Cultivars

Akane

あかね · Kagoshima

A 1935 Kagoshima cross of an Assam introduction against a local landrace selection, registered in 1953 as Cha Norin No. 15 — one of the black-tea cultivars from Japan's brief attempt to build a black-tea industry, named for the red of the liquor it makes.

Asagiri

あさぎり · Kyoto

A gyokuro cultivar selected from a single roughly 80-year-old Uji seedling tree and registered in 1954 as Cha Norin No. 18, which outscored Yabukita in contemporary tasting trials but is grown at negligible scale today and is easily confused with unrelated products sold under the same "morning mist" name.

Asahi

あさひ · Kyoto

The premier Uji tencha cultivar and the benchmark for competition-grade matcha — a 1954 farmer's selection from Uji zairai stock prized for its concentrated colour and aroma, but reputed as the most demanding of Kyoto's hand-picked cultivars, with a short picking window, below-average yield and frost-sensitive buds.

Asanoka

あさのか · Kagoshima

A Kagoshima sencha cultivar bred from Yabukita and the Chinese cultivar Pingshui No. 1 (Cp1), registered in 1996 for its balanced flavour, elegant leaf shape and distinctive varietal aroma, and separately valued for unusually high amino acid content.

Asatsuyu

あさつゆ · Shizuoka

Selected from Uji zairai seedlings and registered in 1953 as Cha Norin No. 2, Asatsuyu makes an umami-rich, low-astringency sencha even unshaded — hence "natural gyokuro" — but poor yield and frost sensitivity kept it niche; it is chiefly known today as the pollen parent of Saemidori and Tsuyuhikari.

Benifuki

べにふうき · Kagoshima

A black-tea cultivar crossed in 1965 from Benihomare × Makura-Cd86 at the Makurazaki station and registered in 1995 as Cha Norin No. 44, Benifuki is better known today for a green-tea by-product — an unusually high, fermentation-sensitive methylated catechin sold against hay fever.

Benihikari

べにひかり · Kagoshima

Registered in 1969 as Cha Norin No. 28, two years before Japan's 1971 black tea import liberalisation collapsed the industry it was bred for, Benihikari is a Kagoshima-bred F1 cross of Benikaori and the China-type line Cn1, valued for aroma, high yield and cold hardiness, and still sold today within Japan's small wakocha revival.

Benihomare

べにほまれ · Shizuoka

Registered in 1953 as Cha Norin No. 1 — the very first entry in Japan's first-ever tea cultivar registration — Benihomare is a black tea cultivar selected from Meiji-era Tada-line Assam seedlings that became the backbone of Japan's black tea export industry before its collapse after 1971 import liberalisation.

Fujikaori

ふじかおり · Shizuoka

A 1996 Fujieda, Shizuoka cross of Shizu-Inzatsu 131 and Yabukita, Fujikaori is the reciprocal of Sofu — same two parents, sexes reversed — and shares its jasmine-like methyl anthranilate aroma, though its breeders kept it almost entirely local to their home city.

Fukumidori

ふくみどり · Saitama

A Saitama-bred sencha cultivar registered in 1986 as Cha Norin No. 36, produced by backcrossing Yabukita against its own earlier hybrid offspring 23F1-107 (Sayamamidori × Yabukita); it out-yields Yabukita by roughly a third to two-thirds and resists frost markedly better, bred for the cold northern edge of Japan's tea belt.

Fushun

ふうしゅん · Shizuoka

A 1965 Kanaya cross of the breeding line Z1 against Kanayamidori, registered in 1991 as Cha Norin No. 41, Fushun yields a third to a half more than Yabukita and was named for the hope it would make tea farming pay — and it matters here chiefly as the seed parent of Seimei, the cultivar that reaches Yabukita by two different routes.

Harumidori

はるみどり · Kagoshima

A 2003-registered cross of Kanayamidori and Yabukita bred at NARO's Makurazaki station, prized for exceptionally high amino-acid, low-tannin umami; sold as a rare speciality sencha, fukamushi, kamairicha and black tea, but slow to establish and demanding to grow well.

