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The Yomiuri Shimbun Visitors learn the Japanese tea ceremony from an instructor at the Sakai Risho no Mori (Sakai Plaza of Rikyu and Akiko) cultural tourism facility in Sakai.
By Kazuhiro Maekawa / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer
17:15 JST, March 17, 2025
SAKAI — In Sakai, the city where the great tea master Sen no Rikyu (1522-91) was born and worked, tea culture is still alive and well. A Japanese tea cafe run by a long-established tea company attracts many visitors from near and far. The local government is hard at work promoting tea culture through a popular tourist facility with programs that teach people about Sen no Rikyu and the history of tea.
Rikyu established what is now known as chanoyu Japanese tea ceremony as a refined, aesthetically pleasing cultural activity.
Today, the public and private sectors in Sakai are promoting its cultural heritage as a way to both support the well-being of locals and attract tourists.
The Yomiuri Shimbun A cafe located in a renovated old house in Sakai serves matcha and sencha tea.
The cafe, located near the center of Sakai, is housed in a renovated classic machiya townhouse. In a relaxing atmosphere, with the aroma of tea floating through the air, customers enjoy sencha green tea poured from a teapot and matcha tea made from finely ground green tea powder.
“I wanted to create a place in Sakai where people could take their time and enjoy good tea in a relaxing space,” said Junichi Tanimoto, 66, explaining why he started the cafe. He is the president of Tsuboichi Seicha Honpo, a tea production and retailing company that was founded in the mid-19th century and now operates the cafe.
Sakai produced many tea masters during the Sengoku warring states period in the 15th and 16th centuries, the most famous of whom was Sen no Rikyu. Tea leaves for export came from all over Japan to Sakai, which was a center of trade. Tanimoto says that there were more than 200 tea-related businesses in Sakai in the mid-19th century.
However, the number fell due to damage from World War II. The company left Sakai and moved to neighboring Takaishi, also in Osaka Prefecture. With the rapid lifestyle changes that followed the end of the war, even in Sakai, there were fewer opportunities for people to enjoy the traditional tea ceremony.
At a time when Tanimoto was worrying about the decline of tea culture, he heard from a friend that a machiya townhouse in Sakai that was more than 200 years old was going to be demolished. The friend also asked if he had any ideas for how it could be used.
The Yomiuri Shimbun Junichi Tanimoto pours tea while talking about Sakai’s tea culture.
So Tanimoto decided to renovate the building to make it a place where people could experience “authentic tea.” He turned it into a cafe, called Saryo Tsuboichi Seicha Honpo Sakai Honkan, which opened in 2013 and serves high-quality matcha and sencha tea. It has grown into a popular spot with both locals and tourists and garnered praise for allowing people to enjoy tea in a place with a palpable sense of history.
Thinking that locals would be proud if they felt a closer connection to tea and tea culture, Tanimoto began holding classes to teach citizens how to brew leaf tea, in addition to his main business. Since around 2018, he has also been planting tea trees at elementary schools and parks with the help of the local Lions Club and the city of Sakai.
The city is also promoting Sakai’s tea culture as part of efforts to attract more foreign visitors.
In 2015, the city opened Sakai Risho no Mori (Sakai Plaza of Rikyu and Akiko), a cultural tourism facility themed around things like Sen no Rikyu and the tea ceremony.
The facility has tearooms associated with the Omotesenke, Urasenke and Mushakoji Senke family lines, all of which are directly descended from Sen no Rikyu. It also lets visitors have the rare experience of a participating in a tea ceremony under the guidance of a chanoyu instructor.
Sakai has many historical and cultural resources, including the keyhole-shaped Daisen Kofun mound, the largest of its kind in Japan, which is believed to be the burial mound of Emperor Nintoku. Despite having these resources, Sakai has not been able to effectively use them to boost tourism.
The opening of Sakai Risho no Mori was one of the measures taken to deal with the problem.
In recent years, boosted by growing interest overseas in Japanese culture, the facility has been visited by groups of foreign visitors nearly every week. It saw about 200,000 visitors in fiscal 2023.
“I want to provide people with opportunities to experience authentic tea culture even if they just come to Sakai on a whim,” said Masayo Miyamoto, 57, operations director of the facility.
The effort to promote Sakai as a “tea city” seems set to gain even more momentum going forward.
Tea producing areas hold events
Consumption of green tea in Japan was about 70,000 tons in 2023. Enjoying tea has long been deeply rooted in the daily lives of Japanese people. It is also recognized overseas as a part of Japanese culture.
In tea producing areas, there is a growing movement to revitalize local communities through tea.
The city of Shizuoka, which is one of the largest producers and consumers of tea in Japan, has designated Nov. 1 as “Tea Day,” for which it holds a variety of events. “Tea tourism,” visiting places such as tea farms, is also popular.
The scenery of tea fields in Wazuka, Kyoto Prefecture, where Uji tea is grown, has been designated as a Japan Heritage asset. The town now attracts many visitors. Tea picking events and walking events to enjoy the local scenery have also become popular.
