There's a kind of fame that never reaches the customer. Sayamakaori is Japan's fifth most-planted tea cultivar, and I have never once seen its name on a tin in a Western shop. What it has instead is stranger. Its name is written into other cultivars' official registration records, as the thing they are being compared to.
Read enough Japanese breeding documents and you start noticing it. A new plant is released. Somewhere in the assessment sits a line saying its yield is as high as Sayamakaori's, or lower than Sayamakaori's, or that it resists frost injury about as well. At some point the plant stopped being a product and became a unit of measurement.
Fifty years on, that is still happening. Saitama Prefecture released a new cultivar in 2021, and its own breeders describe it by holding it up against this one.
Key Takeaways
- Sayamakaori (さやまかおり) is 茶農林31号, Chanorin No. 31, bred by the Saitama Prefecture Tea Research Institute and registered in 1971 for sencha. It was selected out of Yabukita seedlings, and the pollen parent was never recorded.
- Saitama Prefecture describes it as the fifth most-planted cultivar in Japan, yet single cultivar Sayamakaori is rarely sold under its own name.
- Four separate national breeding records rate a different cultivar by comparing it to Sayamakaori, for yield, for freeze injury, and for pest resistance.
- At least seven registered plants name it as a direct parent, across four breeding institutions, from 1988 to 2014, and it sits further up the family tree of two more registered in 2021 and 2022. One of those crosses used an ornamental camellia.
- Its own breeder's newest release, from 2021, is still described by how its yield compares to Sayamakaori's.
- One with Tea does not sell Sayamakaori. This is a cultivar we write about, not one we stock.
What is the Sayamakaori tea cultivar?
Sayamakaori is a slightly early Japanese green tea cultivar, bred for sencha by the Saitama Prefecture Tea Research Institute and registered in 1971 as 茶農林31号, Chanorin No. 31. Saitama's own summary of it runs to four short clauses: cold hardy, high yielding, and, in the same breath, easy to grow (埼玉県茶業研究所, 埼玉県で栽培されている茶の品種).
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View Superior SenchaThat third clause is the one growers actually act on, and it almost never survives into English write-ups. 栽培が簡単です. It's easy to cultivate. A plant can be excellent and still be a nuisance in the field, and a great many cultivars in this series are exactly that. This one isn't.
The prefecture adds two more things. Within Saitama it's the earliest cultivar harvested, and its character is 濃厚な色と味, a concentrated colour and taste. The Institute that bred it still sits in Iruma City, west of Tokyo, and still grows more than two hundred varieties on its grounds (埼玉県茶業研究所).
The registry entry is spare in the way these entries are. Chanorin No. 31, old line name G15613, pedigree recorded as やぶきた実生, a Yabukita seedling, bred 1971, at Saitama, for sencha (附表１ 茶農林登録品種一覧). It sits between Kanayamidori at No. 30 and Okumidori at No. 32, both bred at Kanaya in Shizuoka within a few years of it. For where all these plants sit relative to each other, our guide to Japanese tea cultivars and the plants behind matcha and green tea maps the wider field.
One point of paperwork, because it invites a wrong conclusion. Sayamakaori has no plant variety protection number and does not need one. It went through the 農林認定品種 route, the Chanorin series running since 1953, which predates the Seed and Seedling Law registrations that began in 1978 (中村順行, 静岡県立大学茶学総合研究センター). Different register, different era. Nothing more.
Where Sayamakaori came from: a Yabukita seedling with no recorded father
Sayamakaori was selected out of open-pollinated Yabukita seedlings at Saitama's tea research station, which means its mother is Yabukita and its father is unknown.
The pedigree tables write this precisely, and I like the honesty of the notation: やぶきた ♀, 自然交雑, ？♂ (農研機構, 茶品種ハンドブック 第6版). Yabukita as the seed parent, natural crossing, and a question mark where the pollen parent would go. Somewhere in a Saitama tea field in the 1960s, a bee did the interesting half of this work and nobody wrote down which bush it came from.
This was ordinary practice, not carelessness. Yabukita was planted so widely and so uniformly that its seedlings were the cheapest raw material a breeding programme had. Sorting through them is how a good many of the postwar cultivars were found. Our profile of the cultivar behind most Japanese green tea covers how one plant came to occupy roughly eighty percent of Japan's tea area. It also covers why Yabukita turns up as a parent in at least nine registered Chanorin cultivars. Sayamakaori is one of those nine.
What distinguishes it from its siblings is what happened afterward. Most Yabukita children stayed children. This one became a parent many times over, and then something rarer than that.
Why Japan's fifth most-planted cultivar is almost never on a label
Saitama Prefecture states it directly: Sayamakaori is 全国で5番目に多い品種, the fifth most-planted cultivar in the country, on a page the prefecture last updated on 5 January 2026 (埼玉県茶業研究所). I'm quoting that ranking rather than deriving it. A national ordinal is exactly the kind of claim that goes stale quietly, and the prefecture is the party with standing to make it.