Harumoegi

はるもえぎ · Miyazaki

A 1981 Miyazaki cross of the Kanaya breeding line 茶本F1NN27 against the local landrace selection ME52, registered in 2003 as Cha Norin No. 51 — a full sibling of Sakimidori from the same two parents, named for the pale spring green it holds from bud to finished tea, including through a summer crop that would normally redden.

Hatsumidori

はつみどり · Kagoshima

Selected in 1933 from a Mie-prefecture seedling population raised in Kagoshima and registered in 1954 as Cha Norin No. 20, Hatsumidori is an extremely early-budding sencha cultivar whose 1979 trial results rated its cup quality behind every other early cultivar tested against Yabukita.

Himemidori

ひめみどり · Fukuoka

Selected from wild-growing native tea trees in the mountains of Yame, Fukuoka, and registered in 1960 as Cha Norin No. 23, Himemidori was bred to give Yame gyokuro a purpose-made cultivar of its own, in place of sencha varieties like Yabukita that growers had been diverting under shade.

Hokumei

ほくめい · Saitama

A Saitama cross of Sayamamidori against a Yabukita seedling line, registered in 1992 as Cha Norin No. 43 and again under the Plant Variety Protection Act in 1995, Hokumei was bred for the cold northern edge of Japan's tea belt and named for it — it out-yields Yabukita and beats it on both winter cold-scorch syndromes, while inheriting its disease weaknesses unchanged.

Horyoku

ほうりょく · Shizuoka

An unregistered green tea cultivar bred in Shizuoka from open-pollinated Assam-type seed stock — the same Tada-line ancestry as Benihomare — valued chiefly for strong disease resistance and known today mainly as the seed parent of Ryofu (1997).

Hoshinomidori

ほしのみどり · Fukuoka

Selected from indigenous tea seedlings by a private grower in Hoshino village, Fukuoka's foremost gyokuro district, and registered in 1981 as a sencha cultivar notable for young leaf that is strikingly yellowish-white rather than green — a low-catechin, high-amino-acid trait now studied among Japan's few white-leaf tea cultivars.

Houshun

ほうしゅん · Kyoto

An open-pollinated seedling of Samidori selected by the Kyoto Prefectural Tea Research Institute and registered in 2006, Houshun is an extremely early gyokuro cultivar — plucked ten days before Yabukita and a week before its own mother — bred to open the Uji shaded-tea season rather than to extend it.

Inaguchi

いなぐち · Shizuoka

A Yabukita seedling a Shizuoka grower named Inaguchi found by chance in his own tea field and propagated himself, registered in 1988 under the Plant Variety Protection Act; a minor, thinly documented sencha cultivar budding just a day or two after Yabukita.

Inzatsu 131

いんざつ131 · Shizuoka

Inzatsu 131 (静印雑131) is an unregistered Shizuoka breeding line selected in 1944 from a natural cross involving Assam stock imported in 1922; never named or marketed as a cultivar in its own right until recently, it matters as the documented, single-locus source of the jasmine-like methyl anthranilate aroma passed on to Sofu and Fujikaori.

Kanayamidori

かなやみどり · Shizuoka

A 1949 Shizuoka cross of Yabukita and a local zairai selection (S6), registered in 1970 as Cha Norin No. 30, Kanayamidori is known above all for a sencha with an unmistakably sweet, milky aroma, and later became a parent of Fushun, Harumidori and Koshun.

Kirari 31

きらり31 · Miyazaki

A 1994 cross of Sakimidori and Saemidori bred at Miyazaki's tea research station, Kirari 31 buds about four days ahead of Yabukita, nearly doubles its first-flush yield, and was developed for high-quality sencha, kabusecha and gyokuro; its Plant Variety Protection Act registration was granted in 2016, three years after the 2013 filing some sources mistake for it.

