[wind chimes ring]
[ice cracks]
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[soothing music plays]
♪♪
-Japanese tea is not simple about tea leaves,
but also about a space that incorporates
cultural factors, as well as our style of brewing.
And while you may refer to it as an art form,
it's all about the style and effort I take to spread the
concept of Japanese teas as it relates to these concepts.
♪♪
Like many other things, tea first arrived in Japan
from China.
Tea first came to be spoken of in the period starting between
the Kamakura and Muromachi eras, and it's been going strong from
that time all the way up until today.
Tea is generally something where we use fire in order to halt
fermentation, but Japanese tea uniquely makes use of steam
instead for the same purposes in the creation of our green tea.
And that's what brings about the beautiful shade of green
our tea possesses.
That's become quite important.
♪♪
After all, tea can just be tea itself,
but people can really shift their thinking
or assist in healing or create any number of experiences.
So I communicate what is in my heart
to my customers' very hearts as well.
I believe this is what tea is all about.
♪♪
My personal role is finding tea from throughout Japan
and preparing said tea so as to be able to provide delicious
Japanese tea to all our customers.
I also blend in-season fruits and ingredients with a variety
of teas to create seasonal blends that bring
about a brand new level of value.
It's been about 10 years since I started my work as tea master.
♪♪
Wile we can say that the occupation of "tea master"
itself is quite new, and really only developed into
its current shape as I was first opening my store,
I'd say that the time I personally associated with tea
was about 10, 16 years ago. Yeah.
Well, about the process of brewing tea,
we here at our store use ladles from teakettles and iron stoves
to supply our hot water.
There are many ways to brew Japanese tea based on type.
[water splashing]
For gyokuro and high-level sencha,
we use a tool called a yuzamashi to slowly cool the hot water
before brewing.
From there, a small teapot or handle-less Japanese teapot
where the tea leaves were present is used.
These are also quite important because of the major role they
play in the characteristic brewing process.
We use these sorts of tools for teas brewed at high temperatures
or those brewed slowly at low temperatures.
We use these to put our all into brewing a variety
of delicious teas.
Then there's houjicha, which, since long ago, has been made
using an earthenware baking pan called a houroku.
We use it to immediately put the heat on once an order comes in
and thus be able to prepare the tea as soon as it brews.
♪♪
Well, I put my all into it while brewing.
There's this phrase referring to when you're always striving on
a daily basis called "when the heart has gone into the hands,"
which I learned from my master.
It refers to when what was in our hearts has been passed on to
our hands and then goes on to reach the other party's mouth.
So I handle my ladle like so and brew the tea while holding the
houbin, or other small teapot.
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