Tea Regions of Japan – Kagoshima (Part 2) | Minami Kyushu Featuring Haruichiban

Tea is grown in many areas of Kagoshima prefecture, including Minami-Kyushu city. The city is located on the southern tip of Satsuma peninsula. It is home to the peace museum and old samurai residence street. In terms of tea, Minami-Kyushu is the largest tea producing region in Kagoshima and in the whole of Japan. In 2020, the production was about 12,000 tons or about The tea growing area here is really wide and flat. It is blessed with rich volcanic soil. The climate in Minami-Kyushu is warm all year round and tea can be harvested up to five times a year. Normally, we harvest tea up to four times a year. We harvest tea up to four times a year and we harvest tea five times a year in autumn. In fact, we harvest tea once or twice a year. We harvest tea once or twice a year. We harvest tea three or four times a year. Tea from Minami-Kyushu is also usually deep-steamed. In Japanese, that is called fukamushi. It's mostly fukamushi. If you say fukamushi in Kagoshima, in Japan, it's called tsuyomushi. Tsuyomushi. That's what we call fukamushi in Kagoshima. In addition to that, tea is usually shaded for just a few days, though much shorter than matcha or gyokura. This helps to improve the tea qualities, like its appearance and taste. As a feature of Minami-Kyushu, it is characterized by a good color. It is characterized by a good color. The tea leaves are soft, so when you drink it, it's easy to get small. It's easy to get small. Minami-Kyushu, as the whole of Kagoshima prefecture, is also known for using a variety of cultivars in tea production. This means that there are a variety of cultivars. Yamakita, for example, doesn't have a lot of cultivars, but there are various cultivars that come in in abundance. As I said earlier, there is a working test yard and high-end people plant a variety of cultivars and grow a variety of cultivars with various varieties and with a scent. This is a unique characteristic of Chiyan. At Haru Ichiban Tea Farm, there are many different cultivars too. Now Minami Kyushu mainly produces green tea. When after the Second World War the production began to grow, most of the tea farms started by making black tea. Haru Ichiban was no exception. But it all changed after the black tea import liberalization in 1970. At that time, tea farmers couldn't sell black tea anymore and most switched to making green tea instead. Yamaguchi-san really likes plants and farming. Yamaguchi-san always wanted to make and sell his own product. That's why he decided to open a tea farm in Kyushu. That's why from the beginning he focused on retail. Now Haru Ichiban is doing well, but at the beginning Yamaguchi-san didn't have any sales experience and it was very tough. He had to learn everything by doing. In general, tea growing is hard work, especially during the harvesting season. There is little time to sleep. However, it seems that the tea situation in Minami Kyushu is not so bad compared with some other products. There are a lot of places where you can make tea if you don't ask for a loan. In that case, tea is still better. Of course, there are a lot of tea farms, but I think the industry is still better. If you don't look at your position, everyone thinks they are the most difficult. But that's not true. There are more difficult people, so we have to find a way to live. Regarding the future, Yamaguchi-san is not just thinking about his own tea farm. He is thinking more widely about the whole region. The soil has a lot of sand, so it's hard to manage. In the first place, the area of the tea farm and the tea field are about the same, so it's hard to manage the tea field. If there is a bamboo on the tea field, bamboo comes into the tea field. It's hard to get that bamboo. It's completely different in that area. That's why it's getting harder and harder to get it. It's impossible to regenerate it because everyone is putting it in. I'm thinking about whether I can do it in a vineyard. Wine. I'm thinking about whether I can make wine. I'm gathering members now. There are people who have a winemaking license and people who have an export license, so if you make it, you can sell it. If you plant it, you can make it. It will be wonderful to see thriving tea farms and the winery in Minami Kyushu City.