Kiyoka

きよか · Kagoshima

A 2020 Plant Variety Protection Act cultivar bred at NARO's Makurazaki station from FYZ-41 — an unregistered Yabukita × Shizu-Inzatsu131 line — and Saemidori, Kiyoka is picked about eight days before Yabukita and carries a sweet floral aroma and umami best kept out of deep steaming.

Komakage

こまかげ · Kyoto

A 1954 selection from Uji Zairai seedlings by Hirano Jin'nojō, named for its tea garden's proximity to Manpuku-ji's horse-hoofprint monument; one of the three original Uji shade-cultivar selections alongside Asahi and Samidori, but the only one never formally registered, and now rarely grown.

Koshun

こうしゅん · Shizuoka

A 1970 Shizuoka cross of two aroma cultivars, Kurasawa and Kanayamidori, registered in 2000, Koshun was bred specifically for a distinctive orchid-like floral aroma unlike Yabukita's, and has become one of the more commercially interesting single-cultivar sencha, kamairicha and black teas produced in the prefecture.

Koyanishi

こやにし · Shizuoka

An individual tree selected by Sugiyama Hikosaburo — the breeder of Yabukita — and raised at the Shizuoka prefectural station, registered in 1953 as Cha Norin No. 8; a Shizuoka recommended cultivar from 1937, it was delisted in 1955, the year Yabukita replaced it.

Kurasawa

くらさわ · Shizuoka

An unregistered 1967 Shizuoka selection from open-pollinated Yabukita seedlings, Kurasawa carries a heavy, forest-like astringency and, in matcha, a distinctive cocoa character; its clearest legacy is as the seed parent of the registered aroma cultivar Koshun.

Kuritawase

くりたわせ · Kagoshima

An extremely early-budding sencha cultivar selected on Tanegashima, Kagoshima in 1927 from Shizuoka zairai seed the Kurita family sowed in 1909, with Yabukita's own discoverer Sugiyama Hikosaburo guiding the final selection; it became Kagoshima's recommended cultivar in 1966 and still opens Japan's earliest new-tea season each spring.

Kyoken 283

Kyoto

A Kyoto Prefectural Tea Research Institute breeding line that was never named or registered, documented today only because it was the seed parent of the Miyazaki-bred sencha cultivar Miyamakaori, crossed with Saitama No. 1 in 1983.

Kyomidori

きょうみどり · Kyoto

A 1954 landrace selection from a roughly century-old Uji zairai tree, registered as Cha Norin No. 19 for gyokuro; once prizewinning, it is now grown by only a handful of Uji-region producers.

Makinoharawase

まきのはらわせ · Shizuoka

Selected from a Zairai tea garden in Shizuoka's Haibara District and registered in 1953 as Cha Norin No. 7, Makinoharawase was the most extremely early-budding cultivar of that year's founding registration list; judged a mediocre sencha, it survives today mainly as a niche single-cultivar black tea.

Marishi

まりし · Shizuoka

An extra-early Shizuoka cultivar registered in 1996 as a natural seedling of Yaeho, found in the Yamamori family's tea garden at Mizumishiro; prized in tiny volume for a strikingly vivid green liquor and named for Marishiten, a Buddhist deva of light.

Meiryoku

めいりょく · Shizuoka

A 1959 Yabukita × Yamatomidori cross bred at Kanaya and registered in 1986 as Cha Norin No. 35, Meiryoku is a medium-season Shizuoka sencha cultivar valued for anthracnose and ring-blight resistance, though several registries mistakenly credit its pollen parent as the breeding line Z1.

Mie Ryokuho No. 1

みえりょくほう1号 · Mie

A late-budding, disease-resistant Yabukita seedling selected in Mie Prefecture from 1960 and registered under the Plant Variety Protection Act in 1996, bred to outyield Yabukita and to produce notably good colour and aroma in both sencha and Mie's speciality, kabusecha.

Minamikaori

みなみかおり · Miyazaki

A mid-season sencha cultivar crossed from Yabukita and an internal Miyazaki breeding line, Miya A11, registered as Cha Norin No. 39 in 1988 at the Miyazaki Prefectural Agricultural Experiment Station; thinly documented outside the registry record itself.

