Visiting the oldest tea shop in Japan

Tsuen Tea in Kyoto is remarkable in many ways – it’s been offering loose leaf and soothing brews since the 12th century.

Tsuen Tea shopfront Credit: Lee Tran Lam

LISTEN TO

Tea: Scandal water, life saver, yum cha essential

SBS Audio

25/10/202325:20

Play

The tea house regarded as the oldest in Japan surprised me in many ways.

At the storefront of Tsuen Tea, there was no theatrical, tourist-luring signage declaring its incredible history. There was no souvenir stand loudly marketing merchandise for a place that is thought to be the oldest tea shop in the world.

In fact, the unassuming traditional building resembled the many other matcha merchants around Uji, a tea-growing region in Kyoto that’s been prized for its superior brews for centuries.

Credit: Lee Tran Lam

Although the current shopfront dates back to 1672, the business itself has overlooked the same location since 1160. It sits by the Uji River bridge (Uji Bashi), which has left its imprint on many pages of Japanese literature. It appears in The Tale of Genji, a millennia-old work known as the world's first novel and written by a noblewoman under the pen name Murasaki Shikibu.

The people behind Tsuen Tea are seen as guardians of Uji Bashi – one of the most ancient bridges in the country. And the family's story is worthy of a novel itself.

Tsuen Tea was started by a samurai named Furukawa Unai (who later became known as Taikeian Tsuen Masahisa), who died after defending the bridge in a famous battle. His final moments took place at nearby Byodoin, an iconic temple that also appears on the 10-yen coin.

it was stunning to think of the centuries of history that this shop had endured.

Now, the shop's loose leaf is sold by its 24th-generation operators. When the BBC interviewed its latest proprietor, Yusuke Tsuen, he told the media outlet that he'd known since his kindergarten days that his future workdays would be spent at the nine-century-old company.

"I am operating the business my ancestors started," he said. In Japan, continuing a tradition started hundreds of years ago by your family is pretty normal. Not too far away in central Kyoto, you can slurp noodles at one of the country's oldest soba shops, which is headed by Ariko Inaoka, the 16th-generation owner and first female proprietor.

I didn't know any of this when I first stepped into Tsuen Tea, though.

I had caught a train from central Kyoto and passed by bamboo forests, watching the fog-shrouded mountains loom closer as I got to Uji.

The shop itself was quiet and filled with beautifully packaged varieties of green tea: sencha, gyokuro and much more. Next door, you could sit down and order freshly whisked matcha and green tea noodles and sip hojicha. You were seated by the river, and it was stunning to think of the centuries of history that this shop had endured, in this same location by the bridge, where its samurai founder had fought.

One of the many pretty bridges in Uji. Credit: Lee Tran Lam

When I put together the tea episode of my Should You Really Eat That? podcast, I was struck by how ancient the tradition of tea drinking is. It's the most popular beverage after water and it's helped soothe bad days and also sparked many good gossip sessions over the years (I love that "scandal water" was Victorian slang for the drink).

Even though the significance of Tsuen Tea was underplayed from the moment I stepped into the shopfront, I'm glad its story isn't entirely hidden. Like a good cup of gyokuro or hojicha, it's something you can savour and slowly discover and appreciate over time.

Love the story? Follow the author here: Twitter @leetranlam and Instagram @leetranlam.