{"id":1832,"date":"2022-04-06T10:23:39","date_gmt":"2022-04-06T16:23:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kuchatea.com\/blog\/?p=1832"},"modified":"2024-03-11T03:21:42","modified_gmt":"2024-03-11T09:21:42","slug":"fine-japanese-teas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kuchatea.com\/blog\/fine-japanese-teas\/","title":{"rendered":"Aesthetics, Artisanship Hallmarks of Finest Japanese Teas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Aesthetics, Artisanship Hallmarks of Finest Japanese Teas<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Rigorous attention to detail. Apprenticeships for mastering crafts like pottery and whiskey-making that last for years. Obsessive focus on ingredient integrity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What country is especially renowned for all of the above? Japan. It\u2019s small, spread out across 421 inhabited islands (Japan claims a total of nearly 7,000 islands), densely populated, and famous for its commitment to quality. The preoccupation with everything from aroma to design touches many aspects of life in Japan, including tea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where the birthplace of tea, China, supports hundreds of different teas<\/a>, the range is tidier in Japan. Most people drink green tea. Black, white and oolongs are available, but their consumption pales in comparison to green. In China, by contrast, greens remain the most popular, but the markets for the other main categories is robust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As with so many aspects of Japanese culture, the teas are unique. And the best of them are among the finest in the world. In fact, tea and the famous Japanese tea<\/a> ceremony (chad\u014d) stands as one of the three classical Japanese arts of refinement. Incense appreciation, or k\u014dd\u014d, and flower arranging, called ikebana, are the other legs of the stool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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K\u014dd\u014d<\/h3>\n\n\n
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Japanese incense is elegant, subtle and one of the pillars of the Japanese arts of refinement.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Incense appreciation dates back to 6th century, with the discovery of excellent-smelling agarwood on Japan\u2019s Awaji Island. By the time of the samurai in the 13th century, warriors would use incense to purify their minds before battle. During the late Muromachi period, in the 16th century, the samurai\u2019s appreciation of incense developed into k\u014dd\u014d, or the art of savoring incense. Tenets of incense appreciation that developed then, called the Ten Virtues of K\u014d,  persist today. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n