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Tales of Green Tea: Notes from a Centuries-old Kyoto Teahouse
178 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 27, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
Review of advance copy
Tales of Green Tea
Author : Miyako Watanabe
Translator : Cathy Hirano
"At the 300 year-old Ippodo tea shop in Kyoto, time passes at the gentle pace of green tea leaves brewing in a kyusu teapot. Written by the store's vice president, Miyako Watanabe, Tales of Green Tea offers an account of everyday life at this beloved spot, but also of the knowledge, encounters and discoveries that come with a life steeped in tea.
Through evocative, sensory snapshots across seasons, Watanabe traces the life of tea - from the quiet patience of groeing and harvesting to the meditative rituals of the ceremony. By, weaving together the history of the tradition with its place in contemporary Japanese culture, thid lyrical book brings to light the wisdom and endless flow of stories to be found in a simple cup of tea."
This book is divided into four parts, from the beginning of the teashop's establishment & how it was founded, up to the traditions it has had up till the present, together with its famous tea ritual, especially on festivals & holidays celebrated in Japan.
A slow-paced, poetic niche type of novel definitely for those interested to learn the background history & the overall process of tea making. Might come off as information overload for the general public, especially w/ the foreign jargon terms mentioned not everybody is familiar with.
It definitely peaked my curiosity especially with the different types of preparations of tea, & how matcha became a part of everyday life, but an in-depth agricultural read was not in my interest that I skimmed through most of those parts. Overall greatly informative & interesting!
3/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️
P.S.
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Author : Miyako Watanabe
Translator : Cathy Hirano
"At the 300 year-old Ippodo tea shop in Kyoto, time passes at the gentle pace of green tea leaves brewing in a kyusu teapot. Written by the store's vice president, Miyako Watanabe, Tales of Green Tea offers an account of everyday life at this beloved spot, but also of the knowledge, encounters and discoveries that come with a life steeped in tea.
Through evocative, sensory snapshots across seasons, Watanabe traces the life of tea - from the quiet patience of groeing and harvesting to the meditative rituals of the ceremony. By, weaving together the history of the tradition with its place in contemporary Japanese culture, thid lyrical book brings to light the wisdom and endless flow of stories to be found in a simple cup of tea."
This book is divided into four parts, from the beginning of the teashop's establishment & how it was founded, up to the traditions it has had up till the present, together with its famous tea ritual, especially on festivals & holidays celebrated in Japan.
A slow-paced, poetic niche type of novel definitely for those interested to learn the background history & the overall process of tea making. Might come off as information overload for the general public, especially w/ the foreign jargon terms mentioned not everybody is familiar with.
It definitely peaked my curiosity especially with the different types of preparations of tea, & how matcha became a part of everyday life, but an in-depth agricultural read was not in my interest that I skimmed through most of those parts. Overall greatly informative & interesting!
3/5 ⭐️⭐️⭐️
P.S.
Follow me for more book reviews on:
❥ Instagram @bookwormdenz
❥ Threads @denz.kaye
❥ Meta @bookworm.denz
❥ Goodreads @bookwormdenz
October 1, 2026
i knew i’d love this book the moment i saw it featured on littered with book’s instagram. i made sure to head there to buy it from them since they’d help me discover it, but little did i know - it was featured in almost all of the bookstores i visited on my singapore trip.
i do think this would benefit greatly from a reread, as it’s quite a lot of information to take in. i’m still confused by what is what with all the tea names, though i thoroughly enjoyed the reading experience.
it made a lot of sense to find out at the end that these were actually essays which were published on separate occasions, as i did find sections to feel isolated and not flowing so smoothly into one another. i kept feeling like perhaps it would be best read section by section, instead of many sections at once.
i loved learning about how intentional everything in the green tea business is, and how the author goes about it all in her life. some aspects feel very patriarchal, but it is to be somewhat expected as the author is someone in her seventies now, and grew up in a very different time than i did. still, i really enjoyed reading about her experience, and the intentionality of all the little gestures that she practices - be it her own, or inherited from her in-laws - comes across as a very uniquely japanese quality to me.
it’s been so long since i’ve written a (longer) book review! as such, it’s kind of messy and incoherent, but maybe it’s a tiny step towards having thoughts about books, and learning again to pen them down.
i do think this would benefit greatly from a reread, as it’s quite a lot of information to take in. i’m still confused by what is what with all the tea names, though i thoroughly enjoyed the reading experience.
it made a lot of sense to find out at the end that these were actually essays which were published on separate occasions, as i did find sections to feel isolated and not flowing so smoothly into one another. i kept feeling like perhaps it would be best read section by section, instead of many sections at once.
i loved learning about how intentional everything in the green tea business is, and how the author goes about it all in her life. some aspects feel very patriarchal, but it is to be somewhat expected as the author is someone in her seventies now, and grew up in a very different time than i did. still, i really enjoyed reading about her experience, and the intentionality of all the little gestures that she practices - be it her own, or inherited from her in-laws - comes across as a very uniquely japanese quality to me.
it’s been so long since i’ve written a (longer) book review! as such, it’s kind of messy and incoherent, but maybe it’s a tiny step towards having thoughts about books, and learning again to pen them down.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews