Zen temple Kenninji in Kyoto

On the Kyoto trip, we visited Kenninji, a temple of the Zen sect. Kenninji has a very famous folding screen. It is the image of the wind and thunder gods. This is one of the national treasures of Japan, and a hallmark of Twwaraya Sotatsu’s work. (The image in this picture is a replica.)

Kenninji is the oldest Zen temple in Kyoto, and was founded in 1202 by the priest Yosai (or Esai). Yosai is studied in China, and the one who introduced tea culture into Japan.


There are Buddha statues and dragon painting in the hall. The twin Dragons were drawn on the ceiling.

The painting is dynamic and dragons are very alive. I loved it.

Kenninji has a tea house, Toyobo, which is a typical Riky style. The tea house was used at a historical large tea ceremony, Kitano tea ceremony.



Kenninji has some gardens. Each one is unique. One has big rocks and trees with dynamic composition.

Another one is a simple courtyard with a single tree and white graves.

There is another courtyard. It is a beautiful moss garden with rocks and maple trees. People were looking out into the yard, and relaxing in the tatami rooms or at decks. I really loved Kenjinji. It will be definitely one of my favorite temples.

Breeds of tea plant

I decided to enter a Japanese tea tasting contest for tea advisers and instructors. The specialized abilities and experiences are need for the tea tasting. I have taken few workshops about it, but I’m still new to the tea tasting. I want to learn more about Japanese tea, and I thought that participating the contest will be a good experience, and I could learn more about tea.


The other day, there was a meeting in Mie prefecture to practice tea tasting for the contest.
There will be four type of tasting in the contest.
1. Telling the picked season of tea by dry leaves
2. Telling the breed of tea by brewed tea
3. Telling the production region of tea by dry leaves
4. Telling the production region of tea by brewed tea

We practiced all four at the meeting. I could try single breed tea for the first time for the second tasting practice. The most tea sold at tea shops are usually blended some breeds of tea. Each breed has distinctive flavor, and you can make delicious tea by blending them, and keep certain quality of tea. Single breed tea is not so major. Here are some breeds that I tried at the meeting.
The comment on each breed is my personal opinion, not general description. It is what I felt and find in the tea at the meeting.

Yabukita
The most major breed in Japan











Samidori
Mild and aroma like chest nuts











Komakage
Flavor of Japanese honeywort











Okumidori
Well balanced flavor but not much umami











Goko
Rich flavor with umami











Sayamakaori
Strong












Kanayamidori
Aroma like mint, milky flavor with sweetness

Karigane tea (twig tea) at Iyemon salon in Kyoto

We went to Kyoto, again. I like visiting small rustic shrines or temples that have cozy Japanese garden. But this time, we visited some famous big temples.


We visited Nijo Castle, which was designated as an UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1994. It was built for the official Kyoto residence of Shogun (the leader of samurai), and it has good examples of Early Edo period building designs, lavish paintings, and carvings. Webpage (Japanese) >>> http://www.city.kyoto.jp/bunshi/nijojo/index.html




We also visited Iyemon salon, Japanese tea café. It is popular, and we had to wait for 20 minutes to get in. When we were seated, cold green tea was served. I had hamburger steak for the lunch.





Since Iyemon salon is Japanese tea café, I wanted to try some tea there. I ordered karigane tea, twig tea. When tea is produced, the leaves, twigs and fine broken leaves are sorted. The twigs are called, kukicha or karigane. Karigane is usually reasonable than leaves. But the price is depends on what tea the karigane is made from. Ofcause, the karigane from gyokuro is expensive, and the kregane from cheap sencha is reasonable. The tea came in the teapot, and I brewed it myself.








I waited for a minute, and poured the tea into the cup. The brewed tea is clear light yellow. My image of karigane tea is light and simple in the flavor, and it has delicate sweetness, but this karigane was different. It had nice umami and profound flavor. I found the umami that I had never tasted in karigane. I was surprised with the taste; it changed my image of karigane. I loved the tea (^-^) I guess I had drank some cheap karigane, and this karigane must have been made of some good tea.

