In 1191 the monk Eisai brought tea back from Song China. Myoe planted it at Kozanji in Kyoto, and from there cuttings were taken to Uji. That is where the tea of this district is said to begin.

In the sixteenth century, as the tea ceremony took hold and the tea masters began asking for something less harsh, growers here developed oishita cultivation to hold the astringency down. Straw or another covering is laid over the tea garden to keep the sun off the leaves.

What that does is specific. Shade prevents theanine from converting into catechin, so the astringency falls and the savory quality rises.

Everything after that is a matter of what you do with the shaded leaf, or whether you shade it at all. Matcha is tencha, grown under cover, ground to powder on a stone mill. Gyokuro is new growth kept under cover for more than twenty days, then steamed and dried while being rolled. Sencha is the same steaming and rolling applied to leaves grown in the open with full sun on them. The name Uji tea now covers leaf from four prefectures, Kyoto, Nara, Shiga, and Mie, finished by Kyoto processors using the methods of this district. One decision, about light, produces three entirely different drinks.