Byodoin Omotesando: Roasting Hojicha and Five Hundred Years of Tea Merchants
Why is it significant?
Step onto the smooth stone pavement of Byodoin Omotesando, the historic approach avenue leading toward the temple gates, and draw in a deep breath.
Key Facts
| Place | Byodoin Omotesando: Roasting Hojicha and Five Hundred Years of Tea Merchants |
|---|---|
| Address | Renge, Uji, Kyoto 611-0021, Japan |
| Geo Coordinates | 34.89050, 135.80550 |
| Part of Walk | Kyoto: Uji Green Tea Heritage, Byodoin Phoenix Hall and River Shrines |
| Generated | Generated |
Step onto the smooth stone pavement of Byodoin Omotesando, the historic approach avenue leading toward the temple gates, and draw in a deep breath. The intoxicating, toasty aroma of roasting hojicha tea leaves rolls out from wooden shopfronts, tumbling from rotating metal roasting drums into the lively pedestrian street. On either side, historic two-story wooden merchant machiya display porcelain teaware, vibrant emerald matcha powders, hand-whisked tea parfaits, and steaming baskets of matcha dumplings. The street is a feast for every culinary sense. Steaming bamboo baskets give off sweet clouds of warm rice vapor as confectioners carefully shape fresh matcha dango skewers right before your eyes.
Look closely at the noren fabric curtains hanging above the doorways. Many of these merchant houses have traded green tea continuously on this very street for three, four, or even five centuries, having served as purveyors to the imperial court and Tokugawa shogunate. Notice the specialized wooden drying racks and bamboo tea sifters displayed in the windows, tools crafted by hand that have changed very little since the Edo period.
In the late sixteenth century, Uji tea growers invented the revolutionary oishita saibai, or covered cultivation technique. By draping straw screens over the tea bushes for three weeks before harvest, farmers shielded the tender leaves from direct sunlight. This forced the plants to produce intensely high levels of theanine amino acids and chlorophyll, creating the deep emerald color, sweet umami flavor, and velvet finish unique to premium ceremonial matcha.
Listen to the rhythmic clink of porcelain cups as shopkeepers offer visitors small complimentary bowls of freshly brewed cold-drip gyokuro, sweet and savory on the tongue. Take a gentle sip to let the rich, seaweed-like umami coat your palate before exploring the next historic merchant stall.
Follow the stone street south toward the tranquil forest approach and red wooden gate of Agata Shrine.