Minamisayaka

みなみさやか · Miyazaki

A 1970 Miyazaki cross of Miya A-6 and Chamoto F1 NN27, registered in 1991 as Cha Norin No. 42, Minamisayaka is unusual among Japanese sencha cultivars for carrying Assam and Caucasus heritage, giving it a milky, floral aroma prized for pan-roasted and black tea.

Minekaori

みねかおり · Miyazaki

A 1966 Miyazaki cross of Yabukita against the station's own Unkai, registered in 1988 as Cha Norin No. 38, Minekaori is one of the few cultivars in this collection bred specifically for kamairicha — pan-fired tea — and is reported to make a poor sencha, which is unusual enough to be the point of it.

Mineyutaka

みねゆたか · Kagoshima (Nishinoomote, Tanegashima)

A 1996 bud sport of Yabukita, discovered and grown almost exclusively on Tanegashima, Kagoshima, where it is one of a handful of locally distinctive cultivars alongside Shoju and Kuritawase; barely documented outside the island.

Miyoshi

みよし · Shizuoka

One of the first fifteen tea cultivars Japan registered, Miyoshi was selected from Uji-strain seedlings in Tokyo and fixed in 1953 as Cha Norin No. 3 for ordinary sencha; valued for seed that bred true, it has left almost no trace in current records.

Narino

なりの · Kyoto

A tencha and matcha cultivar registered under Japan's Plant Variety Protection Act in 2002, mass-selected over twenty years from indigenous zairai tea trees in Horii Shichimeien's Okunoyama garden in Uji, and distinguished by theanine levels close to double conventional cultivars.

Natsumidori

なつみどり · Shizuoka

A 1954 landrace selection from the Kanaya national tea station's own Shizuoka seedling garden, registered as Cha Norin No. 16; despite its name, it budded almost exactly with Yabukita and was valued instead for holding sencha quality through the second and third flush.

Ogura-midori

おぐらみどり · Kyoto

A landrace selection from Kyoto/Uji indigenous tea trees, made by a private breeder and named by the Kyoto Prefectural Tea Research Institute; rated ◎ for tencha alone and medium in nearly every other respect, it remains one of the ten 宇治種 that Kyoto subsidises growers to replant, even though its origin — which garden, which grower — went unrecorded.

Oku-no-yama

おくのやま · Kyoto

A gyokuro-leaning landrace selection propagated by cuttings from a single centuries-old zairai tree in Horii Shichimeien's historic Okunoyama garden in Uji, registered under the Plant Variety Protection Act in 2002 alongside its sibling selection Narino.

Okuharuka

おくはるか · Saitama

An extremely late-budding, cold-hardy Saitama cultivar bred from Saitama 20 × Saitama 7, application-published in 2013 and registered in 2015; trial data show markedly lower frost damage than even Sayamakaori, and it carries a distinctive cherry-leaf aroma linked to coumarin in the leaf.

Okuhikari

おくひかり · Shizuoka

A late-budding Shizuoka cultivar bred from Yabukita and the Chinese accession Shizu-Cy225, registered in 1987; valued in mountainous districts for its cold hardiness, glossy deep-green leaf and distinctive aroma, and the seed parent of both Yumesuruga and Shizukaori.

Okumidori

おくみどり · Shizuoka

A 1953 cross of Yabukita against the landrace selection 静在16, registered in 1974 as Cha Norin No. 32, Okumidori buds some eleven days after Yabukita and exists to stretch a district's picking season past the point where one mid-season clone would jam it — and its sweet, low-astringency leaf made it, unplanned, one of the principal tencha and gyokuro cultivars outside Uji.

Okumusashi

おくむさし · Saitama

A controlled cross of Sayamamidori and Yamatomidori made in 1947 in Saitama and registered in 1962 as Cha Norin No. 26, bred for cold hardiness and a late pick, and among the first Japanese green tea cultivars produced by crossing rather than zairai selection.

