There are phrases in everyday use in Japan which use the word "tea (cha)." One of the most popular is "nichijo-sahan-ji (literally, everyday tea-meal affair)," which means "an ordinary event."
As the phrase above implies, drinking sencha tea is now very ordinary in the life of the Japanese, but the history of tea drinking in Japan goes back about 1,200 years ago.
The medicinal origins of tea
Tea is said to have originated in China. Legend claims that it was first used as an antidote for poisonous herbs by a great herbalist* about 4,700 years ago when tasting unknown herbs to find medicinal ones for the first time. He has been generally known as Shen Nong (the "God of Agriculture") in China for his great achievements as both a pioneer and a leader in farming.
*His findings were compiled in a book in the Dong-Han dynasty (25-220 A.D.) called "Shen Nong's Herbs," which is still a classic today. The medicinal effects of tea discovered by Shen Nong are referred to in the oldest known book of tea, "the Tea Classic," written by Lu Yu (the forefather of tea in China) in the 8th century.
The introduction of tea to Japan: lumped tea (dancha)
Japanese Buddhist monks returning from China at the beginning of the 9th century* are thought to have introduced tea to Japan. As well as learning about Chinese culture and institutions as members of diplomatic missions, they learned about the Chinese Buddhist monks' custom of drinking tea to intensify alertness during meditation.
*It was during the Heian period (794-1192) when the capital was in Heian-kyo (present Kyoto).
The monk Saicho was one of them. When he returned to Japan in 805, he supposedly brought the custom of drinking tea from China and encouraged it among Buddhist monks.
It is also recorded that in 815, on his return from China, the monk Eichu made tea for the Emperor Saga. An official tea garden was opened in the imperial palace and tea drinking started in the court and temples.
In those days, tea leaves were steamed, pounded into lumps and dried beforehand. These brown-colored lumps were shaved (or peeled off) and ground into small fragments, then boiled down in teapots to make the tea. Salt was added to season the tea.
The introduction of powdered green tea (maccha)
After the Japanese diplomatic missions to China were abolished in the late 9th century, admiration for China waned and the practice of drinking tea declined for some 300 years.
However, after the monk Eisai , who returned to Japan in 1191 from his second period of study in China, brought a new method of processing tea leaves and the tea ritual practiced in Chinese Zen Buddhist temples, the custom of drinking tea revived in the court and temples. In the ritual, powdered tea, green in color, was used; it was whisked into hot water with a tea whisk
Eisai brought back tea seeds and encouraged the cultivation of tea by praising the medicinal effects of drinking tea. The custom of drinking tea spread to samurai warriors, a newly appeared class, and became fashionable among them.
In his book "Kissa-yojo-ki (Tea Drinking for the Cultivation of Life), Eisai stated that the tea was a medicine to ensure longevity.
The first tea gatherings and appearance of tea sellers
Two significant movements popularized the custom of drinking powdered green tea in Japan during the period from the 14th to 16th centuries*. The first was the spread of tea gatherings in town and villages which featured tea tasting competitions. People would taste the teas and place bets on their guesses about the place of origin. In this way, tea became a popular beverage among the common people as well as the courtiers and feudal lords (daimyo). The second was the appearance of merchants selling tea to visitors at Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines.
The perfection of the tea ceremony
Tea was highly regarded by many Buddhist monks, but it was Ikkyu who advocated that the tea ceremony could produce greater enlightenment than hours of meditation.
After unification of the nation in the late 16th century, the tea culture centered on Kyoto also flourished among the wealthy merchants of Sakai* who were attracted by the elegant simplicity of the tea ceremony. Sen-no-Rikyu (right) was born there and studied the tea ceremony and Zen. He perfected the tea ceremony as a highly formalized ritual of preparing tea for guests. This is the origin of the present-day tea ceremony, with the use of powdered green tea (maccha), generally called cha-no-yu.
The introduction of a rolled form of green tea (sencha)
The Chinese Zen monk Yinyuan (Ingen in Japanese, right) was invited to Japan in the 17th century. He and his followers brought with them many new aspects of Chinese culture including the custom of drinking a new form of tea and the necessary utensils.
*founder of the Obaku sect of Zen Buddhism in Japan; he built Mampuku-ji, a major temple of his sect in Uji, Kyoto.
In China, by that time, powdered tea had been replaced with a rolled form of tea, and a tea ceremony using this new type of tea had gained popularity as one of the literary artists' accomplishments.
Tea leaves were heated in bowl-shaped Chinese iron pans, rolled and dried beforehand. To brew the tea, the grayish-green leaves were put into a teapot, hot water was added and the tea left to steep.
Mampuku-ji Temple, Kyoto
The rise of a uniquely Japanese method of processing tea leaves, and the spread of the new type of tea and tea ceremony
In the 18th century, a tea seller in Uji, Kyoto, Nagatani Soen (left) adapted the method of steaming, used in making powdered green tea, for making the new tea. He developed a highly original method of elaborately rolling and rubbing the steamed leaves into needle shapes on a drier. This made it possible to brew instantly a fragrant tea with a good flavor in a teapot.
The new tea, which was first sold and gained public favor in Edo (present Tokyo), became widespread. This method of processing tea leaves and the custom of drinking sencha tea continue today.
Nagatani Sannojo
Baisao* (literally, the venerable Tea-seller, 1675-1763, right) was originally a monk in the Obaku sect of Zen Buddhism. In his early sixties he started a new life as a tea-seller of sencha tea which he praised as a superb tea. He described it as pure, beautiful, elegant and aromatic. He spent the rest of his life in the pursuit of the ultimate fragrance and flavor in sencha tea. He was an advocate of a new kind of tea ceremony for sencha tea.
*He is now known as the father of the sencha tea ceremony.
This was eventually established and became popular among writers and artists called "bunjin," who had in common an admiration for Chinese culture. By the late Edo period (first half of the 19th century) tea masters had appeared and headed sencha tea ceremony schools.
Mampuku-ji Temple, Kyoto
The maccha tea ceremony or cha-no-yu, established by Sen-no-Rikyu, however, remained the preferred ceremony for the feudal lords (daimyo).
Rise of sencha tea: fall of maccha tea
In 1867, the Tokugawa shogunate was overthrown and with it went the policy of national isolation* and eventually the hierarchical feudal system. With the opening of a new era, the Meiji period, Japan began to rapidly modernize.
*The policy continued for more than 200 years, from 1641 to 1854.
The maccha tea was associated with the old feudal system and its popularity declined rapidly. Sencha tea, however, epitomized freedom and informality and became a symbol of the new society.
China went through a period of a social upheaval, from the outbreak of the Opium War in 1840 to the collapse of the last dynasty Qing (1616-) in 1912 following the Chinese Revolution, and during the period of disturbances a large quantity of fine utensils for sencha tea flowed into Japan. As a result, the world of sencha tea was enlivened and many tea gatherings were held on a large scale.
From harvest to processing tea leaves (right to left), Shizuoka
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Daisho-en, Shizuoka -- Revival of the maccha tea ceremony
The outbreak of the war with China in 1894 resulted in a radical shift in people's attitudes to the two types of tea. Sencha was associated with China, and as the general interest in China declined so did the popularity of the sencha tea ceremony. The maccha tea ceremony, however, had associations with traditional Japan and was revived as a symbol of spiritual Japanese culture and eventually secured a place in Japanese society as a necessary accomplishment for the refined woman.
Today the sencha tea ceremony is less popular than the maccha tea ceremony but, as a drink, sencha is an indispensable part of daily life.
