Untitled

RICE AND TEA GUI/TUBE. 449
" Tea is still more important than silk, and its cultivation and manufacture
employ a considerably greater number of people. The tea plant was introduced
from China into Japan about the beginning of the ninth century by a Buddhist
bodze named Yeitsin, who presented the first cup of tea to Saga, the reigning
Mikado, who patronised the cultivation of the shrub. Since then its use has become
universal, and the home consumption is now so great that there is not much left
for exportation. So genial are the climate and soil of some districts for its growth
that the plant grows wild, while it forms hedges in gardens.
" Tea is produced throughout the greater part of Nip-pon and in all the provinces
of Kiu-siu. The finest
qualities come from Yamu-siro, but the two largest producing
districts are Isay and Owari.
Suringo, Simosa, and Koshui are the provinces
which supply the Yokohama market with the earliest new teas.
" Tea of the finer qualities requires special care in the cultivation. The planta-
tions are situated remote from the habitations of man, and as much as possible
from all other crops, lest the delicacy of the tea should suffer from smoke, impurity,
or emanations of any kind. Manure of a special kind is applied to the roots, con-
sisting of dried fish like anchovies, and a liquor expressed from the mustard seed.
No trees surround the plantations, for the}- must enjoy the unobstructed beams of
the morning sun, and the plants thrive best upon well-watered hillsides. The plant
is pollarded to render it more branchy, and therefore more productive, and must
be five years old before the leaves are gathered.
" The process of harvesting the leaves, or rather of storing the tea harvest, is one
of extreme nicety. The leaves of the finer and the coarser teas are sorted as they
are plucked, and no more of a kind are gathered in a day than can be dried before
night. There are two modes of drying, called the dry and the wet process. In
the one the leaves are at once roasted in an iron pan, then thrown upon a mat, and
rolled by the hand. During the whole operation, which is repeated
five or six
times, or till the leaves are quite dry, a yellow juice exudes. This is called the
dry preparation.
" In the wet process the leaves are first placed in a vessel over the steam of
boiling water, where they remain till they are withered. They are then rolled by
hand and dried in the iron roasting pan.
When thus prepared, less of the yellow
juice" exuding, the leaves retain a lighter green colour, and more of fine flavour.
When fresh dried, the tea is delicately susceptible of odours and requires to be
carefully guarded from their influence. The finest qualities are packed in jars, in
order to retain their aroma.* "
The Japanese are excellent husbandmen, or, at least, market gardeners. They
till the land in the same way that the European gardeners work their plots with
the spade and hoe. No weeds are allowed to sprout, and everything available for
niMiiiiring purposes is carefully utilised. The quantity of animal refuse used in
tin's way probably exceeds that which is actually consumed, for enormous quantities
of fish are imported from Yeso for the sole purpose of enriching the land. Never-
theless, the soil is inadequate for the ever-increasing population. All the plains
* Mossman, p. 189.