Kanbayashi Shunsho

For over 450 years, the Kanbayashi Shunsho family has shaped Uji’s tea. Their roots trace back to Tanba, where Kanbayashi Hisashige made the move to Uji and into tea.

Centuries passed, their craft sharpened. Gomotsu Ochashi, supplying the Tokugawa Shogunate, serving feudal lords. But patronage ends. Dynasties fall. The Meiji Restoration came, and with it, the collapse of an era. Many tea families disappeared. The Kanbayashi didn’t.

The 11th-generation Shunsho saw the shift. The world was moving, and so did they. From tea master to merchant. From matcha to gyokuro and sencha, styles emerging in a new age.

The core remained. Blending mastery. Precision. Control.

The haikenba, their tea inspection room, still stands. Natural light, sharp focus, every leaf considered. Gougumi, the art of blending, ensures stability across harvests, pulling from Kyoto, Nara, Shiga. The backbone of Uji tea.

Since 1952, the Kanbayashi Shunsho family has carried its craft forward under Onko Chishin, learning from the past, refining the future. No excess.

No spectacle. Just tea, speaking for itself.

—Adel, Sushe Chaguan 宿舍茶馆