Yamamotoyama (山本山)

Yamamotoyama was founded in 1690 by the first Yamamoto Kahei, in the Nihonbashi of Edo, and the company's own history makes two claims for itself. In 1738 it became the first shop to sell sencha in Edo. In 1835 the sixth-generation Kahei is credited with creating gyokuro, the shaded tea that sits at the top of most Japanese tea lists. From 1947 the house also sold nori, and the two trades have shared the counter ever since.

The shop to visit is Fujie Sabo, the house's own tea room and shop on the ground floor of the Nihonbashi Takashimaya Mitsui Building at 2-5-1 Nihonbashi; the nearest station is Nihonbashi. The shop is open 10:30 to 18:00; the tea room pours from 11:00 to 17:30, with last orders at 17:00, and serves bento until 17:00. The house also keeps counters in the basements of Nihonbashi Takashimaya and Tamagawa Takashimaya, at Hankyu Oi in Shinagawa and in other department stores.

Most of the teas come in 30 g boxes: gyokuro Yamamotoyama, the blended sencha Gogumi, and a Japanese black tea sold plain or as an Earl Grey. Larger bags cover the daily teas, a deep-steamed sencha and a hojicha in 80 g, and the matcha comes in 20 g. Around the tea the company has grown a small family of other places: a kaiseki restaurant named Kahei, ochazuke and onigiri shops, a café and a new gyokuro tea room under the brand YMY. Fujie Sabo is the one where the leaf is the point.