On the shelf stand two packets, Kaga bōcha and Kenjō Kaga Bōcha. Both give off a faint smell of dry stems. The names are alike, but they started from different places.

What follows traces two periods: one in which a use for stems spread through a region, and one in which a single intended cup sent someone searching for the right leaf.

A use for stems, passed around

After tea is sorted, thin stems pile up on the table. Kaga bōcha spread from a way of putting those stems to use.

Like seeds carried across a field on the wind, the method passed from hand to hand. A government encyclopedia of traditional foods records that a merchant found a way to use the stems and began selling Kaga bōcha. The method is said to have been made public and spread through the prefecture.

A tea first sold by one shop spread across a region as the way of making it became known. Kaga bōcha in this account is not the name of one company's product. That is as far as the record goes. Next comes a cup from a much later time.

Searching for the leaf for one cup

In a guest room, hojicha is poured into a cup. For that one cup, tea gardens across the country were searched for the leaf.

In one tea company's retrospective, a request came for hojicha to serve where the emperor would stay on a visit to the prefecture for a tree-planting ceremony. The company says it searched tea gardens nationwide and arrived at first-picked tea from a distant southern region.

It made that leaf into bōcha, a tea to be drunk in this place. Being a regional tea does not necessarily mean the leaf was grown in the same region. This is one company's own account, and it supports no more than that. Next, how the fire was set for that cup.

A light fire, a clean taste

A light, toasty smell rises from the bōcha. The aim was a light roast that kept the aroma and drank cleanly.

The retrospective records that the work did not stop at choosing the leaf, but went on to how to roast it and how to brew it. It did not simply push for a stronger roasted aroma. Aroma and the feel of drinking were weighed together.

What to use and how far to roast it were combined towards one goal. The record speaks to the thinking set down in the retrospective, and no further. Next, what happened once it went on sale.

A high price, and a slow welcome

In front of the price tag, the hand hesitates a moment. Putting it on sale the year after it was served did not succeed at once.

Like a shoot waiting under winter soil for spring, the new product needed time to be accepted. The company says it went on sale the year after the tea was presented. It also recalls that, priced high for hojicha, it sold slowly at first.

In the company's account, the idea of a premium bōcha later came to be accepted. A tea made for a special request and a product people buy every day are not the same thing. This rests on one company's recollection. Last, how the two stories overlap.

A regional tea, and a story within it

Set the two packets side by side again and the same brown stems show in both. Within a regional tea, the history of one product is layered in.

It is like a branch that grows later from one tree. The earlier year traces how Kaga bōcha spread through a region. The later year traces what set off the making of Kenjō Kaga Bōcha. Within the regional tea, new choices of leaf, roasting and attempts at a product have built up.

Knowing the two years changes how the two names on the packets read. They are not one story because the names are alike, nor unrelated because they differ. The record goes this far. The years and names are gathered just below.

The numbers in detail

Encyclopedia entry
The Kaga bōcha entry in the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries' Encyclopedia of Traditional Japanese Foods.
First year
In Meiji 35 (1902), the Kanazawa tea merchant Hayashiya Shinbei developed a way to use tea stems and began selling Kaga bōcha.
Where it spread
The method is said to have been made public and spread through Ishikawa Prefecture.
Retrospective
Maruhachi Seichajo, "How Kaga bōcha became Kenjō Kaga Bōcha".
The presentation
In 1983, when Emperor Shōwa visited Ishikawa Prefecture for the National Tree Planting Festival, the company was asked for hojicha to serve where he stayed.
Origin of the leaf
The search of tea gardens nationwide arrived at first-harvest tea from Kagoshima.
Going on sale
It went on sale the year after the presentation and, priced high for hojicha, sold slowly at first.