Okuyutaka

おくゆたか · Shizuoka

A 1958 Kanaya cross of Yutakamidori against the breeding line F1NN8, registered in 1983 as Cha Norin No. 34 — a late sencha cultivar that yields around half again as much as Yabukita and sometimes close to double, with a mild, amino-acid-heavy cup that reads as its seed parent slowed down by a fortnight.

Ooiwase

おおいわせ · Shizuoka

An unregistered 1977 Shizuoka recommended cultivar, bred at the prefectural tea experiment station from a 1960 Yaeho × Yabukita cross specifically so that growers would have something worth plucking in the ten days before Yabukita; it makes a clean, refreshing early sencha rated level with Yabukita or a little above, and still holds about 100 ha of the prefecture.

Rokuro

ろくろう · Shizuoka

A Shizuoka Zairai selection by Sugiyama Hikosaburo — Yabukita's own discoverer — registered in 1953 as Cha Norin No. 9 for sencha, named for its trial-plot number rather than a person, and struck from Shizuoka's own recommended list two years later.

Ryofu

りょうふう · Shizuoka

A Kanaya cross of Horyoku against Yabukita, registered in 1997 as Cha Norin No. 45, Ryofu is a slightly late sencha cultivar with an unusually clean, brisk character — the trait it is named for, and the one that divides opinion about it.

Saeakari

さえあかり · Kagoshima

A Makurazaki cross of the breeding line Z1 against Saemidori, registered under the Plant Variety Protection Act in 2012, Saeakari buds three to four days ahead of Yabukita and keeps Saemidori's bright colour into the summer crop — and unusually for an early sencha cultivar, it takes shade well enough for kabusecha, gyokuro and tencha.

Saemidori

さえみどり · Kagoshima

Registered in 1990 as Cha Norin No. 40 from a 1969 Yabukita × Asatsuyu cross bred at Makurazaki, Kagoshima, Saemidori buds about four days ahead of Yabukita and is prized for high amino acids, low astringency and vivid green colour — Japan's most widely planted premium sencha cultivar after Yabukita, at roughly 4% of national tea acreage.

Sakimidori

さきみどり · Miyazaki

A 1979 cross of the breeding line F1NN27 and the Miyazaki landrace ME52, Sakimidori was registered in 1997/2001 for its vivid green colour and 20-40% yield advantage over Yabukita, and later parented Kirari 31 and Haruto 34.

Samidori

さみどり · Kyoto

A landrace selection from Uji zairai stock, promoted as a Kyoto Prefecture recommended cultivar in 1954, Samidori is one of the principal Uji tencha and gyokuro cultivars, prized for its vivid colour and umami, and the seed parent of both Houshun and Tenmyo.

Sato-wase

さとうわせ · Shizuoka

An early-budding sencha cultivar selected by the grower Satō Mitsuteru from a seedling of the unregistered strain Abe No. 1 and registered under the Seed and Seedling Law in 1986, with an unusually upright leaf blade angle and no MAFF Cha Norin number.

Sawamizuka

さわみずか · Shizuoka

A late-budding, high-yielding sencha cultivar crossed from Yabukita and the unregistered Fujimidori, selected in Shizuoka in 1966 and registered under the Plant Variety Protection Act in 1995, valued by cooperative factories for a clean aroma that reads as distinctly different from Yabukita's.

Sayamakaori

さやまかおり · Saitama

A slightly early, strongly cold-hardy Yabukita seedling registered in Saitama in 1971 as Cha Norin No. 31, known for concentrated astringency and a powerful, sometimes floral aroma, and now parent to Sainomidori, Yumekaori, Nanmei and the Kanaya Homare/Ibuki pair.

Sayamamidori

さやまみどり · Saitama

Selected from Uji zairai seedlings and registered in Saitama in 1953 as Cha Norin No. 5, the same year as Yabukita, Sayamamidori was the first cultivar bred at Saitama's tea research station and became the prefecture's foundational parent, siring Okumusashi, Toyoka, Hokumei and Miyamakaori directly.

