The History of Japanese Green Tea

To know more about Japanese green tea’s history, let’s explore and discuss further the full green tea journey.

Green tea became a staple drink, and we will show you how Japanese green tea turned into a worldwide sensation.

You will learn how the Matcha and tea ceremonies were created and how Samurai culture was affected by tea!
 
Let's first travel to the 8^th Century in Japan.

The Year 710-784: The Origin of Tea in Japan During the Nara Period

Tea was first brought to Japan during the 8th century Nara period from Tang Dynasty China via envoy by three Buddhist monks, Saicho, Kukai, and Eichu. They often traveled with diplomatic envoys during that period, as they were the leading scholars of Buddhism and shared commonality between the two countries. They brought the seeds with them to Japan and cultivated them as medicinal herbs.

Green tea leaves were used only by priests and noblemen.

Fast forward to the 9^th Century.

The Year 809-823: Buddhism and Tea in the Reign of Emperor Saga During the Heian Period

The monk Eichu invited Emperor Saga, the 52nd Emperor of Japan, and he personally brewed the tea and served it to Emperor Saga at the Bonshakuji Temple in 815, according to the Nihon Koki, or "The Later Chronicles of Japan," which is the first document to refer to tea drinking in Japan. Emperor Saga Tea was rare and had only just been introduced, so drinking tea was limited to monks and members of the Imperial Court.

Emperor Saga played a vital role in importing tea seeds from China and the subsequent popularization of tea in the country in the 9th Century. Furthermore, his support and encouragement caused a boon in the tea plant's cultivation, thus beginning the long and illustrious history of tea in Japan.

In the early years, tea was cultivated and produced by steaming the leaves and forming them into bricks for transportation. These bricks were then roasted and ground into a powder mixed with water and salt to create the tea drink.

Unfortunately, in 823, Emperor Saga was forced to abdicate his throne because of financial troubles. One of the reasons is that he has many concubines and children. During this time, many droughts happened, and green tea growing was also affected.

Let's fast forward to…

The year 1100-1200s: Eisai and Green Tea in Japan

Eisai was a Zen Master and Buddhist monk credited with introducing Zen Buddhism to Japan and green tea. Dissatisfied with Buddhism in Japan, Eisai traveled to China numerous times in the late 12th Century and received his Zen Master certification. He was the first Japanese monk to receive it.

In 1191, he returned to Japan and founded the Rinzai sect of Zen Buddhism. He also brought the green tea seeds with him to Kyoto and promoted the tea for its many medicinal qualities, particularly heart health.

Eisai introduced tea to the samurai class. He wrote a book. Kissa Yojoki, or "How to Stay Healthy by Drinking Tea".

It is a book about green tea in Japan and was sent as a gift to the Shogun. It was mentioned in the book about the health effects of tea and its positive effect on vital organs. The book described tea plants and the processing of tea leaves.

Samurai were holding tea competitions and drinking tea before going to battle. They believe that tea gives them energy and presence of mind.

Green tea became a favorite drink of the upper classes in Japan, and due to the increase in demand, the production of tea was developing new techniques by simply turning green tea leaves into powder. After this, Zen Buddhist monks developed a new method for growing green tea plants in the shade.

Not only was green tea popular among the warrior class, but also Zen Buddhism.

Since the upper class enjoyed tea as a rare and expensive commodity, farmers tried to save the tea from frost damage by using a canopy called Tana leaves in the colder months. However, farmers discovered that tea grown in the shade had a more mellow taste.

This tea eventually became known as the matcha we know today.

In 1271, the Buddhist monk Kohken planted tea trees in the Ujiwara region of Kyoto. Kyoto then became the country's number-one producer of tea.

Let's continue our time travel and discover anything about green tea from the development of the tea ceremony in the 16th Century until how Matcha has become a trend today.

The year is 1500: The Birth of Tea Ceremony

In 1504, the Japanese who visited Ming Dynasty China brought ceramic pots to Japan.

During the 15^th Century, Ashikaga Yoshimasa, the 8^th shogun of the Ashikaga shogunate, constructed the first tea ceremony room (shoin chanoyu) to feature his collection of Chinese cultural artworks and objects. Later, there are study rooms (shoin) for Zen Buddhist monks featuring a tatami (mat) and a desk.

These were followed by Japanese traditional living rooms (chashitsu) that we often see in Zen gardens and tea ceremonies.

From 1338 to 1573, the Japanese upper class had tea cottages designed for tea enjoyment. They watch someone gracefully prepare tea, and they drink tea for relaxation. A Buddhist tea master named Rikyu, said to be responsible for the popularization of the wabi-sabi aesthetic, is largely credited with developing the enduring rituals and philosophy of the tea ceremony.

