An Overview of the Commodity and its Commerce in Japan from 538 AD to 2024 AD
Jack A. Ryan
Obubu Intern #180
Foreword
Concerning the Writer and Introduction
This work is a short primer which focuses on the commodity and commerce historical past of tea in Japan. The impetus for the writing of this doc stemmed from the writer’s curiosity within the evolution of tea as a commodity and commerce product in Japan. This doc’s content material has been sourced from publications which have undergone tutorial evaluate. The utmost effort has gone into together with essentially the most correct obtainable info as of the time of writing. Any occasion of knowledge, evaluation, hypothesis, or commentary with out quotation has been provided by the writer. The intent and objective of this work is to function an introduction to the historical past of tea in Japan and to open the door for extra particular investigation. Readers are suggested to fastidiously take into account any discrepancies between the knowledge discovered on this primer and the numerous fashionable tellings of the historical past of tea in Japan.
Why Research the Historical past of Tea in Japan?
Familiarisation with the event of tea in Japan is each an mental and a sensible process. If one needs to grasp the how and why of latest Japanese tea tradition it’s important to seek advice from the iterative developments of the previous. A transparent-minded and rational perspective on the previous is likewise the perfect information for foreseeing future growth. As with many merchandise, tea in Japan could also be greatest loved alongside its full context. As soon as armed with the context of historical past a terrific many dichotomies might be explored in additional depth.
Pre-Fashionable Growth of Tea in Japan: 538 AD to 1867 AD
Asuka (538-710 AD), Nara (710-794 AD), and Heian (794-1185 AD) Durations: The Chinese language Origin of Tea in Japan
The apocryphal annal of Japan’s earliest historical past, the Nihongi, weaves a literary and engrossing story. From the Nihongi it’s evident that even previous to the rise of Tang dynasty within the 620s AD the island of Japan was firmly throughout the Chinese language sphere of affect. 1 Buddhist monks usually travelled to China from Japan for diplomatic and theological functions.2 Written accounts point out that the widespread tea tradition of the Japanese clerical class was a results of this cross cultural interplay.3 Tea in these early durations was largely relegated to the realm of formalised gift-giving throughout the bureaucratic and non secular lessons and was thought of a drugs relatively than a beverage.4 Following Chinese language apply, tea was fashioned into a tough brick after steaming, in a method generally known as dancha, after which floor up on a druggist mortar earlier than being steeped.5 Archaeological findings and written accounts from the sinophilic courtroom of Emperor Saga corroborate the presence of tea in Japan within the early 800s AD.6 When contemplating the lengthy cultivation interval for tea bushes, the quite a few mentions of tea in written accounts, and the crude nature of accessible tea cultivation strategies, all obtainable proof suggests the preliminary cultivation of tea bushes in Japan dates to the mid-700s AD. 7
Molecular archaeological evaluation signifies that every one the tea bushes from this early period arrived in Japan from the southern areas of China8 and that preliminary cultivation was undertaken by buddhist monks residing in what’s now Nara Prefecture.9 A sequence of fashionable legends credit two buddhist monks, Saichō (767–822 AD) and Kūkai (774–835 AD) the founders of the Tendai and Shingon colleges respectively, with the preliminary introduction of tea seeds into Japan.10 It’s extremely unlikely that these tales mirror actuality, nevertheless, as their travels to China within the early 800s AD had been just too late to totally account for the present reputation of tea within the Saga courtroom.11
Kamakura (1185-1329 AD) Interval: Early Home Developments
Whereas the courts of the Emperors drove a lot of Japan’s preliminary growth, by 1192 AD the landowning navy samurai clans had largely supplanted the Imperial household as de facto rulers.12 Though suffering from political instability, the brand new navy authorities, or shōgunate/bakufu, of the Kamakura clan oversaw a “new flourishing” of many types of excessive artwork.13 Whereas the Kamakura had been indisputably warlike they nonetheless granted patronage to intellectuals, monks, and medication males of their courtroom. The monk Eisai, or Yosai (1141-1215 AD), was one such favoured particular person who notably contributed to historical past one of many earliest treatises on tea in Japan – the Kissa Yōjō ki.14 In 1214 AD, Eisai legendarily served tea to the Kamakura shōgun as a hangover remedy, and the success of his treatment subsequently popularised the drink all through the samurai navy class as a medicinal beverage.15
Regardless of Eisai’s efforts, tea in Japan largely remained a commodity restricted to the higher bureaucratic and non secular lessons.16 Whereas there may be restricted archaeological proof to counsel that the instruments and methods for brewing powdered tea, reminiscent of Matcha, had been initially launched to Japan throughout this era by Tune Chinese language immigrants, the overwhelming majority of tea was nonetheless relegated to the dancha model.17 The opposite nice growth of the Kamakura interval was an early commercialization of tea. Twelfth century information inform of the primary taxation and commerce of tea grown in Japanese monasteries.18
