Family Kadota (Miyazaki)
The traditional Kamairicha tea garden run by father and son Kadota is located in Miyazaki Prefecture on Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan's four main islands. The friendship with the neighboring organic tea garden family Morimoto has existed for many decades and has influenced the history of the Kadota business.
The Kadota tea garden plots are really tiny compared to other tea gardens today. The total size is 2.6 hectares. By comparison, many family-run tea gardens are between 4 and 10 hectares in size, while larger farms can cover areas of 100 hectares or more.
Since many steps in the production of Kamairicha at Kadota are carried out by hand with great care, it would not be possible to process the freshly harvested tea leaves in larger quantities. Although the quantity of Kadota's rare Kamairicha teas is so small, father and son have to work day and night shifts during the tea production period in order to be able to produce Kamairicha on the historic equipment over a period of several weeks. The leaves come from several small tea garden plots. Some of them are located directly next to the small factory, where Kadota's house is also located, while others are a few kilometers away in a slightly higher location. Kadota's tea garden plots contain some typical Kamairicha shrubs such as Yamanami and Zairai, but also the Yabukita shrub variety.
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Since many steps in the production of Kamairicha at Kadota are carried out by hand with great care, it would not be possible to process the freshly harvested tea leaves in large quantities. Although the quantity of Kadota's rare Kamairicha teas is so small, father and son have to work day and night shifts during the tea production period in order to be able to produce Kamairicha on the historic equipment over a period of several weeks. The leaves come from several small tea garden plots. Some of them are located directly next to the small factory, where Kadota's house is also located, while others are a few kilometers away in a slightly higher location. Kadota's tea garden plots contain some typical Kamairicha shrubs such as Yamanami and Zairai, but also the Yabukita shrub variety.
From the perspective of Kadota and his son, the type of tea processing that takes place here is a valuable treasure, as it is now unique in Japan. The cast iron equipment used here is now between 50 and 100 years old. The processes are reduced to the essentials. There are no conveyor belts to transport the tea from one drying drum to the next. Everything is done by hand. The two use all their senses to check the structure, smell, moisture, and elasticity of the leaves and decide how long each of the individual drying steps will take. Once they decide that the tea leaves have reached the desired stage, they remove the leaves from the respective cast iron kama and transfer them to the next machine. Son and father Kadota are completely focused on their work, calm and collected. It is clear that both know exactly what they are doing. They are at one with the tea they produce.
The highlight of the processing is, of course, the 100-year-old Hon-Gama (“real kama”), three of which were made by Shigeru Morimoto's father, Ryotaro Morimoto. When Ryotaro Morimoto stopped producing kamairicha many decades ago and switched to sencha production, he gave the old Hon-Gama to the Kadota family, who still use them today. Ryotaro Morimoto and Junji's father still fired the old Hon-Gama with wood. However, as the smoke and the procurement of the right firewood repeatedly caused difficulties, Junji and Yusuke Kadota now use a gas flame to heat all their Hon-Gama. But that is the only change the two have made to the old factory.