He developed many rituals and practices that became commonly accepted as vital aspects of the tea ceremony, including directly incorporating the wabi-sabi aesthetic into the tea ceremony. Rikyu made a rule that matcha must be served with candies or confections.

His personal development of aspects such as the small, rustic rooms known as So-an, the flower containers, the bamboo lid rests, the Raku technique of making bowls, and the emphasis on simple objects were instrumental in developing the tea ceremony.

Let's go to the world of the Samurai in the Edo Period!

The Edo Period (1600-1868): Samurai and the Tea Ceremony

In 1610, Japan made its first tea export when it sold tea to the Dutch East India Company in Nagasaki, and then the company shipped the tea from Nagasaki to Europe.

During Japan's Edo Period, the country was rife with civil war, and the warrior class known as the Samurai rose to great esteem and prominence. The ceremony previously dominated by the highly influential Buddhist monks became adopted by the Samurai beginning in the 17th Century and continued for hundreds of years as the Samurai refined and developed their practice.

A common misconception about the tea ceremony and the warrior class is the assumption that Samurai used the practice as a tranquilizer against the aggression of battle.

This is contrary to the Samurai view of both battle and tea ceremonies.
Samurai used the ritual of the tea ceremony as metaphorical disciplinary training to prepare them for battle.

A sudden change of weather, unforeseen event, or misstep in the tea ceremony taught them the discipline of maintaining principles of behavior and commitment despite unexpected changes or mistakes on the battlefield.

It taught them that one misstep can lead to many and that an ethic and practice rooted in discipline and careful understanding could improve martial strategy and results.

In the 1600s, the monk Kouyugai Baisao began a movement countering the strict tea ceremony rituals and advocating a looser approach to its consumption. He was instrumental in the adoption of a new tea-making technique that became known as Sencha. He believed that green tea should not be exclusive to  aristocrats, warriors, and the upper class.

In 1735, he opened his tea shop and introduced tea to ordinary folks. After his death, he was credited as one of the first sencha masters.

In 1738, Sohen Nagatani improved how sencha was processed. The people of Uji were so grateful that they built a shrine for him. Every October, people visit his grave to give thanks for his contribution to the development of the tea industry.

By this time, green tea was the drink of choice all over the country, not just for upper-class people.

Alongside the increased availability and popularity of green tea and tea consumption, the 18th-century development of Sencha led to the availability of various other types of green tea to the public. Over time, Sencha became the most widely consumed tea in Japan.

We will now go to modern times, from the 19^th century forward!

The 1800s and Beyond: Machinery and Tea Production

In 1859, Japan was one of the top tea exporters since they opened their ports for trading after the Tokugawa period. As a result, 181 tons of tea were exported during the year.

At the end of the 19th Century, the practice of hand-rolling the tea leaves known as Temomi could not keep up with increased levels of production and demand.
During the Meiji era (1869–1922), rolling machines were made for faster production and improved quality control.

Because of this, tea production had grown to a yearly quantity of 24 million kilograms thanks to the mechanical shears and processing machines, allowing tea production to increase at a steady rate.

Machine automation and sensors in the 20th Century increased production capabilities.

We will now go back to the present!

Current Tea Popularity in Japan

Green tea has remained a trendy beverage throughout the centuries.
However, tea consumption has declined among the youth population. It is uncommon for young people to keep teaware in their homes, as they prefer bottled tea or other quick drinks. Read more about it here.

The consumption of coffee has also skyrocketed. Read more about Japanese Coffee History here. In some places, tea production has fallen by as much as 15% in recent years. At the same time, green tea has also become a phenomenon worldwide, especially in America, where it is viewed as nutrient-rich and a healthier source of caffeine than coffee. Like Eisai in the 12th Century, some advocate tea as medicine, and many studies have been conducted on its cancer-fighting and anti-inflammatory properties.

Eventually, matcha, a Japanese tea that has leaped from fast-produced beverages to become a trendy drink often offered as a healthier alternative to coffee, Matcha lattes or frappuccinos are widely available, as are canned and bottled Matcha tea. In Japan, Matcha-flavored sweets are also trendy, as is green tea mochi ice cream.

There is no doubt that tea has had an enormous influence on Japanese culture, from its relationship with religion and the development of tea ceremony and aesthetics to its impact on battle strategy and becoming a household beverage.
Green tea has been evolving since the beginning, and as you can see, it is still changing its shape and evolving. So, where does it go from here? Well, you may be holding the key in your hand.

What's your cup of tea today?

FAQs about the History of Japanese Green Tea

What's the single most important moment in Japanese green tea history? How did sencha become the dominant Japanese green tea? When did Japanese green tea reach the West, and why so late? What's the most surprising historical fact about Japanese green tea? How has tea consumption in Japan changed in the modern era?

