Skip to Main Content
Sort + Filter
Japan
日本 (Nihon). Legend holds that Camellia Sinensis tea was introduced to Japan in the 9th century C.E. by Buddhist monks returning from study in China. Emperor Saga (嵯峨天皇) famously introduced the beverage to court and established tea growing districts around the country. The oldest extant tea district in Japan is Uji (宇治) in Kyoto Prefecture. Several modern tea districts were begun in the 19th century C.E. at the end of the Tokugawa Shogunate, when samurai were forced to find new trades. Tea produced in Japan is commonly steamed to "kill green" and either stone-ground into powder (matcha) or rolled to produce fine needle-like finished tea leaves (sencha or gyokuro).