Fifth is a peculiar place to be. High enough that a serious quantity of Japanese green tea has this plant in it. Low enough, and anonymous enough, that almost nobody drinking it will ever be told.
The reason is blending. Most sencha reaches the shelf as a blend built for consistency, and cultivar names disappear into it. A plant that is easy to grow, generous in yield and cold tolerant earns its place in the blend rather than on the label. Its virtues are the grower's, not the marketing department's.
That is a different situation from the rare cultivars in this series. Asatsuyu is scarce because it is difficult. Sayamakaori is invisible because it is useful. Those aren't the same kind of absence, and it took me a while to stop confusing them.
The yardstick: how Sayamakaori got written into other cultivars' records
Four separate cultivar records in Japan's national handbook describe a completely different plant by measuring it against Sayamakaori. This is the part that made me want to write the article. Not measured against Yabukita, the obvious national default. Against this one.
| Cultivar | Registered | Trait rated | Verdict against Sayamakaori |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hokumei (ほくめい) | 1995, Saitama | Yield, first and second flush | As high yielding as Sayamakaori (「さやまかおり」並に多収である) |
| Sainomidori (さいのみどり) | 2006, Saitama | Yield, first and second flush | Above Yabukita, but lower than Sayamakaori (「さやまかおり」より少ない) |
| Sakimidori (さきみどり) | 2001, Miyazaki | Red wither and split-type freeze injury | As strong as Sayamakaori (「さやまかおり」と同程度に強い) |
| Yumekaori (ゆめかおり) | 2009, Miyazaki | Scale insect and ring spot disease | As strong as Sayamakaori (「さやまかおり」並に強い) |
One note on the years below. These are plant variety registration dates from the handbook, and several of these cultivars carry an earlier 茶農林 number from the national series. Hokumei is a good example: registered as a plant variety in 1995, but already 茶農林43号 in 1992. Two registers, two dates, same plant.
Hokumei, a Saitama cultivar registered in 1995, has its yield written up like this: higher than Yabukita for both first and second flush, and 「さやまかおり」並に多収である, as high yielding as Sayamakaori (農研機構, 茶品種ハンドブック 第6版). Yabukita sets the floor. Sayamakaori sets the mark worth hitting.
Sainomidori, 茶農林50号 in 2003 and registered as a plant variety in February 2006, gets the same treatment with the opposite result. Its yield is higher than Yabukita for both flushes, and 「さやまかおり」より少ない, less than Sayamakaori. There's the ceiling, stated out loud in an official record.
Then the trait shifts and the reference point does not. Sakimidori, a Miyazaki cultivar registered in 2001, is rated 「さやまかおり」と同程度に強い against red wither and against 裂傷型凍害, split-type freeze injury, the damage that happens when bark splits in a hard winter. And Yumekaori, registered in 2009, has its resistance to scale insect and ring spot disease rated 「さやまかおり」並に強い, as strong as Sayamakaori's.
Yield, cold, pests. Three unrelated properties, four records, three different breeding institutions, and the same plant used as the ruler each time. That isn't a coincidence of phrasing. It means that by the 1990s Japanese tea breeders shared a mental picture of what Sayamakaori could withstand and how much it produced. That picture was precise enough that naming it said more than a number would have.
And it didn't stop. In 2021 Saitama released Sayamaakari, and the prefecture's own description of its newest plant reads: 収量が多い'さやまかおり'と比べても多収, higher yielding even compared to the high-yielding Sayamakaori (埼玉県茶業研究所). Half a century after registering it, the institute that bred Sayamakaori still explains its new work by pointing back at it.
Sayamakaori as a parent, including one cross with a camellia
At least seven registered plants name Sayamakaori as a direct parent, spanning 1988 to 2014, and it sits further up the family tree of two more: Danshin 37, registered in Miyazaki in 2021, and Kanaemaru, registered by the national institute in 2022. The institutions involved are Saitama, Kanaya, Makurazaki and Miyazaki.
The Saitama line is the expected one. Musashikaori, Chanorin No. 46, came from Sayamakaori crossed with a 硬枝紅心 seedling in 1997. Sainomidori, Chanorin No. 50, came from Sayamakaori by natural crossing in 2003 (附表１ 茶農林登録品種一覧). A prefecture building its next plants out of its best one is just how breeding programmes work.
The interesting entries are outside Saitama. Yumekaori was bred in Miyazaki from Sayamakaori crossed with Miyazaki No. 8, registered February 2009. Nanmei came from Sayamakaori crossed with Makurazaki No. 13 at the national institute's Makurazaki station, registered February 2014 (農研機構, 茶品種ハンドブック 第6版). A cultivar bred for the cold near Tokyo went on to found lines at the warm end of the country.