Seimei

せいめい · Kagoshima

A 2020-registered Kagoshima cultivar bred at NARO's Makurazaki station from Fushun × Saemidori, Seimei is plucked about four days before Yabukita and out-yields both Yabukita and Saemidori under shade cloth — developed specifically for tencha and kabusecha as matcha and powdered-tea demand has grown.

Shizu-7132

Shizuoka

An unregistered 1960s Shizuoka breeding line — an open-pollinated Yabukita seedling whose tea carries a genuine coumarin-driven cherry-leaf aroma. Locally branded "Machiko" around Shimizu, it is otherwise known only by its trial number, and is the seed parent of the registered cultivar Tsuyuhikari.

Shoju

しょうじゅ · Kagoshima

A very-early-budding sencha cultivar registered in 1996 under Japan's Plant Variety Protection Act, Shoju is a bud sport of Kuritawase found on Tanegashima by grower Matsushita Eiichi, prized locally for a milky, vanilla-like sweetness and for opening Japan's earliest new-tea season each March.

Shunmei

しゅんめい · Shizuoka

A 1988-registered Shizuoka sencha cultivar bred from Yutakamidori × F1NN8 at the Kanaya station, Shunmei buds four to five days before Yabukita and is the full sibling of Okuyutaka — though it never matched Okuyutaka's or Saemidori's commercial reach.

Sofu

そうふう · Shizuoka

A 2005 Shizuoka cross of Yabukita and the Assamica-hybrid Shizu-Inzatsu 131, Sofu is grown for a sweet, jasmine-like aroma traced to methyl anthranilate — a compound never before found in a Japanese cultivar — though weak frost tolerance and thin commercial planting keep it a specialty tea.

Sunrouge

サンルージュ · Kagoshima

An anthocyanin-rich, red-leaf tea bred at NARO's Makurazaki station from a Camellia taliensis × Okumusashi cross, registered in 2011; its liquor is blackish at neutral pH and turns pink or red with an acid such as lemon juice.

Takachiho

たかちほ · Miyazaki

A 1924 selection from an indigenous Miyazaki seedling stand, registered in 1953 as Cha Norin No. 11, Takachiho is a kamairicha (pan-fired tea) cultivar that served as Kyushu's reference standard for the type until its own offspring, Unkai, replaced it in 1970.

Takane-wase

たかねわせ · Shizuoka

A sencha cultivar selected from open-pollinated Yabukita seedlings by grower Muramatsu Hoichi in Haibara-cho, Shizuoka, and registered under the Plant Variety Protection Act in 1985; earlier-budding than Yabukita and disease-resistant, but almost entirely undocumented outside its own registration record.

Tamamidori

たまみどり · Shizuoka

Registered in 1953 as Cha Norin No. 4, Tamamidori is a Uji-seed selection bred for steamed tamaryokucha rather than sencha, and — via its open-pollinated seedling Z1 and the unreleased breeding line F1NN8 — an ancestor of Fushun, Saeakari, Meiryoku, Okuyutaka and Shunmei.

Tenmyo

てんみょう · Kyoto

A mid-season tencha cultivar selected in 1977 from open-pollinated seedlings of Samidori at the Kyoto Prefectural Tea Research Institute and registered in 2006, bred specifically to raise the quality of machine-harvested tencha, where growers had mostly been relying on Yabukita.

Terakawa-wase

てらかわわせ · Kyoto

A tencha cultivar selected from Uji Zairai seedlings by grower Terakawa Toshio and registered under the Plant Variety Protection Act in 1990; early-budding and high-yielding at origin, but now a rare cultivar occasionally rediscovered as an unusual sencha.

Toyoka

とよか · Saitama

A cold-hardy, high-yielding cross of Sayamamidori and Yabukita registered in Saitama in 1976 as Cha Norin No. 33, Toyoka has become a near-extinct "phantom cultivar" grown by a handful of farms, valued today less for sencha than for a distinctively aromatic, full-bodied black tea.

