NaturaliTea
Nakayama Village near Fujieda City - Shizuoka, Japan
NaturaliTea
Grower: The Kinezuka Family (NaturaliTea)
Teamaker: Toshiaki Kinezuka & Family
Source: Nakayama Village near Fujieda City – Shizuoka, Japan
Elevation: 350m (1,150ft)
Cultivation: All-natural (Organic with no certification)
Tea: Sweet Mochi Genmaicha, Roasted Spring Houjicha
All-Natural Family Tea Business.
Toshiaki Kinezuka with his wife Kazue and their three children Ayumi, Tamiko and Kazuki run a small, 2 hectare, completely organic tea farm in Shizuoka, Japan. Their fields are located in Nakayama Village, up in the mountains behind the city of Fujieda. They are about 200km southeast of Tokyo. The Kinezuka Family is considered one of Japan’s pioneers for all-natural tea farming
Toshiaki started farming with all-natural methods back in 1976. This is a great achievement in the midst of Japan’s heavy chemical use in the tea industry. His daughter, Ayumi, initially emigrated to the United States, but returned to take over the family farm and to keep Japanese tea production alive. She works with her brother, Kazuki, on the farms, while her sister Tamiko and mother Kazue take care of quality control for the finished tea and logistics for shipping.
Farming as Stewardship.
” A good farmer knows that to produce good crops, one must first develop good soil. Thus, the taste of good organic tea is made half of tea leaves and half of the hearts of their farmers.”
The balance between people, agriculture and nature is a delicate one, but with appropriate stewardship the environment takes good care of itself: predatory insects such as spiders, grasshoppers, and praying mantises keep pests in check while attracting birds and reptiles that improve local biodiversity; mycorrhizae flourish in the soil, strengthening the tea against disease while rejuvenating the nutrient content of the soil. The field becomes a habitat largely capable of sustaining itself. It is up to the farmer to maintain and protect the integrity of this habitat. It is the way farming has been practiced for millenia, since long before the introduction of industrially produced fertilizers and other chemicals
This methodology has unfortunately been largely cast aside in the pursuit of producing the most tea with the least labor possible. Instead of succumbing to pressures of the industry, however, the Kinezuka Family has chosen to return to the roots of agriculture as they develop not only their own tea fields, but work to involve nearly ten family farms in the region to produce an environment conducive to the growing of the highest quality tea through traditional organic farming methods.
Organic Agriculture.
In this world of deceptive labeling practices and seemingly innumerable certifications, the meaning of the term “organic” can sometimes feel a bit diluted from the ideal it might have once represented. Therefore, the Kinezuka Family feels they should be explicit in describing what organic agriculture really means to them.
First and foremost, it means that they use absolutely no pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, or chemical fertilizers anywhere in their operation, even though the use of certain such substances is permitted by many certifying agencies. When they kill weeds, they do so by uprooting or cutting them by hand, and only those that would otherwise hinder their ability to work on the tea. Wherever possible, these weeds are left to decompose and add their nutrients back into the soil. Other times, they are taken back home to feed the chickens and ducks.
These birds spend a good portion of their lives in the rice fields, eating weeds and fertilizing the soil. After harvesting and threshing the rice, the bundles of stalks are taken back up to the tea fields and laid down between the rows to slowly decompose over winter and maintain moisture in the ground, creating the ideal conditions for new, healthy growth in the spring.
They also produce additional mulch from the manure of their horses, waste from their gardens and cooking, and other organic waste, such as hay that has gone moldy. All of this combines to make a potent source of nutrients that helps the soil, and in turn the tea trees, to flourish, without ever needing to introduce substances that interrupt the natural life cycles of the surrounding plants, animals, and fungi.
To the Kinezuka Family, organic agriculture means their cooperation with all life that surrounds them, giving to it as it gives back to them.
