THE FIRST Kondōwase Sencha

Shizuoka Prefecture, draped across the slopes of Mount Fuji and stretching to the Pacific coast, is together with Kagoshima Japan's largest tea-producing region — responsible for roughly 30% of the country's total output. Its tea history reaches back to the Kamakura period (1185–1333), when monk Shoichi Kokushi brought seeds from Song Dynasty China and planted the first bushes in what is now the Honyama district — still celebrated as a premium growing area over 800 years later.

What sets Shizuoka apart is its extraordinary internal diversity. The prefecture sits at the convergence of four tectonic plates, creating dramatically varied soils, altitudes, and microclimates across more than 20 distinct sub-regions. Mountain areas like Kawane, Honyama, and Tenryu are known for light-steamed single-cultivar sencha with pronounced aroma and elegance. The flatlands of Makinohara and Kakegawa specialise in fukamushi sencha — deep-steamed tea that yields a bright, opaque green liquor with a round, smooth mouthfeel. The Asahina district is celebrated for gyokuro. The Yabukita cultivar, which now dominates Japanese tea cultivation nationwide, was first developed here.

Green tea is woven into daily life in Shizuoka: served in schools at lunch, offered as a health ritual in households, and central to the identity of towns like Kakegawa, whose residents are noted for exceptional longevity.