Three Centuries of Tea Tradition: Tour and Tasting at a Historic Himeji Tea Farm

Beyond Mere Matcha Mania: Opening the Door to Authentic Japanese Tea Traditions

In an area best known overseas for the excellently-preserved Himeji Castle, the rural countryside outside the city has also long been home to tea fields. Your private journey here begins at Himeji Station – 45 minutes from Kyoto Station or 30 minutes from Shin-Osaka Station by shinkansen. Yoshiyuki Akamatsu, owner of tea purveyor Shirasagi Sabo, provides stationfront pickup and transport into the rural countryside of Kamikawa.

Born into a long-established Himeji tea family, Akamatsu now shares the diversity of Japanese tea in a way that is approachable for tea neophyte and aficionados alike, grounded in experiential practice, and designed for simple daily enjoyment. Shirasagi Sabo aims to expand the reach of tea and help more people to appreciate it and understand how best to enjoy it in all of its varieties.

Akamatsu holds a sixth dan in tea appraisal technique – a prestigious title awarded only to top experts with extraordinary sensory skills. This is a distinction which recognizes the ability to appraise tea through blind judging of its aroma, appearance, and taste. In this experience, Akamatsu guides his guests in developing these sensibilities for themselves, learning to see, smell, feel, and of course taste the various qualities for themselves: detecting the different balances of light crispness, umami, sweetness, and bitterness that emerge from different regional varieties of tea, different processing methods, and different brewing times or water temperatures. All of this enhances the joy of drinking tea.

Senrei Tea: A Three Century Story of Cultivation in the Mountains of Hyogo

Kamikawa is a town of mountains, clear water, and quiet rural scenery north of Himeji in Hyogo Prefecture. Your first stop in the experience is the tea farm and processing facility of Senrei, whose tea fields have been tended for over three centuries. Its current proprietor, Shunsuke Nomura, is proud of this long living memory his tea carries, shaped by the soil, water, and seasons of its local terroir.

Senrei Tea traces its history to the 1716 encouragement of tea cultivation in the area by Joku, the Shorenji Temple’s sixth head priest. Later, in 1725, the name “Senrei” is said to have been bestowed by Prince Honkakuin, the 22nd head priest of Kyoto’s Hokyoji Temple, in the form of a scroll of calligraphy.

Current purveyor Shunsuke Nomura assumed responsibility for these tea fields when they were on the verge of disappearing, as the previous generation of farmers had aged out of the demands of the work and had no successors. A former regular office worker with a budding industry in agriculture, Nomura stepped up to take over the business. He drew on a background in business development projects to help him approach tea farming not only as historic preservation, but as a challenging business project, focusing on producing delicious tea while through efficient and sustainable methods.

Discovering the Early Life of Tea Leaf

Nomura takes guests of this experience into the tea fields and processing facility at Senrei for a private tour. Learn how the process of growing tea differs from crops such as rice or vegetables, and how each harvest captures a snapshot of the condition of the land, the seasonal climate, and care given to the plant up to that point in time. You can even hear about Nomura’s philosophy of eschewing chemical fertilizers and pesticides derived from fossil fuels.

In addition to touring the facility and enjoying a talk with Nomura, you might also try picking a small amount of tea leaf if the seasonal timing and conditions of the day allow. Fresh unprocessed leaf can be put to use in a few simple ways – from lightly steaming in a microwave to produce a basic raw form of green tea or letting them dry out for use as white tea, to even enjoying the early, tender spring leaves as a cooking ingredient.

*Tea leaf harvesting availability varies, and is subject to seasonal timing.

Cha-kabuki: Traditional Tea Games for the Modern Palate

After the field and factory visit, rejoin Akamatsu in the Senrei Tea Farm Cafe for the second half of the experience, where Japanese tea becomes an education and adventure in tasting. Cha-kabuki is a traditional form of tea game in which several teas are served blind, and participants try to identify their variety or origin by comparing aroma, color, and flavor. It developed from a tea-guessing and gambling pastime enjoyed by aristocrats and warriors in the Muromachi period (1336 – 1573) known as Tocha.

Akamatsu’s cha-kabuki experience is designed to lower the bar to entry for overseas guests, making it easy for neophytes to overcome any intimidation they might feel about the world of tea and dive right in. Akamatsu introduces foundational Japanese tea varieties and concepts, demonstrating how different regions tend toward different trends in flavor due to their climates, and how different growth and processing approaches such as in shaded growing, steaming, or drying yield different flavors – and that’s before even getting into the differences caused by brewing methods. Compare different brewing methods, sencha, deep-steamed sencha, and kabuse-cha, – and discover just how much range of possibility exists within tea leaf, and just how far Japanese tea culture truly extends beyond the current international trends of matcha mania.

On a more practically useful level, you’ll also get expert guidance on brewing technique for delicious tea using a kyusu – a traditional Japanese side-handled teapot. By learning how water temperature, tea quantity, and steeping time change the cup, you’re sure to gain skills that will serve you well in your day-to-day life for years to come. Those interested in optional add-ons might opt to visit on a Wednesday for the opportunity to rent out the entire Senrei tea cafe for exclusive private use, or else just opt for a pairing menu of sweets treats with your tea.

The Living Culture of Japanese Tea, Revealed in a Farm Visit

This experience is designed to take travelers beyond simple sightseeing to make meaningful connections with the agricultural and culinary traditions of Japan – and the people on whose work and expertise this culture depends. See the tea fields up close, learn all about the steps that take tea from the tree to cup, taste the subtle differences, and discover the simple pleasure of brewing and sipping a good cuppa. Food lovers, family travelers, and anyone with a fascination for rural culture are sure to come away with the memory of a lifetime.

*Guests returning to Himeji Station are also welcomed to drop in at the nearby Shirasagi Sabo retail shop to check out additional tea varieties and tea accoutrements.

The meeting of two missions, at opposite ends of the process of producing great tea, is also apt to stick with you. While Nomura labors to carry on the work of producing delicious tea with traditional sustainable methods at a legacy tea field with a history of more than three centuries, Akamatsu works to help connect people with fine Japanese tea and expand their understanding of it as something rich with possibility, sensory delights, and simple joy for daily life. Together, Shirasagi Sabo and Senrei Tea offer a Wabunka-exclusive experience that follows tea from the mountain field to the steaming cup.