Oku Ninotani

Unlike cultivars propagated from cuttings, each zairai bush is an individual. Its roots run deep, and differences in soil and climate show directly in its aroma and flavor.

Uji tea once had a distinctive aroma that set it clearly apart from the tea of any other region. Known as hotoro-ka or shitaki-ka, it is said to have been especially pronounced in zairai tea. Hotoro is a local dialect word for undergrowth such as susuki grass, and it was long believed that spreading this undergrowth over the tea fields heightened the hotoro-ka. Yet many tea regions outside Uji also spread susuki grass over their fields, so hotoro-ka is unlikely to come literally from the undergrowth. The soil of the Uji area is thought to play a large part.

The base soil of Ninotani is a stratum from the Tertiary period of the Cenozoic era, long favored by Uji tea farmers. It derives from ancient Lake Biwa and its rivers, and extends widely from Uji City, a renowned tea-producing area, to Asamiya (Koka City, Shiga Prefecture). It contains a moderate amount of clay, and once a tea bush has put down deep roots, it produces the noble aroma unique to Uji.