Page:Japan by the Japanese (1904).djvu/461

The cultivation of tea in Japan may be said to have had its origin some two thousand years ago. At that time a Japanese priest visited China, and on his return brought with him some seeds of the tea-shrub. He sowed the seeds, and thus came into existence the first Japanese tea plantation. Beginning on such a small scale, for long the industry made but small progress. Much encouragement was given to the planters in the Middle Ages by the Imperial family. During the reign of Senin-Tenno (A.D. 131–192) a hundred priests were invited to the Imperial Court to read one of their books. On the second day they were served with tea called ‘hiki cha.’ This is one of the first mentions of tea in Japanese history. Unfortunately, it is impossible to learn in what way the tea was prepared. The Shogun promulgated special ordinances to induce the Japanese peasants to plant tea. This brought new life to the industry, and it rapidly rose to the position it now fills—namely, one of the staple productions of Japan.

In those early days the tea went by the name of ‘sen cha’; the methods of preparing it were much superior to those now in use.

In the year 1600, by means of different methods, two kinds of tea were prepared—‘hiki cha’ and ‘sen cha.’ At the time of the opening of Yokohama to trade, in 1859, the principal tea districts were Kyoto, Shizuoka, Mije, and Shiga. Also some spots in the centre and west of Honshin.

At first tea of the best quality was exported without any preparation, because there existed at that time no drying factory. While this was all right for best quality teas, those of lower grades lost their flavour so quickly because of the dampness that the foreign merchants found it necessary to have them dried again at Shanghai. This is how it comes that Japanese tea is often dried and packed in the Chinese manner.

About 1862 a foreigner opened a drying factory in Yokohama, to the great advantage of the export trade. The price of the Japanese teas was high because of its good quality. In 1868 a tea-market was opened at Kobe, but, as it was necessary to send the tea to Yokohama to be dried, it did not succeed materially.

In 1872, when America took off the import duty on tea, the export trade grew apace, and the price mounted. In 1874 the demand for tea grew so rapidly that the merchants took less