For the God of Tea -Shinno Festival-

The annual festival for “the God of Tea” has come this year too. You may think “A festival? For the god of tea??”

There is a small shrine called “Sukunahikona Jinja” a at a business district in Osaka. It is dubbed as “Shinno san”, which means “Mr. Shnnong”. He was regarded as the one who first tasted tea. The place is enshrined both “a God of Japanese medicine ‘Sukunahikona ‘” and “the Father of Chinese medicine and tea ‘Shennong’”. As you know, tea was considered to be one of medicine in the old time. The area is still known as the medicine district because some headquarters or branches of well-known pharmaceutical companies are located. Since tea is not regarded as a medicine anymore, we cannot find any remnants of tea such as tea-related archives or goods.

Every year, “Shinno Festival” is held on Nov 22nd and 23rd at the shrine. Lots of people visit there during the festival to pray for their health, but most of them don’t know the connection with tea. However, I want to say that  this shrine and the festival is for the god of tea.

frm 2013

What's Wakocha like???

I wrote about a wakocha event on my previous post. You may be interested in what they are like. Well, that’s difficult to describe it because there are so many, but roughly speaking, I think the tea can be divided into three different types. 

1) Umami flavor type: 

Made of same varieties as green tea including yabukita, sayamakaori and okumidori. Those varieties have less tannin, creating very mild taste, slightly sweet aroma and umami flavor.

2) Fragrant type: 

New types of varieties and hybrid are often used to create flowery and refreshing aroma.  

3) Body type: 

The hybrid between Chinese variety and Assam variety with more tannin are often used to produce more oomph than the other wakocha. The varieties like benihomare and benifuki give coppery red liquor with a good body.

This is just from my experience, not based on scientifically evidence, but some wakocha remains good taste even when cold. Some get better. The tea color also remains without becoming cloudy known as "creaming down" maybe it's because the variety has less tannin.

I've tried a lot so far, but wakocha still happily surprise me once in a while. .

"Kaga no Kocha" born in Kanazawa where the event was held this year.
The knot represents "isshin-niyo (one bud and two leaves)"
This is Umami type.

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Wakocha, Wakocha and Wakocha in 2014

An event of Japanese black tea, known as wakocha, held in Kanazawa city was over. The city has prospered as a castle town and retains traditional and dignified atmosphere, which reminiscent of Kyoto. 

The event was full of Kanazawa taste. At the sampling site, we tasted about 20 different kinds of the tea gathered from all over the country with “Kutani ware” tea cup specially ordered for the event. We enjoyed the black tea with Japanese sweets at the very traditional villa of the feudal chief. Steeped in such an atmosphere, I remembered an expression of “wakeiseijyaku”, literally means “harmony, respect, purity and tranquility”. 

According to the survey, more than 500 farmers produce wakocha as of 2014. In my humble opinion, the quality has been much refined on average. Most of the tea used to be made from Yabukita variety or Benifuki variety, but now, Benifuji, Sayamakaori, Benihikari, Koshun, Mirai….to name but a few. Some tea have flowery aroma created by leaf hopper like some Darjeeling do.

Each tea has their own and one-and-only flavor and fragrance. Since more than 500 wakocha, I haven’t tried all yet. Some are reliable teas, and other are still newcomers for me. 

The event in 2015 will be held in Atami, Shizuoka. My pursuit of wakocha will be happily continued….

First Cup to Japanese -Tea Day-

I've posted about the day of black tea known as “Kocha-no-hi” before. Unfortunately, this is not that popular as much as Halloween and Christmas…maybe far from them….But those who know it, know it very very well. Let me write about the day again just to remind you.

The day is set by Japan Tea Association in 1983 to boost the consumption of the tea. 

When is it? 

It’s November 1st, which was considered the very first day when Japanese ever had “black tea”. The person was a castaway, named Daikokuya Kōdayū. In 1783, his ship drifted on the way to Japan, but managed to escape to the Russian mainland. People there saved his life and he stayed for a while.He was received in audience by Catherine the Great and obtained permission to return to his country. Finally, he could come home.

He was lucky enough to get the permission, but also invited to her tea party on November 1st, having a cup of tea. This is why the day was chosen as “the day of black tea” in Japan.

I assume he must have been too nervous to appreciate his, and Japanese “first cup of tea”. 

Daikokuya Kodayu 

Enjoy "Autumnal" Tea!!??

Japanese autumn has several nicknames such as “sports autumn”, “reading autumn” and “appetite autumn”. It is because the season is not too hot and not too cold. ‘Goldilocks’ to do sports. The night is getting longer. People spend more time at home, which allow them to read more. Also it’s the harvest season including our staple food, rice. Other than that, we enjoy lots of food in season such as sweet potato, chestnuts, squash and mushroom to name but a few. 

I love to eat food using those products while drinking tea. Don’t you? What about drinking tea used those ingredients? 

The other day, I found “sweet potato, chestnut and squash flavored tea” at a tea shop. Unfortunately, as I'm not 'a those kind of infusion person', I didn't get it. But I know some enjoy it and feel autumn. Can we call it "autumnal tea"???  Maybe....maybe not. Ha, ha.

British Fair 2014

I posted about the event last year. Let me say this once again.

The British Fair is held at a well-known department store in Osaka at this time of every year. Tens of thousands of Anglophiles flooded during the fair. Especially, tea and scones captivate so many people every year. And it is no exception this year, either. Yes, no exception… Maybe you can see it from the picture.

People queued up for three hours to get a popular tearoom Bettys tea, for one and half hours to get fish and chips, and for hours to eat cream tea served by Davenports Tea room. Long long queues were everywhere. Unfortunately, I’m not patient, so I gave up joining in such a long queue, but luckily I was able to have “English Breakfast” without waiting long.(served by Eckington Manor, Worcestershire). Baked beans, sausages, scrambled eggs, and mushroom…..Baked beans are not popular in Japan. The taste of English sausages are different from that of Japanese ones. So I was happy to have the dish for the first time in a long time. That reminded me of my staying at London many many years ago. 

I gave in to such a crowd and didn't stay at the venue that long. Even so I felt "the sense of British" enough, which made me very happy.

Steep Yourself in Wakocha

Have you been to Kanazawa city, Ishikawa prefecture? Don't you have any plan to visit there at the beginning of November? 

As I posted earlier, the annual two-days Wakocha (Japanese black tea) event will be held on both 1st and 2nd of November. 

When you visit Kenrokuen garden, you will enjoy Wakocha tea ceremony. When you come to Kanazawa castle park, you can meet the tea farmers gathering from all over the country and sample tea from all over the country. If you are lucky to find your taste, you can get.

It will be a perfect opportunity for you to explore Japanese black tea. Steep Wakocha and steep yourself in Wakocha!

The event poster 

*Website about the event (Sorry, only Japanese)

http://www.teakumiai-ishikawa.com/

* My earlier post about the event

http://japaneseteastory.blogspot.jp/2014/09/lets-get-teagather.html