Muromachi (1329-1573 AD) and Azuchi-Momoyama (1573-1603 AD) Durations: Rising Sophistication and Adoption
The Muromachi and Azuchi-Momoyama durations had been a politically turbulent period characterised by a sequence of chaotic wars. The assorted landowning samurai navy clans, headed by their daimyo, vied for the title of shōgun and thus de facto rulership of Japan. The Sengoku Jidai, or Warring States Interval, dominated this period starting with the 1467 AD Ōnin Battle and reaching a decisive conclusion following the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 AD.19 The more and more complicated nature of politics and warfare within the Sengoku Jidai was spurred on by a rising inhabitants, specialisation of labour, and technological sophistication.20
The fourteenth century marks a turning level within the brewing of tea in Japan as major sources communicate prominently of unfastened leaf, brick, and powdered types.21 The primary textual proof of tea cultivation exterior of a monastery setting can be famous on this interval as “nation tea,” or inaka cha, seems as a low high quality, however extra obtainable counterpart to tea cultivated by monks.22 The introduction of the Chinese language stone tea grinder, chausu, and the tea whisk, chasen, in roughly 1250 AD notably improved the aesthetic, textural, and flavour qualities of tea.23 By 1350 AD, tea manufacturing was widespread all through quite a lot of areas and even at this early juncture there may be textual proof to counsel heady competitors for the title of manufacturing the highest quality product.24 Uji Tawara would in the end come to dominate this competitors starting within the sixteenth century.25
By the fifteenth century, tea tradition was starting to penetrate into the center and even decrease lessons as free standing tea homes, chaya, started showing in peasant villages.26 The decrease lessons usually loved bancha or kukicha model steeped tea as a extra reasonably priced different to the extremely processed powdered tea.27 Specialised tea retailers seem in information throughout this century, each travelling and working out of everlasting retailers,28 and it is extremely believable that the earliest temae, or tea procedures, started with them.29 Whereas tea was changing into extra widespread the higher political class started to favour greater high quality tea and more and more related it with refined ceremonies. By the center to late sixteenth century, intellectuals reminiscent of Sen no Rikyū (1522-1591 AD) had firmly intertwined philosophy and tea tradition thus incomes a spot on the desk of essentially the most influential daimyo of the interval.30 This preliminary sadō, or “Method of Tea,”31 led to a tradition of ever evolving and competing artwork kinds involved with the preparation and delight of tea. Sadō continues in numerous kinds into the up to date interval.
Edo Interval (1603-1868 AD): A Golden Age
The widespread decentralisation, chaotic alternative, and violence which characterised the Sengoku Jidai was abruptly changed by a strict ossified social hierarchy enforced throughout Japan by the victorious Tokugawa bakufu. This unprecedented centralization together with the sudden urbanisation of the courtroom in Edo demanded a brand new stage of agricultural industriousness and home commercialization.32 Whereas the shōgunate would in the end atrophy and start to decay in its self-imposed worldwide isolation, a results of the notorious Sakoku coverage,33 there have been a number of vital developments in tea manufacturing designed to fulfill the luxurious calls for of the urbane lessons.
The tea commerce of the mid-seventeenth century grew to become characterised by a notable improve in home trade and delivery of tea. Even the far northern provinces took to importing “actually large” portions of processed tea.34 By the early eighteenth century, the mass cultivation of tea was actively pursued throughout Japan enabled by a category of more and more specialised employees, retailers, and middlemen. Cultivation methods grew to become extra formalised and by, at newest, 1587 AD the ōishita saibai, or roof-over technique, was being practised in Uji.35 This apply protected the tea bushes from pests and frost, but in addition engendered a better diploma of candy and umami flavour into the ultimate product. This wave of mass cultivation included the colder northern provinces through which specialised cultivation methods, reminiscent of shaping the bushes into intently packed spherical rows, had been developed to fight the much less appropriate local weather.36 Maybe one of many biggest triumphs of the Edo interval was the event of Sencha by Nagatani Yoshihiro, or Sōen (1681–1778 AD), in 1738 AD.37 Sōen’s creation impressed a monk named Baisaō (1675–1763 AD), who started spreading his “Method of Steeped Leaf Tea” throughout Japan through his tea store in Kyoto, thus extensively popularising Sencha.38 By the flip of the Nineteenth century, Japan had a rising shopper society, a hardworking captive labour drive, and a thirst for more and more scrumptious tea merchandise.39
