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Sakano Iwakura, Sacred Rock For Inviting Gods
the tree
stone wall strawberryOCHA aka green tea
Shizuoka is a major producer of green tea in japan, both in terms of quality and quantity .
The mountainous districts around the basin of Abekawa, Ohigawa and Tenryugawa rivers, all famous for their tea plantations.
Shizuoka boasts about 41% of the tea plantations in Japan, and our share of tea production is roughly 45% of the national crop.
ORIGIN OF TEA
Although the origin of tea in Japan is not clear, it is said that in the Nara/Heian era the custom of drinking tea was brought by monks from China, who also brought seeds of tea trees.
There is a Chinese poem which support the hypothesis that we had native tea trees in Japan. A court lady of the Saga Emperor wrote: "she boiled the spring water and made some tea. The tea with a little bit of salt tasted better."
Also there is a poem saying that the Taijou Emperor had tea with the monk Kaikou, seeing Kuukai off when he went back to the mountain. From these we can guess that the custom of drinking tea had spread among the upper-class at that time.
