Matcha Origin: Shizuoka
Shizuoka: Japan's Other Great Matcha Region
Mention Japanese matcha, and most people think of Uji, in Kyoto — and rightly so. But Uji is not the whole story. Roughly 40% of all tea grown in Japan comes from a single prefecture on the Pacific coast: Shizuoka. It is the source of Ku-u's matcha, and the more you learn about it, the clearer it becomes that Shizuoka deserves to be spoken of in the same breath as Kyoto, not in its shadow.
A Landscape Made for Tea
Shizuoka's claim to greatness starts with geography. Its south-facing hillsides catch some of the longest sunshine hours in Japan, giving tea plants the sustained warmth they need to thrive. Rivers flowing down from Mount Fuji and the Southern Alps — above all the Ōigawa — have spent centuries depositing well-drained, gravel-laced soil across the lowlands, the kind of ground that keeps roots healthy and free of rot. And each morning, mist rolls up from the river basins into the mountain valleys, gently filtering the sunlight and slowing the leaves' growth. The result is a tea with deep umami and a softness that connoisseurs prize — the same interplay of mist, shade, and soil that also defines the most celebrated valleys of Uji. Shizuoka, in other words, is not an imitator of that terroir; it is one of its two great expressions in Japan.
Samurai Who Became Farmers
The human history is just as remarkable as the natural one. When the Meiji Restoration dismantled Japan's samurai class in the late 19th century, thousands of former warriors lost their place in society almost overnight. Many followed the last Tokugawa shogun, Yoshinobu, into retirement in what was then called Sunpu — today's Shizuoka City. Facing an uncertain future, these men set down their swords and picked up hoes, clearing the wild, unforgiving plateau of Makinohara by hand. What had been untamed highland became, through sheer pioneering labour, some of the most productive tea fields in the country — a striking act of reinvention written directly into the soil.
From Local Crop to Global Export
Shizuoka had one more advantage: a port. During the Meiji era, tea ranked alongside raw silk as one of Japan's most valuable exports, and the port of Shimizu gave Shizuoka's growers direct access to international shipping routes, without the cost and delay of overland transport to other harbours. The region leaned into this advantage, mechanising production and building rail links straight to the port — turning a regional speciality into a commodity recognised across America and Europe. It is part of why Shizuoka, even today, carries an unmatched depth of expertise in shading and stone-milling tea, refined over generations of farmers.
Single-Origin Character
That expertise shows in the character of the tea itself. Shizuoka's farmers grow distinct cultivars rather than blends — Okumidori, prized for its rounded umami, and Saemidori, known for its delicate, floral notes — each suited to the particular mountain gardens it comes from. Many of these farms are also EU- and Bio Suisse-aligned in their growing practices, reflecting a quiet, long-standing commitment to working with the land rather than against it.
Ku-u and the Shizuoka Legacy
Ku-u's matcha is sourced from Shizuoka by deliberate choice — not as a substitute for Uji, but in recognition that Shizuoka stands as one of Japan's two great matcha regions in its own right. When you prepare a bowl of Ku-u matcha, you are tasting the mist-wrapped hillsides of those mountain valleys, the gravel soils carried down from Fuji, and, in some small way, the pioneering spirit of the samurai who first cleared the land.