Tsukasamidori

つかさみどり · Shizuoka

A landrace selection from a naturally cross-pollinated Shizuoka Zairai seedling, registered in 1984 by the private grower Yamazaki Yūji for its cold hardiness and anthracnose resistance; now essentially undocumented and apparently out of commercial use.

Tsuyuhikari

つゆひかり · Shizuoka

A Shizuoka cross of the unregistered breeding line Shizu-7132 against Asatsuyu, registered under the Plant Variety Protection Act in 2003, Tsuyuhikari buds a day or two ahead of Yabukita, out-yields it by about a third, and resists anthracnose well — and since 2021 may not be planted outside the prefecture that bred it.

Uji-Hikari

うじひかり · Kyoto

A 1954 Kyoto Prefectural Tea Research Institute selection from Uji zairai stock, numbered Kyoken No. 170, Uji-hikari is grown almost exclusively for tencha and gyokuro, valued for its soft, thin leaf, bright clear colour and good uptake of shading colour, though it needs protection from cold.

Ujimidori

うじみどり · Kyoto

An unregistered Uji landrace selection made by the Kyoto Prefectural Tea Research Institute in 1983 and still known chiefly by its strain number Kyoken 307, Ujimidori is a medium-early gyokuro cultivar prized for aroma and umami, and rare enough outside Kyoto that most of what is published about it is a single line in a prefectural list.

Unkai

うんかい · Miyazaki

A 1970 Miyazaki cultivar bred from Takachiho and an Assam-descended F1 line, registered as Cha Norin No. 29 to out-yield and out-perform the prefecture's existing kamairicha cultivars while holding their pan-fired quality.

Yabukita

やぶきた · Shizuoka

A single seedling picked out of a Shizuoka landrace stand in 1908 by the grower Sugiyama Hikosaburo and registered in 1953 as Cha Norin No. 6, Yabukita still covers two thirds of Japan's tea area and is the benchmark every other cultivar is described against — budding times in days from Yabukita, yields as a multiple of it, flavour as more or less umami than it.

Yaeho

やえほ · Shizuoka

A 1954 registration (Cha Norin No. 17) of an early-budding Shizuoka Zairai individual that Yabukita's discoverer, Sugiyama Hikosaburo, selected from his own garden; now grown on a vanishing scale for a distinctive chestnut-toned aroma, and parent of Ooiwase and, on a still-debated line, of Marishi.

Yamakai

やまかい · Shizuoka

An unregistered 1967 Shizuoka cultivar, Yamakai is an open-pollinated Yabukita seedling known for an unusually strong, food-like aroma that long kept it out of blends. It buds alongside Yabukita, is frost-prone, and survives today as a recognised Shizuoka prefectural cultivar despite never gaining a Cha Norin number.

Yamanoibuki

やまのいぶき · Shizuoka

An early-budding sencha cultivar selected at the Shizuoka Prefectural Tea Experiment Station from a Yabukita open-pollinated seedling tea garden in the mountain interior of Nakakawane and registered in 1997, Yamanoibuki buds four to five days before Yabukita and was promoted as a strategic cultivar to rival Kagoshima's early Yutakamidori in Shizuoka's shincha market.

Yamatomidori

やまとみどり · Nara

A 1953 landrace selection from Nara indigenous tea tree seed, registered as Cha Norin No. 10, Yamatomidori is the only cultivar Nara has ever bred — it buds over ten days later than Yabukita, resists cold and frost exceptionally well, and survives today mainly as seed-grown bancha and hojicha stock.

Yutakamidori

ゆたかみどり · Shizuoka (selected) / Kagoshima (named, and almost entirely grown)

Selected in 1949 from an open-pollinated Asatsuyu seedling and named by Kagoshima Prefecture in 1966 without ever receiving a national Cha Norin number, Yutakamidori is Japan's second most-planted cultivar and the backbone of Kagoshima's shaded, deep-steamed sencha.