The Nineteenth century noticed one other substantial growth in tea cultivation. Within the 1830s AD, the iterative growth of practices used within the cultivation of Sencha resulted within the creation of Gyokuro, or “jewelled dew,” in Uji Tawara.40 Sakamoto Tōkichi (1681–1778 AD) is commonly named because the determine who formalised the methods utilized in Gyokuro manufacturing, though he can’t be completely credited with its creation.41 The abundance of textual proof, the growing presence of tea retailers in cities, the event of tea-infused meals sorts, and the manufacturing of refined commercials within the mid-nineteenth century all level to tea changing into “an integral a part of on a regular basis life and possibly imbibed by virtually all residents of the archipelago.”42
Fashionable Growth of Tea in Japan 1868 AD to 2024 AD
Meiji (1868-1912 AD) and Taisho (1912-1926 AD) Durations: Ambitions Overseas
The self-imposed isolation of the Tokugawa bakufu was step by step ended by the growing presence of European and North American fishing, service provider, and naval vessels in East Asia. The King of the Netherlands, whose nation was the one European energy allowed any presence in Japan by the Tokugawa, warned the shōgun of the hazards of isolationism through a letter written in 1844 AD.43 In 1846 AD, an preliminary American effort to barter buying and selling rights with Japan led by Commodore James Biddle was turned away by the shōgun’s officers. A extra substantial expedition undertaken by Commodore Matthew C. Perry’s East India Squadron from 1852 AD to 1854 AD, nevertheless, couldn’t be so simply rebuffed.44 Perry’s aggressive negotiations resulted within the unprecedented Treaty of Kanagawa which granted the USA entry to the Japanese market.45 Comply with-along treaties permitting the French, Russian, Dutch, and British entry into Japan quickly adopted.46 With lots of Japan’s southern domains already resentful of Tokugawa rule, the shōgun’s outrageous submission to the imposition of overseas barbarians prompted the Satsuma, Chōshū, and Tōsa domains to modernise their very own navy forces with Western European gear and coaching in 1863 AD.47 Toppling the bakufu briefly order following a short civil warfare in 1868 AD, the alliance of rebellious domains “restored” the facility of the younger Emperor Meiji and commenced a marketing campaign of fast modernization designed to convey the Empire of Japan into parity with the Western European and North American powers.48
The origin and character of the Meiji authorities is important to the historical past of tea in Japan as a result of their developmental insurance policies would in the end form the fashionable Japanese tea business. Surpassing the navy and financial capacities of the opposite main international powers was the Empire of Japan’s new raison d’être. Shortly breaking into the worldwide market, Japan first started exporting substantial portions of tea in 1859 AD following the signing of the Treaty of Amity and Commerce between Japan and the USA.49 The Japanese authorities quickly adopted an export targeted commerce coverage designed to complement the state and finance industrialization. Alongside silk and coal, tea would turn out to be certainly one of Japan’s prime exports with the first buying and selling companion being the USA.50 The necessity to produce giant portions of tea for export quickly altered tea manufacturing: factories had been centralised in port cities, mountainsides had been deserted in favour of flatlands, and standardised agricultural practices had been disseminated by state companies.51
Within the first years of the Meiji interval, Japan produced 9,522 tons of tea.52 By the tip of the First World Battle, within the mid-Taisho interval, 38,434 tons of tea had been being produced.53
A median of sixty six % of all Japanese tea manufacturing was exported throughout this period.55 Within the late nineteenth century, state sponsored organs such because the Nationwide Tea Manufacturing Experiment Station and Group for Progress in Tea Processing introduced concerning the standardisation of hand processing strategies56 by the dissemination of greatest practices and agricultural gala’s.57 Wakoucha, or Japanese Black tea, and Oolong had been added to the repertoire of manufacturing following the insistence of the Lord of House Affairs, Ōkubo Toshimichi (1830–1878 AD), however export makes an attempt had been largely halted after the worldwide market confirmed extra curiosity in Sencha – which fashioned the huge bulk of all exported sorts.58
Mechanization enabled a decline in tea price, the growth of manufacturing output, and the fast improve of labourer wages.59 Takabayashi Kenzō (1832–1901 AD) developed the primary working prototype of a seicha massatsuki, or “tea processing friction machine,” in 1885 AD.60 Regardless of receiving certainly one of Japan’s first non-public patents for his invention and doing a good quantity of promoting, the excessive price, small capability, and restricted performance of the preliminary machine prevented it from gaining traction.61 Following Kenzō’s instance, Mochizuki Hatsutarō invented a tool for tough rolling and one for crumpling tea in a rotating method in 1900 AD.62 Usui Kiichirō, across the similar time, developed one other machine for positive, or delicate, rolling.63 In 1915 AD, Akiba Yasukichi made a terrific enchancment by perfecting an automated steamer.64 Within the realm of harvesting, Sakai Jinshirō (1842–1918) popularised the usage of harvesting scissors, versus handpicking, however the software didn’t acquire traction till 1918 AD as a consequence of high quality issues.65 In the end the usage of harvesting scissors, with extra modifications reminiscent of an hooked up bag, grew to become ten occasions extra environment friendly than hand selecting.66
