Higashiyama Tea

Higashiyama Village,
Mt. Awantake,
Kakegawa City, Shizuoka, Japan

In November 2012 I had the pleasure of visiting the tea producing village of Higashiyama, in Kakegawa City, Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. What immediately caught my eye as I approached the tea fields was a gigantic character for the word ‘tea’ emblazoned near the top of Mt. Awantake. This symbol lords over the tea fields making a bold statement about local sense of pride. We have not seen such an ambitious endeavor before in Japan, China or Taiwan, and I was impressed by the sentiment and pride that such a strong symbol conveyed. I later found out that the symbol is spelled out in cypress trees that were planted in 1985, which makes the effort even more astonishing. Around the other side of the mountain (on a clear, sunny day) Mt. Fuji can be seen in the near distance.

About Higashiyama Tea and Sustainability
In Japan, biodiverse landscapes ( healthy landscapes that function undisturbed by man and that contain a diverse group of native plant, insect and animal species ) are being studied for the positive value they bring to local environments. In these landscapes, farmers work in a manner that supports a healthy ecosystem by incorporating traditional farming practices along with modern methodologies. These intact environments are referred to as Satoyama, which in Japan means mountains, woodlands, and grasslands surrounding villages.

Unfortunately, many of these once plentiful grasslands are gone from parts of Japan because of urbanization and development. But, here in Higashiyama village, tea farmers carry on traditions begun 100 years ago of protecting the grasslands – chagusaba – and of utilizing the grasses to improve the soil and provide essential nutrition to the tea bushes.

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These grasses – chagusa – are vital to the tea farmers, who believe that the quality of their tea depends on their usage of chagusa in the tea fields. For them, chagusa is so integral to their tea that to them no chagusa means no Higashiyama tea. This beneficial partnership of landscape and sustainable farming upholds a tradition and way of life that is no longer commonly found in modern Japan while maintaining a quiet beauty to the natural landscape.

The chagusaba are protected by the tea farmers who also work diligently to re-plant chagusa where these grasslands once existed but have been destroyed. This laborious form of natural agriculture is scarce now even in Japan, making the tea fields – and the tea – in Higashiyama a rare specialty.

Chagusa – Natural Straw Compost Fertilizer
In Higashiyama village these semi-native grassland areas grow in small patches amid the well-delineated and orderly cultivated tea gardens. For those who are familiar with the customary rows of well-manicured tea bushes planted in orderly Japanese tea gardens, the Higashiyama landscape of grasslands scattered amid the tea gardens is a lovely mosaic of color and texture. A drive up to the top of Mt. Awantake shows clearly that the landscape surrounding the tea gardens has a harmonious appearance, something that is missing from tea areas that have not maintained native grasslands.

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In return for maintaining these grasslands, the chagusa – thought of as ‘grasses for tea’ – gives the farmers an annual supply of straw compost fertilizer to harvest and spread in the tea gardens. The chagusa is a variety of tall silver grass (along with bamboo grass other naturally-growing native plants) that thrive in this protected area. The chagusa is cut in the fall, tied and hung in bunches to dry, then mechanically chopped into spreadable-sized pieces.

The chopped straw is laid down between the rows of tea bushes after the last tea harvest of the year (the bancha harvest ) in October. This work of harvesting, cutting, and dressing the tea gardens continues into the winter: new straw is added over the old straw and the furrows between the rows are built-up with a healthy quantity of compostable material that breaks down to enrich the soil, inhibit weeds, and control erosion.

The Tea Farmers
Only 90 tea farmers are allowed to grow tea in Higashiyama, and with this privilege comes the commitment to carry on the traditions of farming, preserving the grasslands and sharing in educational activities that support their agricultural work. The tea farms comprise about 420 acres and the grasslands comprise roughly 274 acres. I was told that this is a nearly ideal ratio of tea gardens to grasslands which allows the tea farmers to make a sustainable living from the land. As long as balance is maintained and the grasslands are preserved, sustainability will continue.

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Farming began in Higashiyama sometime in the Edo Period ( 1603-1868 ) with land that was granted to Kazutoyo Yamanouchi, a vassal of the Shogun Ieyasu Tokugawa. Some 130 years ago in the Meiji Period ( 1868-1912) tea farming began in the vicinity of Higashiyama and Awantake mountain. The importance of chagusaba was understood in the past and its value is still appreciated by tea farmers in Higashiyama today.

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Note: customers and friends sometimes ask us why we find it necessary to travel to Asia to purchase tea. They wonder why we just don’t buy it from importers or wholesalers …like everyone else does. Our response to that is this: we believe that one will only find the most extraordinary teas if one goes looking for them in their country of origin. The best teas are bought and sold face to face to those who go the extra mile to search out the small producers making extraordinary teas. Visiting a tea producing country is always about the relationships one develops and the little moments that occur between people from different cultures when they communicate over a shared passion. The stories that one carries back cannot occur if one is not there to experience them. If I had never visited Higashiyama village, I would not have discovered this lovely tea, nor been told the story of the chagusaba. Nor would I have been treated to a delicious lunch prepared by the ladies of the village. For us at Tea Trekker it is a matter of believing that when one reaches out to others, that action comes back with a bonus.