Then there's 1988, and Chatsubaki No. 1, which isn't a tea you can drink. It was registered as 茶中間母本農1号, the first entry in Japan's series of tea intermediate parents, plants bred purely as breeding stock. Its purpose is listed as 耐病虫性, disease and pest resistance. Its pedigree is Sayamakaori crossed with ヤブツバキ, the common ornamental Japanese camellia (附表１ 茶農林登録品種一覧).
Tea is a camellia, so this is less strange than it first sounds. It's still a striking choice. Japanese breeders went looking outside the tea species for disease resistance, and needed a tea plant sturdy enough to be the other half of that experiment. The first one they registered used Sayamakaori. Two more intermediate parents followed in 2004, KM8 and KM62, both from Sayamakaori, both for resistance to the scale insect that troubles growers most.
What Sayamakaori asks of the grower
Sayamakaori asks less of the grower than most Japanese tea cultivars, and that is the whole point of it.
Saitama's description is unusually generous by the standards of these records: 寒さに強く、収量が多い。しかも栽培が簡単です. Strong against cold, high yielding, and moreover easy to cultivate (埼玉県茶業研究所). Read a few dozen cultivar profiles and you notice how rarely that last clause appears. Most are a list of things to watch out for.
Its timing is やや早生, slightly early, and within Saitama it is the first cultivar off the bush. A Shizuoka merchant selling it notes the trait travels: grown in Shizuoka it also comes in slightly early (葉桐).
One thing to keep in proportion, because the easy story would make cold tolerance Sayamakaori's defining feature. It isn't. Four of the eight cultivars Saitama has bred carry 寒さに強く in their description, Sayamakaori, Fukumidori, Hokumei and Musashikaori, and a fifth, Yumewakaba, is described as strong against cold and disease. Cold hardiness is the whole prefecture's signature, not this one plant's.
Saitama sits near the northern edge of where tea is commercially worth growing, and the prefecture is explicit about it. Hokumei's name was built to say so, 「お茶の北限に近い埼玉で生まれた茗」, a tea born in Saitama, near tea's northern limit (埼玉県茶業研究所). That story belongs to Hokumei. Sayamakaori's contribution was proving the approach could also be productive.
Shizuoka reached the same conclusion from the other direction. When frost damage kept taking the crop through the late Showa years, the prefecture's answer was 耐寒性品種の採用, the adoption of cold tolerant cultivars, and the two it names are Sayamakaori and Okuhikari (中村順行). We tell that breeding-era story in full in our profile of Tsuyuhikari, the cultivar that came out of the era after it.
Where Sayamakaori actually grows
Most Sayamakaori does not grow in Sayama. In Japan's 2012 national figures it is the second most planted cultivar in Shizuoka, the country's largest tea prefecture, and it reaches as far south as Kumamoto.
The national ministry's table gives Shizuoka's mix as Yabukita 93 percent, Sayamakaori 2 percent, then Kanayamidori, Saemidori and Okumidori at 0.5 percent each. Shizuoka produced 33,400 tonnes that year, 39 percent of the national crop (農林水産省, 新品種・新技術の開発・保護・普及の方針 茶). Two percent of the biggest tea prefecture in Japan is a lot of tea. Our Kanayamidori profile reads the same table from the perspective of a plant that came fourth on it.
It travels further south too. In Kumamoto, in Kyushu, the mix runs Yabukita 79 percent, native seedlings 5 percent, Takamidori 5 percent, and Sayamakaori 2 percent (農林水産省).
Shizuoka's long-run planting records show the arc. Sayamakaori enters the prefecture's recommended list in the mid 1980s, climbs through successive survey readings to a peak of 421 hectares, then falls to 295 by the end of the table (中村順行, 静岡県におけるチャの品種育成とその活用). Those are dated surveys taken at intervals, not an annual series, so the shape is the finding rather than any single number. Rise, plateau, slow decline. Shizuoka's total tea area was shrinking across the same stretch, so a falling hectare count isn't by itself a verdict on the plant.
What does Sayamakaori taste like, and will you see it on a tin?
Sayamakaori tastes strong: a concentrated, notably astringent sencha rather than a sweet or umami-led one. That is the consistent note across every description I found, and it is why the plant divides people.
I haven't cupped a single cultivar Sayamakaori, so I won't hand you a tasting note dressed up as mine. Saitama, the breeder, calls it 濃厚な色と味, concentrated in colour and taste (埼玉県茶業研究所).
Japanese merchants who sell it fill in the texture. The leaves are described as larger and thicker than Yabukita's, carrying more of the catechins behind astringency, giving a bracing cup rather than a gentle one. Withering the leaf is said to draw out a fuller, more floral aroma, and the same character is said to suit 和紅茶, Japanese black tea (CHANOYU, 山年園). Those are merchant descriptions, not research findings.
