Category: History

Porcelain, a white, translucent, and non-porous material, was invented in China more than a thousand years ago. This ceramic is made with kaolin clay, and fired at a high...

Western and Chinese teapots usually have an upper or back handle. Have you wondered why the traditional Japanese teapot has a side handle? To answer this question, let’s take...

Kobori Enshū (小堀遠州) was a feudal lord and a famous tea master from the beginning of the Edo period. He was regarded as the greatest tea master of his...

If you’re into books about tea, you’ve probably at least heard of The Book of Tea, by Okakura Kakuzō (岡倉覚三), from 1906. Nowadays he is mainly known in the...

Sen no Rikyū, the most famous master of the Japanese Tea Ceremony, taught his disciples to “do things differently”. Most of them either kept doing the same, or just...

Saichō (最澄) was a monk from the Heian period who founded the Tendai school of Buddhism (天台宗) in Japan. He also brought tea from China to Japan with Kūkai,...

Sen no Rikyū (千利休), also written as Sen Rikyū, is best known for perfecting the Japanese tea ceremony. Such was his importance, that he served as the tea master...

Most of the tea produced in Japan is processed by machine, because doing it by hand (temomi process) is very slow and costly. Takabayashi Kenzō (高林謙三) changed the Japanese...

For centuries, matcha accounted for most of the tea drank in Japan. This would change in the 18th century, in large part by the efforts of a traveling monk...

People are often surprised to hear about Japanese black tea, or wakoucha (和紅茶), since Japan is mostly known for its green tea. Japanese black tea isn’t produced in large...

Takeno Jōō (武野 紹鴎) was the successor of Murata Jukō’s wabicha style of the Japanese tea ceremony. He was born in 1502 in what is now Nara prefecture. After...

Kūkai (空海) is a famous historical figure in Japan. He founded the Shingon School of Buddhism (真言宗) and along with a fellow monk named Saichō, brought tea seeds to...