggle of everyday life and issues.
Wee! Tea leaves! The kawaii culture in Japan is amusing for some and annoying to others. I personally find the juxtaposition of the austerity of wabi sabi to the cute cartoon culture, quite charming.
Good water and soil, check. We understood those to be crucial factors in the agriculture of tea. The wara, or river reeds, are first used for the shading system above the Gyokuro tea plants, and then later, as ground cover and fertilizer. The rains that soak the reeds filtrate the nutrients down to the soil.
But we walked into one of the most fruitful persimmon seasons ever, the fuyu kaki. The farmers explained to us that how they discovered the way to remove the bitterness from the tea leaves was by the same way they remove the bitterness from making dried persimmons!
Who knew that kaki, or persimmons would play such a big part in Uji tea’s development ?