The Japanese Man Who Helped Make Matcha Become A Viral Sensation Worldwide

From branding to brewing

This affection for tea led him to swop his fast-paced life in Tokyo to become an advocate for the Japanese tea industry. It started when Sudo was working on an advertising project for a big tea company. “I was helping to promote its tea products, but these were matcha sweets and bottled matcha, not [pure] matcha for drinking,” he shared. 

The frequent tea drinker could not understand why consumers preferred the processed products until a colleague analysed that drinking tea was not in vogue anymore – brewing tea was also time consuming for busy urbanites who regularly had their coffee on the go. Not long after, Sudo chanced upon a farmer’s market at Omotesando Station. He struck up a conversation with a tea farmer who bemoaned the industry’s decline.

“The farmer didn’t want his son to take over his plantation; he wanted him to go to university to work in a big company,” recalled Sudo. Unsure of how to help the farmers who faced challenges due to low demand, he started by supporting the farmer he had met, creating pro bono branding and marketing collateral that highlighted the benefits of tea

It’s delicious and very good for health. It also has a long history and culture,” said Sudo. As a drink for relaxation, tea also contains less negative side effects. “When I drink a few cups of beer or black coffee, I don't feel so good. But two or three cups of tea a day feels okay,” Sudo commented.

Despite his efforts, Sudo felt that a quicker remedy was necessary to help the ailing industry. The Eureka moment came when Sudo realised there were few casual, modern places to enjoy a good cup of matcha or tea. Most places serving high-grade matcha were formal venues, such as traditional teahouses.

“There were so many good coffee shops in Japan and also the world, but not many modern teahouses,” he said. “I wanted people to feel that it’s not difficult to enjoy tea, so I opened my shop.”

The ritual of matcha

Seven years on, modern teahouses and drinking matcha have become trendy. Like Yugen, many of these teahouses pair the drinks with wagashi (traditional Japanese confectionery) and serve them in an aesthetic, kaiseki style. Sudo shared that acquaintances and even coffee shop owners have asked him to teach them how to make a good cup of tea using the correct steps and techniques.

As an intentional, precise ritual, the tea ceremony has become the poster child for the slow living trend – not unlike the pour-over coffee experience. Making matcha forces one to put aside other thoughts in order to focus on the visceral actions of measuring, scooping, pouring, stirring and swirling a chawan. It involves all the senses – sight, sound, smell, touch and taste – with the final sensation being the warm, slightly bitter and umami drink flowing down the throat and warming the stomach.  

Yugen’s success also stems from Sudo’s keen business sense. The entrepreneur saw that the steep prices of good-quality matcha discouraged common folk from drinking it on a daily basis. This was partly due to the many entities it takes to get the harvested leaves from the farmer to the customer, with tea-processing factories, and retailers and restaurants in between all adding to the costs.

Sudo chanced upon a tea-processing factory that was closing and approached the owner. “I told him that I was going to start my own business, where people can enjoy tea like in a coffee shop,” said Sudo. He encouraged farmers in Kyoto and Uji to plant good-grade tealeaves before purchasing directly from them and sending them to this particular factory for processing at competitive rates in order to reduce overall prices. “Now he is very, very busy,” chuckled Sudo on the factory owner.   

Drawing on his creative background, he packaged Yugen’s tea in attractive, minimal casing with clear graphics. Sudo also created four original blends, simplified into Matcha #01 to #03. The higher the number, the better the grade.

For instance, #01, which is mixes five leaf types, is a light tea blend; its natural sweetness makes it a popular choice for everyday drinking and making matcha wagashi. Meanwhile, blend #3 mixes Asahi and Samidor tea leaves, and is typically enjoyed as a koicha (thicker tea) using a larger amount of matcha powder. 

Each packaging come with information on the tea’s origins, picking methods and tealeaf varieties, as well as information on how to brew a cup. In the same spirit of education, Yugen’s website provides detailed instructions on how to brew the different teas and blends. For instance – the first brew of sencha requires four to six grams of tea leaves per 1,000 ml of hot water at 85 degrees Fahrenheit for 90 seconds.

Sudo contemplated that if they are more affordable priced and well made – just like the matcha – more people can purchase them and use them at home. “There are many expensive [crafts] but there are also many that are not so expensive but still of high quality,” said Sudo, whose shop sells many of these intricate pieces.

This was why in 2022, he moved Yugen from the more touristy Kawaramachi area to a quieter location near the Kyoto Imperial Palace. It is also much bigger with a cafe on the first floor, a gallery for changing exhibits on the second, and a retail space on the third. While I was there in September 2024, the gallery was exhibiting the works of glass artist Aki Sakaida.

“Tourist areas are good for business but I moved here so people can enjoy a slower, calmer teatime, and see these handicrafts and artisanal objects,” said Sudo. The interiors have a wabi sabi aesthetic, with paint stripped from the concrete surfaces. Marks and stains of time are streaked and scratched across the grey walls.

Resin coats the raw cement floor on the upper levels to capture the memory of the rain-glossed floor Sudo encountered on his first visit to the building. Panels of translucent fabric draped along the floor like the ends of dresses, contrasting the beton brut (raw concrete).   

A space to slow down

After our interview, I took a long time to peruse the store on the third storey. There are Goto Yohei’s coloured glassware, ceramics from Nishi Takayuki’s Blade series with sky-blue glaze frozen in mid-drip, Miyo Oyabu’s glass plates and bowls with bubbling from the glass-making process that forms unique shadows with sunlight, Akira Arakawa’s glass pitchers and dishes and teapots by Saori Yamazaki with a distinct black lacquer.

Sudo recommended not treating the objects like precious displays but that they are used daily as they were originally intended. This also increases the attachment between user and object. Sudo uses many of these pieces in the teahouse. While making matcha for me, he greeted a customer. It was a friend from Tokyo who is a model-turned-skincare brand founder. She had her matcha, a plate of wagashi and a short chat with Sudo before continuing her day.

I got the feeling that regulars come to Yugen for that homely feeling, the sense that every process is cared for – much like what Sudo experienced as a child when his mother made him his daily matcha.

In traditional Japanese aesthetics, “yugen” refers to a kind of subtle gracefulness too deep and overwhelming to put into words. Perched on my shadowed spot at Yugen, sipping my delicious, warm matcha tenderly brewed for me, no words were needed.

Source: CNA/st

The original version of this story first appeared in CNA Lifestyle. 

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