滋賀縣の茶業

農産加工業としての茶業の特質

抄録

The tea producing areas in Shiga Prefecture (see Fig. 1) concentrate in the southern mountainous country. Roughly they can be divided into A, B, and C area. High-grade tea is raised in A and C, while in B tea of average quality. Each area lies along a river in the mountainous country so the fog gathers there frequently. Fog helps enrich the aroma and taste of a tea plant. For growing tea plants an area should be well drained, and for that reason a diluvial terrace is most suitable for raising tea. High-grade tea, however, is grown on the Paleozoic. A and C are of the Paleozoic.
Tea leaves are picked twice a year, that is, in May and July. A tea-picker uses scissors, but formerly she used the hands in picking tea. Tea picked by hand is of better quality than tea picked with scissors. Tea-pickers started to use scissors 30 years ago in B and only 10 years ago in A. In C they still pick tea leaves by using the hands.
Once picked, tea leaves are liable to ferment. They are quickly sent to tea-manufacturing plants where they are first steamed, then crumpled with simple crumpling machinery, and finally dried. Formerly tea leaves were crumpled by hand. Tea of better quality is produced by crumpling tea leaves by hand than with machinery; therefore, the machines were not widely used until recently in the areas producing highgrade tea. E.g., the use of machines started in 1910 in B, in 1925 in A, and in 1933 in C. Since tea is a luxury at the same time that it is a necessary of life, its cultivation differs in many respects from the cultivation of other crops.
Tea plants are being grown by farmers in agricultural districts, and therefore the production of tea is not industrialized on a large scale. Like other agricultural industries in Japan, tea industry is managed on a small scale. Tea industry is managed in the following four ways: (1) a tea-manufacturer grows tea plants and dries and prepares tea leaves in his own tea-manufacturing plant, (2) a tea-manufacturer, purchasing unprepared tea leaves, dries and prepares them, (3) those who sell unprepared tea leaves, and (4) a tea-manufacturer carries on the business in combination with the others. In B where tea of average quality is produced, the industry is organized in all four forms, but in A and C the production of tea is mainly carried on in form (1).
In Shiga Prefecture, like in other parts of Japan, tea industry had developed rapidly since 1859 when foreign trade was started, tea becoming an important export of Japan. Later, however, the industry met tradal depression, with the result that in the areas with inferior production conditions tea industry was replaced by other and more advantageous agricultural industries. Only the areas with superior prodution conditions survived the depression, and tea is being raised mainly in those areas today.