I see your tea and I Matcha - in search of the EIC in Japan

I’d wanted to go to Japan ever since I’d booked tickets for the 2022 Olympics which, even though they happened, Covid prevented me, and the rest of the world, from cheering-on in person. I hadn’t wanted to put all that previous research to waste. And now I had another reason. I wanted to see how much history of the East India Company I would be able to find. The answer : precious little.

Captain John Saris had landed in Hirado, in Nagasaki in 1613, sailing on The Clove. He’d set up a trading post for the EIC but ten years later, it folded, as it wasn’t profitable. If only he’d listened to William Adams - the Englishman who had lived there since 1600 and who was an adviser to the Shogun - things might have been different. But these EIC men often think they knew best.

I like the sound of William Adams. He was born in Gillingham but married in Limehouse in St Anne’s church. Come on my Limehouse tour to find out how this wonderful church is : a church; a lighthouse; and also a ship. In Japan they have a William Adams Club https://williamadamsclub.org so they like him too, although they know him as Miura Anjin, or pilot. I’d hoped Tom Lockley’s book would be out in time for my trip. It’s about two young Japanese lads who came the other way, but I’ve got to wait a bit longer it seems. https://www.amazon.com/Gentleman-Japan-Incredible-Journey-Elizabeths-ebook/dp/B0CFYC289S

Checking where Hirado was from Tokyo or even Kyoto, I could see I wasn’t going to get up-close-and-personal with much EIC history on this trip. So, instead, I had to make do with scouring the National Museum for anything associated with Tokugawa Ieyasu, the Shogun who ‘persuaded’ William Adams to stay in Japan. And then hunting down anything to do with another EIC staple, tea. I concluded that if they also showed Shogun on the plane, that would be enough to have satisfied my EIC itch. There was of course the rest of Japan to be going along with. So that’s what I did. Admiring the cherry blossom - all pretty in pink; visiting Mount Fuji where a shy princess lurks inside; being boiled alive in a hot spring; experiencing chopstick chaos; having a massage using bamboo blessed by Buddhist monks (which just reminded me of rolling out puff pastry); unfathomable Kabuki theatre; a deer in Nara which ate my map; and a bullet train which felt like it arrived before we set off.

Anyway, the highlight of the final day was a traditional tea ceremony. I (hope) I’d found one that wasn't for tourists but I'm not sure, as the group was….well….tourists. The tea is ground green tea, called Matcha. It’s a vivid green colour and is the whole leaf, ground down to a powder the texture of sherbet. I had trouble getting past thinking it was like eating the tea leaves in a tea bag. I hoped they’d remembered to take out the stalks. Matcha powder and water are combined and then it's whisked to extinction. There were very sweet sweets to accompany it, that were the texture of parma violets. The actual tea ceremony though is poise, refinement, and control personified. Much like Japan itself. Every movement is rehearsed and meaningful. None of your tea bag dunking, squeezing and chucking in the sink. I thought the tea master was going to have a fit when a New Yorker in the group asked if milk and sugar ever went in too. But she smiled sweetly and answered that question and others. For the record, I decided I didn't like matcha. It's too bitter. Though I do like the Matcha KitKats I found in the supermarket next door. Plus I just can't sit on the floor for that long. But I'm happy I did the ceremony even if my feet did go numb and I lost the circulation in my legs.