As soon as these numerous machines had been mixed into an entire system by farmers mechanisation started in earnest.67 The period of te-momi-seiho, or guide processing, was step by step outmoded by han-kikai-seiho, or semi-mechanized processing, across the 1910s AD.68 Kekai-seiho, or fully mechanised processing, was extensively adopted by the tea business within the Thirties AD.69
Shōwa Interval (1926-1989 AD): A Shifting Panorama
Japan’s overseas coverage in the course of the late Meiji and Taisho durations prioritised increasing the Japanese sphere of affect throughout the Pacific. The Invasions of Taiwan (1874/1895 AD), the invasion of Ryūkyū (1879 AD), the First Sino-Japanese Battle (1894-1895 AD), the Russo-Japanese Battle (1904-1905 AD), the Colonisation of Korea (1894-1910 AD), and Japan’s restricted however fruitful participation within the First World Battle on the facet of the victorious Entente (1914-1918 AD) secured the Empire’s standing as a world energy.71 Within the reign of Emperor Shōwa, nevertheless, the Japanese navy officer-core, flushed with success and affect, started to dominate the civil authorities and steer the Empire right into a state of fixed, whole warfare, for full regional domination – culminating in Japan’s disastrous participation within the Second World Battle as a belligerent of the Axis Alliance.72 This political growth within the Empire, naturally, had an impression on each the worldwide tea commerce and home tea manufacturing. Export progress slowed considerably, fertiliser was deserted as a consequence of wartime shortage, chemical pesticide brokers grew to become extra prevalent, and botanical analysis was largely halted.73 Tea maintained a powerful home presence, nevertheless, and even in the course of the strictest durations of wartime austerity the drink was extensively obtainable to the Japanese public.74
The tip of the Second World Battle, and the next occupation of Japan by the USA, largely reversed the aforementioned tendencies in cultivation and analysis. Ever growing mechanisation, together with full automation, and excessive home demand spurred on by a renewed cultural consumerism drove tea manufacturing to new heights within the post-war period.76 The Nineteen Sixties AD and Nineteen Seventies AD launched a era of processing machines which had been extra dependable, accommodated the next capability, and ran with better effectivity than ever earlier than.77 Harvesting additionally benefited from elevated mechanisation. In 1950 AD in Nara, a motorised picker was developed which doubled the effectivity of the outdated harvesting scissors.78 In 1965 AD, Matsumoto Machines developed a operated by hand two particular person mower which doubled the effectivity of the motorised picker.79 By 1970 AD, the primary self-propelled rideable mowers to be used on flat floor had been developed which supplied six to eight occasions the effectivity of a motorised picker.80
Tea confronted its first severe competitors from espresso within the Nineteen Sixties AD, nevertheless, and by 1975 AD Japan grew to become the world’s third largest importer of the drink.81 Wakoucha, which had formally survived at a small scale within the home market, was quickly outmoded when import obstacles had been lifted in 1960 AD and an inflow of overseas Black tea prompted native manufacturing to break down.82 As a way to keep a rising marketplace for tea, Company organisations, such because the ZenNihon Chashō Kurabu, or All-Japan Tea Retailers’ Membership, labored to affiliate tea consuming with conventional tradition through promoting campaigns.83 These campaigns had been fairly profitable and the home market continued to thrive till the financial crash of the Nineteen Nineties AD.84
Heisei (1989-2019 AD) and Reiwa Durations (2019- AD): An Unsure Future
Maybe essentially the most vital growth of the Heisei interval was the event of plastic (PET) bottled tea by the producer Itoen in 1990 AD.85 Plastic bottle tea shortly dominated the home market as a consequence of its comfort and accompanying efficient promoting campaigns.86 Nearly all of Japanese tea manufacturing now serves to provide the plastic bottle tea business.87 Pc and digital expertise has additionally improved the effectivity of manufacture88 even because the variety of households producing tea declined by 90% from 1970 AD to 2001 AD.89
Because the post-Taisho interval decline, Japanese tea exports by no means actually recovered and solely a small minority of manufacturing makes it to the worldwide market.90 Within the post-war Shōwa interval, a median of solely 9 % of tea manufacturing in Japan was exported.91 Because the starting of the Heisei interval, a median of a mere one and a half % has been exported.92 There was a slight upwards pattern in export because the 2010s AD93, nevertheless, with social media and growing globalisation stimulating the worldwide market’s curiosity in Japanese tea. Formally low demand tea sorts, reminiscent of Wakoucha, appear to have regained a toehold area of interest within the home market. It stays to be seen how the Reiwa period’s ageing inhabitants of tea farmers and the growing centralization of tea manufacturing will have an effect on the way forward for tea in Japan.
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