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Introducing Yamamotoさん
Uji city is the most important growing terroir of Tencha (unground Matcha) but it’s arguably the smallest. “Ujicha” can be tea grown in Kyoto, Nara, Shiga, or Mie, so long as it is finished in Kyoto.
But grown in Uji? That’s a different story. The city has fewer than 40 growers total, and that number is likely to shrink.
Honzu Uji
Yet Honzu (rice-straw shaded) Tencha is even more rare. Our last count was just 9. Out of those 9, only one exclusively does Honzu shading. And that’s Yamamotoさん.
An Introduction
As of this year, Ooika will be milling Yamamotoさん’s Matcha in the United States for the first time. In the photo above, we can see Yamamotoさん and Ooika’s founder Marc standing in front of his Tencha factory, whose 1925 oven is considered the oldest still in use (101 years old this year).
This factory, being so old, produces a highly unique tasting Matcha that we will make available to you soon. We’ll send an email when his Matcha launches.
In other Ooika news, we recently launched oAir, our artist-in-residence program in Princeton.
Kagoshima is now Japan’s top tea region, Tencha output has tripled, and green tea exports hit a record ¥72.1 billion. Here’s what MAFF’s 2026 report says about where Japanese tea is headed.