HYATT REGENCY KYOTO

In the afternoons in Kyoto, as you walk along Shijo-dori Gion-machi Minamigawa with the Yasaka-jinja Shrine behind you, you will see people lining up after crossing Hanami Kouji Street. It is there, at the head of that line that “Saryo Tsujiri” is found.

Saryo Tsujiri is a Japanese dessert shop run by “Gion Tsujiri” and is an Ujicha (Uji green tea) shop of long standing. In fact, it was one of the first shops to introduce the “edible style” of Matcha (powdered green tea) throughout Japan. That style was influential enough to change people’s perception of tea within just 10 years.

The origins of eating Matcha as a dessert go back to around 1965. In those days, coffee shops were so popular that everybody drank coffee, and both Japanese tea and Matcha were disappearing from people’s everyday lives. In a shop called “Kyo Hayashiya” - which was opened by the fifth master of the teahouse “Hayashiya Saten” (founded in 1794)- Kyoto’s first “Matcha Parfait” was born out of the master’s wish “to make tea more approachable”. Matcha Parfait became well known throughout Japan as a result of word of mouth by Maiko (apprentice Geisha), and it became popular because people could enjoy Matcha without worrying too much about the etiquette and customs involved in tea ceremonies. Today, in Kyoto, people spend their afternoons eating Matcha and chatting with their friends, just like they used to over coffee.

We often consider Kyoto’s tea special and it has an image that differs from that of the tea of Shizuoka, the prefecture best known for the production of Japanese tea. The special nature of Kyoto’s tea may be derived from the fact that Kyoto’s history has developed along with its tea.

Ujicha is well known as Kyoto’s tea and its history goes back approximately 800 years to the end of the Heian period. In those days, Japan had a diplomatic relationship with China’s Song Dynasty, which made it possible for a monk named Eisai to go to China in order to learn about planting tea, tea-making tools and tea-making before returning to Japan. The teas that Eisai studied were similar to today’s Matcha. Later, a high priest named Myoe Shonin (from the Kyoto Kouzan-ji Temple) planted seeds given to him by Eisai in Kyoto’s Toganoo and it was thus that Ujicha was born. In the Muromachi period (1338-1573), with the encouragement of the Ashikaga Shogunate, the popularity of Ujicha spread throughout Japan. The tea masters of Ujicha continued to receive general assistance from the Shogun and, in the Edo period (1603-1867), it is said that, in the season for new tea, which was called “Ochatsubo Dochu”, they took their tea to the Shogun as a tribute. (Photo: Reproduction of the scene by “Chasho Iroku-en”). Under this patronage, Sencha (boiled tea) was later created by Nagatani Soen of Ujitawara-go Yuyatani. As you can see, there are various dramas behind tea in Kyoto, all of which have been played out over hundreds of years.

To enjoy tea in Kyoto means to touch the endless history of this beverage, which reaches back to the final years of the Heian period. In enjoying tea, you can also learn the new ways of tea that are unique to Kyoto, and that result from blending the old and the new.