Keiko works hard to establish fair, honest and engaging relationships with her tea farmers. She makes personal visits to Japan three times a year, meeting up with tea farmers and tea makers, and has even been helping with their harvests! Her involvement has had a strong influence on many small family-owned tea makers, and she has also learned an enormous amount from them. Some tea farmers use only their own estate’s teas leaves, whereas others buy in leaves from trusted farmers, as their own farms are not large enough. We work with a range of small and large organic tea makers, and value all our tea farmers’ ideas and recommendations, as well as their abundant professional knowledge.
Keiko has also been practicing the Japanese tea ceremony for nearly 30 years. She still practices the ceremony with her teachers, who have been running a small tea ceremony school in Tokyo for over 90 years. The school was founded in 1933 by her current teacher’s mother, in a highly unusual situation, as it was very rare for a woman to have an independent profession in Japan before the Second World War. Keiko’s teacher also gives lessons to historical actors, as well as running classes at the prestigious Tofukuji
Temple in Kyoto.
Keiko’s passion for Japanese tea therefore runs deeper than her active search for exquisite organic teas. She has a profound understanding of the role that tea can play - its significance and potential for us all. Not just in the beauty of its tastes, fragrances and feel, but also in values that are more spiritual, health-giving, historical and beautiful in so many extraordinary ways. The rich and valuable insights that Keiko has gained through her 3s well as in her relationships with tea farmers and makers, have made her quite unique as a specialist tea merchant, adding levels of experience and knowledge that no other traditional matcha tea specialist can provide.