Kakegawa
A Shizuoka city on the eastern edge of the Makinohara country, closely identified with deep-steamed sencha and with an older land practice that goes with it. Strips of semi-natural grassland — chagusaba — are kept between and around the tea rows, cut by hand each autumn and spread as mulch; the practice conserves soil moisture and structure and has been recognised as an agricultural heritage landscape because the uncut strips carry grassland plants that have largely vanished from lowland Japan. It is one of the few places where a tea district’s biodiversity argument rests on what is not planted with tea.
Elevation
Recorded at 30–300 metres.
How firm this is: Inferred from general knowledge of the district rather than measured or taken from a source that states it.
Soil
Managed with cut-grass mulch from the surrounding chagusaba rather than with bare inter-row cultivation, which is the distinguishing agronomic practice of the district.
How firm this is: Inferred from general knowledge of the district rather than measured or taken from a source that states it.
When it is picked
A standard Shizuoka calendar with a first pick in late April, on gently rolling ground that grows a thick leaf. The district is associated with deep steaming for the same reason Makinohara is — the leaf it produces needs it.
How firm this is: Inferred from general knowledge of the district rather than measured or taken from a source that states it.
How production is organised
Family farms working a semi-traditional grassland mulching practice on the field margins, which is recognised as an agricultural heritage system and is one of the few places in Japanese tea where a cultivation method rather than a processing method carries the district's name.
How firm this is: Inferred from general knowledge of the district rather than measured or taken from a source that states it.
How the name is written
Also transliterated as kakegawa. Romanisations of a district name vary by system and by vendor, and a packet spelling one way is not describing a different place.
Teas this region is known for
- Fukamushicha — Deep green, opaque and thick, with far more body and far less aroma than ordinary sencha. The cloudiness is the point — the fine particles in suspension carry most of what makes the style worth choosing.
- Sencha — Vegetal and savoury at once. Brewed cool it leans sweet and broth-like; brewed hot it turns sharply astringent, which is the single most common way people decide they dislike green tea.
Other teas recorded from here
Other growing regions in Japan
The neighbouring districts are the useful comparison: they share a country, a grading convention and often a cultivar, so what differs between them is closer to terroir than anything a cross-border comparison can isolate.
Sources
- TeaHQ editorial synthesis — TeaHQ
This page is TeaHQ’s own synthesis throughout. No external document stands behind the elevation band, the climate note or the character described above, which is why each carries its confidence in the open.