APPENDIX. 261 



japaot:se notes. 



TEA CULTUEE IN JAPAN. 



Kobe, Japan, September 15, 1876. 



It is always hard for travellers and correspondents to ascertain 

 bottom facts, and when successful they do not always possess 

 the technical knowledge which enables them to present under- 

 standingly the facts which they have gathered. In all my expe- 

 rience in the tea trade in the United States, and from the various 

 descriptive articles which I have read, I never obtained a clear 

 idea of the processes by which this important staple was pror 

 duced. 



During my visit in Japan I was therefore anxious to obtain 

 all possible information upon this subject. At the shipping ports 

 even I found a considerable conflict of opinion between tea mer- 

 chants upon various important points, and I therefore determined 

 to visit one of the principal tea-producing districts in the interior, 

 and, if possible, see for myself just how things were done. 

 Armed with letters from the American Consul at Hiogo, Mr. 

 !Reuwitter, to the Governor of Kioto Fu, in which is situated the 

 celebrated Yamashiro tea district, I proceeded to Kioto, which is 

 some fifty miles in the interior. I was courteously received, pro- 

 vided with an interpreter from the Government School of Agri- 

 culture, and advised to visit the town or village of Uji, in the 

 Yamashiro district, of which an ancient translation of an old 

 Japanese book says : 



"The village Uji, which lies in the east of Yodo, is very 

 famous for tea in this country. There are very old tea trees, at 

 least two or three hundred years old. 



" The ground in this village is so fit for tea-trees that no other 

 place can be equal in Japan. Almost all people of this village 

 live in planting the tea-trees, and taking care of the plants. 



" A great many quantities of tea are sent out all over this 

 country, and even foreign countries. That is most principale pro- 

 duction in this country. In the spring, women and girls pick the 

 leaves of the plants, and that is very beautiful sight. 



