Fukujuen Tea Wholesaler Street

Old-fashioned streets, lined with tea wholesalers

Yamashiro, Kyoto, where Fukujuen's head office is located, is in the center of the Uji tea production area.
A landing place on the Kizu River leading to Osaka and Kobe, as well as the crossroads of the Yamato and Iga Roads, it has flourished as a gathering place for Uji tea and has developed into a tea town representing Japanese tea and Uji tea.

Strolling around with the slight aroma of tea

After the opening of the port of Kobe at the end of the Edo period (1603-1867), tea became a popular export commodity. Later, with the postwar reconstruction, domestic demand was increased. The "Fukujuen Tea Wholesaler Street" recreates the atmosphere of those days. The houses and tools used by tea wholesalers, as well as materials on tea cultivation and tea production, are on display, allowing visitors to experience a part of the history of Uji tea.

Floor Map

01Tea Shop

This is a reproduction of an old teahouse and a private house tea room lined with tea pots.
In the old days, tea was taken out of the tea pots and sold by weight.
In this tea room, visitors can experience how to brew and drink Fukujuen's delicious Gyokuro tea.
Enjoy a relaxing moment while admiring the tea trees in the garden.

02Tea wholesaler

Tea wholesalers collected tea produced by farmers, priced it, stored it, and processed the finished product.
The wholesaler also reproduces the "viewing area" where tea is tasted and the shape, color, and luster of the tea leaves are judged.
Also on display there are tea boxes for storing tea, as well as forms and other materials related to the production and sale of tea.

03Tea Factory

This area exhibits the farming tools used in the tea plantation to cultivate tea, as well as the equipment used to pick the tea leaves, and the old tea-making machinery and tools used to finish the tea.
Visitors can learn about the entire flow of the tea-making process.

Monument of Tea Industry in Yamashiro

Tea, introduced from China, was cultivated in various parts of Yamashiro during the Muromachi period (1336-1573) and eventually spread to Omi Yamato Iga Ise. With the opening of the port of Kobe at the end of the Edo period, exports of Yamashiro-Uji tea increased dramatically, and production in Yamashiro and neighboring countries increased as well.
Since ancient times, the Kizu River has been a major artery linking Japan and foreign countries through the exchange of people and goods. The tea industry cannot be described without reference to the Kizugawa River.
Tea picked in various regions was transported to Yamashiro by river and highway, processed and refined, and then transported from Kamikoma-hama here to Kobe via the Kizu and Yodo Rivers.
As a tea gathering place, this area has developed and prospered over a long period of history, from the export tea era of the Meiji period, when it was also called Higashi-Kobe-Imakobe, to the era of domestic demand in the Taisho and Showa periods.