[KAKIGORI]TEA for revitalize culture and community.

@Seiji

Our Matcha green tea is grown Nara prefecture by Kenichi Shizen Noen, which is located in the Kansai regieons, southern part of Kyoto, using natural farming methods (known as the most harmonious farming method that restores the ecosystem to its original form without pesticides or fertilizers).

They appreciate and use even weeds as fertilize soil.

In their world, the notion of weeds itself does not exist.

Leaves fallen from trees around the tea farm have been kept to cover the path to add natural nutrition into the soil. The head farmer, Kenichi even enojoys eating the soil to check to the taste of soil!

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“In the summer, the tea fields are covered with a thin white film.

Do you know what it is and why?

It is a spider and the waves.

The spiders that come to eat the insects that gather in the tea come to eat the others.

If humans can restore the ecosystem to its original state without doing anything artificially, the natural food chain will stop the insects from harming the tea without the use of pesticides.

In the first place, the idea of insect pests does not exist in the nature farming method we have used for decades”

Kenichi,founder of Kenichi Sizen Noen explained as checking soil and took a bite of that!

Last February, just before the pandemic hit, I visited their farm and was given a tour.

He told us that they are working not only to make great tea, but also to bring back the culture, people, and food that are rooted in the land through the creation of soil and environment that attracts birds and insects, and to improve the working environment for tea farmers.

“In the process of restoring the soil to its natural state, all kinds of organisms return to the land and help to regulate the ecosystem. The water from the mountains is purified through the soil of the tea plantations facing the hills, and reaches the city.

In a city with clean water, food culture flourishes. This attracts people. The city and people coexist with nature.We hope the small towns all across Japan and even more from all over the world will be flourish in the way. So I have traveled to everywhere from Japan to SE Asia to teach this method based on their character of the land”

This is the goal of the tea farmers and why I purchase from them.

And I truly want to pass on not only their tea, but also their aspirations to all you.

The blows were images from Nara in the morning I was.

Can you see the esssence of the city, that used to be a capital of Japan from 710- 784.

Deers are everywhere on the streets by Nara park. They have been considered as messengers of God for centuries.

Machiya-style hostel where I stayed at.

A Japanese Shojin- vegan restaurants that serves tea from Kenichi Shizen Noen. The owner of this place is the authority of ＊Sencha-do[煎茶道　the way of leaf tea].

They provide customers to pick one of their favorite pots and cups from a wide selections,and have them an experience to roast your own tea leaf.

Every single details and processes are so precious and special.

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＊Sencha-do:

In response to the increasing formalization of the tea ceremony and the fact that sencha itself was the latest addition to Chinese culture at the time,the so-called "sencha hobby" rapidly spread among the literati, where people would drink sencha without formalities and exchange pleasantries in 1700’sー.