Tea Regions of Japan – Kyoto (Part 5) | Minami Yamashiro Featuring Kanekatsu Kitamoto Nouen

You can find it in several areas of Kyoto. Located on the southern tip of the prefecture, Minamiyamashira village is the second largest one. One unique feature of this area is that it has a dam, and mists created by it help to protect the tea bushes against frost. There is a dam called Takayama Dam in Minamiyamashira village. The tea bushes are very scary in the winter, but the temperature difference in spring is very severe. It's warm in the day and cold at night. The difference in temperature is that the Takayama Dam is full of water, and mist comes up from there. Not only in spring, but also in winter, it's easy to get foggy because of the dam. Mountain slopes here are also milder than in other areas of the prefecture, and Minamiyamashira was one of the first places in Kyoto to attempt large-scale tea production using driven harvesting machines. This place is called Aburame in Tayama district, Minamiyamashira village. It's a field called Challenge. Up until now, we've been able to grow tea in Ujidawara and other places, but this Aburame in Tayama district, Challenge, is the first large-scale tea production area in Kyoto. It's a 100% driven harvesting machine, and all the disinfection and disinfection work is done using this machine. It's the first place in Kyoto to have such a model district. Most tea in Minamiyamashira is produced by tea cooperatives. In Minamiyamashira village, there are about 80% of tea producers in three large tea cooperatives. In the past, Minamiyamashira used to be a sencha producing area. Recently, the production of sencha that is used to make matcha has grown a lot, and now it is the main tea made here. Kitamoto-san's family has been making tea for four generations. They used to belong to a tea cooperative and make sencha. Then, about 16 years ago, Kitamoto-san built his own tencha factory to produce the material leaf for matcha. I started the tencha factory 16 years ago, when I was 29 years old. Until then, I belonged to a tea cooperative in my hometown. Since then, I have been making sencha all the time. Working at a shared factory, Kitamoto-san didn't know what his tea was like. As tea leaves from all producers were mixed together. At the shared factory, we mixed tea leaves from various producers and made sencha. When I was in the industry, I went to various places, and when I became friends with Mr. Tonya, when we talked about tea, he told me that he didn't have his own Kitamoto Katsumi tea. He told me that he didn't have his own Kitamoto Katsumi tea. Kitamoto-san decided he wanted to make his own tea. But first, he wanted to learn from tea farmers in the neighbor areas. I wanted to make good tea. I got to know a lot of tea farmers in the neighbor areas. From Wazuka-cho to Yamashiro, Joyo, Uji, and Ujidawara. I wanted to learn from a lot of famous producers. At first, Kitamoto-san was not sure whether to build a sencha factory or a dencha factory. I had a lot of opportunities to interact with Mr. Tonya and Mr. Kouri in the tea-producing group activities. We talked a lot about the future of tea. At first, I was not sure whether to build a sencha factory or a dencha factory. I was not sure whether to build a sencha factory or a dencha factory. I thought I had to live on. I had a relative who had a sencha factory three years before me. I heard a lot about him. At the beginning, it was really hard. I had no idea what the color of the tea was like. We worked together in groups of 16 or 17 people. We split the work, which included cleaning and tea picking. We split the work, which included packing. But after some time, Kitamoto-san gained confidence, and his tea started to receive After I started making tea, I started to gain more knowledge, and my tea started to get better And when I started to get good reviews from the farmers, I set a new world record for the best tea in Kyoto With my own money Now, Kanaka Tsukitomoto-no-en manages about six hectares of land. We used to have 8.3 hectares of land in one building. But now we only have one steel mill. So we can't buy any more land. Even if we do, we can't process it all. So we decided to stop buying two hectares of land. We decided to buy six hectares. That way, all of our fields can be used as a steel mill. Regarding the future, Tsukitomoto-san would like to continue the tea production and organize more activities for foreigners. In the future, I want to focus on tea cultivation as much as I have done so far. When the pandemic is over, I'm sure we'll be able to come back to Japan. So I want to hold events where I can teach foreigners about tea properly. I want to focus on tea cultivation.