Shichimei no Mukashi

About the brand

Horii Shichimeien

堀井七茗園

Horii Shichimeien (堀井七茗園) is an Uji tea house in Uji, Kyoto, with 1879 (Meiji 12) as its founding year. It farms the Okunoyama tea garden (奥ノ山茶園), which the company calls the only surviving working garden of the Uji Shichimeien, seven gardens said by tradition to have been set up by an Ashikaga shogun. The company describes the garden as 600 to 650 years old and says the Horii family took it over in the mid-Meiji period. In 1924 Horii Chojiro developed the Horii-style tencha dryer (堀井式碾茶乾燥機), which the company says is the model for every tencha dryer used in Japan. The company says it handles cultivation, processing and sales in-house. The current head is Horii Chotaro (堀井長太郎). In 2010 its tea "Narisato" won the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Award (日本一) at the 64th National Tea Competition.