What's the single most important moment in Japanese green tea history?

1191 CE, when the Buddhist monk Eisai returned from China with tea seeds and planted them at Reisenji temple. That single act started Japanese tea cultivation. Eisai also wrote Kissa Yōjōki (喫茶養生記), the first Japanese tea book, which framed tea as medicine and gave it serious cultural standing rather than just being an exotic Chinese import.

Almost everything in Japanese tea history flows from that 1191 moment. The Zen-Buddhist origins of Japanese tea culture, the spread of tea through monasteries to samurai class, the development of tea ceremony — all of it builds on Eisai's establishment of cultivated tea in Japan.

The second-most-important moment is probably 1591 CE, when Sen no Rikyū was ordered to commit seppuku. That dramatic ending of Rikyū's life crystallized everything he'd built — the wabi aesthetic, the ceremony structure, the tea-school lineage — and his legacy continues to define Japanese tea ceremony to this day.

How did sencha become the dominant Japanese green tea?

Sencha as we know it didn't exist until 1738, when a tea merchant named Nagatani Sōen developed the steaming-and-rolling process that produces modern sencha. Before that, Japanese tea was almost exclusively powdered (matcha-style) or simple boiled tea-leaf brews. Nagatani's process produced a leaf form that could be steeped in hot water for individual cups, which was much more practical for daily drinking than ceremonial matcha.

Sencha caught on rapidly in the late 1700s as the rising merchant class wanted a tea practice that didn't require formal ceremony. By the early 1800s, sencha had displaced matcha as the everyday Japanese green tea — a position it still holds today. The sencha revolution was as significant for Japanese culture as the bottled-tea revolution would be 200 years later.

So the modern hierarchy — sencha as everyday tea, matcha as special ceremonial form — is actually only about 250 years old. For the first 500+ years of Japanese tea history, matcha was the standard and sencha didn't exist.

When did Japanese green tea reach the West, and why so late?

Japanese green tea reached Europe in small quantities through Dutch trade routes in the 1600s, but it was a curiosity rather than a category. The first major export wave was in the late 1800s — after the Meiji Restoration opened Japan to international trade — and even then, most Japanese tea exports were lower-grade for the American mass market rather than premium tea for European specialty markets.

Premium Japanese green tea in the West didn't really arrive until the 1980s-90s, when Japanese tea producers started exporting high-grade matcha and sencha to specialty importers in major Western cities. The matcha-as-superfood wave is even more recent — really a 2010s phenomenon.

The reason for the long delay: storage and shipping. Black tea travels well over months at sea; green tea goes stale within weeks of opening. Until refrigeration and air-tight packaging plus relatively fast intercontinental shipping in the 20th century, premium green tea was essentially impossible to deliver fresh to Western markets.

What's the most surprising historical fact about Japanese green tea?

Tea was used as currency in medieval Japan. Bricks of compressed tea (similar to the Chinese tea-brick form) circulated as a form of money in some regions, and famous tea bowls and tea utensils could be more politically valuable than property — Toyotomi Hideyoshi famously rewarded loyal samurai with tea bowls and ceremonial utensils that they treasured for generations as both wealth and status markers.

Another surprise: Japan briefly tried to become a black tea producer in the late 1800s, hoping to compete with British colonial tea. The experiment failed — the Japanese climate and existing cultivation expertise didn't support black tea production at competitive cost — but it left a small legacy of Japanese black-tea cultivars (wakoucha 和紅茶) that are now experiencing a niche revival.

The most-quoted surprise: tea was nearly exclusively a Buddhist monastic and warrior practice for centuries before becoming a commoner drink. The tradition we think of as "Japanese tea ceremony" is downstream of religious-and-warrior practice, not folk tradition.

How has tea consumption in Japan changed in the modern era?

Dramatically. Until the 1980s, daily Japanese tea consumption was overwhelmingly home-brewed loose-leaf — every household had a kyusu, kettle, and daily tea ritual. Itoen's launch of canned bottled green tea (Oi Ocha, 1985) started a fundamental shift: tea moved from home-brewing to vending-machine and convenience-store consumption. By 2000, more Japanese were drinking bottled green tea than home-brewed.

That shift had consequences. Premium tea consumption (loose-leaf, good sencha, anything that requires home brewing) declined as a daily practice but remained as a hobbyist/ceremonial niche. Mass-market tea drinking became more like soda culture — drink-from-a-bottle convenience rather than ritual.

In the past decade, there's been a small reverse trend — younger Japanese rediscovering home brewing as part of broader interest in artisanal and traditional crafts. Whether this becomes meaningful or stays niche is unclear, but it's at least slowed the decline of premium tea consumption.

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