Telling good sencha by appearance of dry leaves

Can you tell good sencha by the appearance of dry leaves?

The color should brilliant deep green for sencha. Somber dark green, yellowish or reddish green are not good. Good leaves have a little luster, and low quality tea looks dry on the surface. The shape should be very thin spindle shape, like needles. Tightly rolled leaves are good. Loose rolled leaves, uneven leaves, too many twig or broken leaves are not good.



So, can you tell good tea and bad tea from the five sencha?
The color of following individual pictures is not even among the five. Sorry. To compare the color, please look at the group photo above.


The answer is ….

“エ” > “ア” > “ウ” > “オ” > “イ” The order from the best one
(I typed a Japanese character. I hope it doesn’t show garbage character on your PC)

　　　　

How was your prediction? Can you tell the best one?

The best quality sencha out of the five is “エ”. (Japanese character)
The leaves look tightly rolled and thin. The leaves are very fine and beautiful.




The worst one is “イ”. (Japanese character)
The leaves are rough and uneven. You can't tell from this picture, but it was actually a little yellowish. It has some swigs.



I wish I could show you the correct color of sencha. But I’m glad if you find some hits for telling good sencha from today’s post. I hope this will help you to find good sencha at tea shops (^-^)

Japanese tea tasting workshop

The other day, I joined a workshop for Japanese tea appraisal (?), or I should say Japanese tea tasting. Sorry, I don’t know the correct English word for it. Anyway, I practiced three types of appraisal for sencha.

1. Telling the picked season of tea by dry leaves
2. Telling quality of tea by dry leaves
3. Telling quality of tea by brewed tea
There were five samples on each appraisal.


The third one was very difficult. As I was tasting many tea, I was losing the sense of taste, and could not tell the subtle difference. I think the first impression may be very important at tea tasting.








I was good at the second appraisal, (Telling quality of tea by dry leaves). I was perfect on this. Can you tell which leaves are good and which are bad out of the five? In this practice, you have to answer the order of the quality from good one to bad one. I’ll tell you the answer on the next post.




Click for the large picture

About Japanese confectionery I tried the other day

Some people asked me what the tastes of the sweets are like, which I introduce on the last post. These jelly-type sweets are popular in the summer. I don’t know exactly how they are made, but I think they are made of agar and sweated bean past. Brown one had brown sugar flavor and it had white sweated been past inside. White one had a comfortable natural sweetness.





It is difficult to explain the taste of sweated bean past. The bean past is called “An” or “Anko”, and used in many Japanese sweets, and very important. If you want to know how Japanese sweets tastes are like, you will need to know the sweated bean past, I think. I know some western people don’t like it, and some love it. Most of traditional Japanese confectioneries do not contain fatty stuff, like whip cream or batter. So the tastes are simple than western sweets. I hope someday you have a chance to try sweated been past, I mean Japanese confectionery, hopefully not cheap one, try nice one. Nice confectioneries will be smooth and has natural sweetness. They will really go with Japanese tea!!

Matcha with tea bowl of your choice

Seto-city where I live is famous for ceramics. There is a community center called Setogura. It has cnfrence rooms, a hall, restaurant, ceramic shops and small ceramic museum. On this summer holidays, we took my grandfather to the museum.

The museum displays old style ceramic factory, implements or process of manufacture. And there is a small café space in the museum. They have a collection of tea bowls made by ceramic artist from Seto. You can enjoy matcha with one of the tea bowls of your choice. It was so fun to look for a favorite tea bowl from a large selection. I could not decide the one right away. I walked back and forth in front of the showcase. The tea tested much nicer with the tea bowl. My grandfather was also satisfied with the tea and the tea bowl. We had a really good time. It was 500yen, and came with sweets.





This is the tea bowl that Hiro chose.









My choice









My grandfather’s choice









My mother’ choice