The astringency is the point of the tea rather than a flaw to brew around. One Shizuoka retailer selling a single cultivar Sayamakaori describes a crisp, clean floral aroma, then advises hotter water than usual specifically so that astringency comes through (葉桐). That is close to the opposite of the low temperature advice for a gyokuro. If you like a tea that pushes back, look for this one. If you drink sencha for sweetness and umami, Asatsuyu or Saemidori is the better direction.
Single cultivar Sayamakaori does exist, and that Shizuoka retailer's listing shows how narrow the lots get. The garden sits at 400 metres in Ohira, Shimizu Ward, Shizuoka City, worked by a grower the retailer names as 山本賢吾, picked in early May, steamed about 23 seconds, and producing roughly 250 kilograms of unrefined tea a year (葉桐, さやまかおり). Note the location. To buy a named Sayamakaori you'll likely end up in Shizuoka rather than Saitama. That grower's organic certification is theirs, not a claim about the cultivar or about us.
One with Tea does not sell Sayamakaori. It's a sencha cultivar, we're a matcha house first, and this series exists to map the field rather than describe our shelf. For a Yabukita child that went the other way and became a national headline, see Yutakamidori, now second in Japan by planted area, or Benifuuki, bred for black tea and drunk green.
Frequently asked questions
What is Sayamakaori tea?
Sayamakaori is a Japanese green tea cultivar bred for sencha by the Saitama Prefecture Tea Research Institute and registered in 1971 as Chanorin No. 31. It is slightly early, cold hardy, high yielding and easy to cultivate, and it produces a concentrated, notably astringent cup.
Who bred Sayamakaori, and when?
The Saitama Prefecture Tea Research Institute, in 1971. It was selected from open-pollinated Yabukita seedlings, so Yabukita is the seed parent and the pollen parent was never recorded. Its old line name was G15613.
Is Sayamakaori a common cultivar?
Yes. Saitama Prefecture describes it as the fifth most-planted cultivar in Japan. In 2012 it was the second most planted cultivar in Shizuoka at 2 percent of the area, behind Yabukita at 93 percent, and it held the same 2 percent share in Kumamoto.
Why do other cultivars' records mention Sayamakaori?
Because Japanese breeders use it as a reference point. Four cultivar records in the national handbook rate a different plant by comparing it to Sayamakaori. Hokumei and Sainomidori are compared on yield, Sakimidori on red wither and split-type freeze injury, and Yumekaori on scale insect and ring spot resistance.
What cultivars come from Sayamakaori?
At least seven registered plants name it as a direct parent, including Musashikaori, Sainomidori, Yumekaori, Nanmei, and three intermediate breeding parents. The first of those, Chatsubaki No. 1 in 1988, crossed Sayamakaori with the ornamental Japanese camellia for disease and pest resistance.
Does Sayamakaori have a plant variety registration number?
No, and it does not need one. It was registered through the Chanorin route, the national cultivar series running since 1953, which predates the Seed and Seedling Law registrations that began in 1978. That is a difference in which register it entered, not a statement about the plant.
How should you brew Sayamakaori?
Hotter than you would brew a high grade sencha. A Shizuoka retailer selling a single cultivar version recommends hotter water specifically so the fresh astringency comes through, which is close to the opposite of the usual low temperature advice.
Can you buy single cultivar Sayamakaori?
Yes, though it is uncommon and most of the crop disappears into blends. Named lots are more often found in Shizuoka than in Saitama. One with Tea does not currently offer a Sayamakaori.
A note from me
I went into this one expecting to write about a regional cultivar with a regional name, and came out with something else entirely.
What stayed with me is how a plant earns a reputation inside a profession that never reaches the people drinking it. Nobody sat down and decided Sayamakaori would be the benchmark. It just turned out to be reliable enough, for long enough, that when a breeder in Miyazaki needed to explain how tough a new plant was, the fastest true sentence available was to name this one. That's a reputation built entirely between specialists, in documents almost nobody reads.
There is a lesson in there about the difference between being known and being useful, and I keep turning it over. The cultivars with the beautiful stories are mostly rare. The ones holding up the actual crop are mostly anonymous. Both things are worth paying attention to, and only one of them gets written about.
We don't sell this tea. I wrote it up because a map of Japanese tea that only showed what sits in our shop wouldn't be much of a map.
Sources
埼玉県茶業研究所, 「埼玉県で栽培されている茶の品種」, the breeding institution's own prefecture. Used for: Chanorin No. 31 bred at Saitama in 1971; the slightly early, earliest-in-Saitama, cold hardy, high yielding, easy to cultivate and concentrated-taste description; the fifth most-planted ranking; Sayamaakari (2021) described against Sayamakaori's yield; Hokumei's northern-limit naming; and the wider Saitama roster.
附表１ 茶農林登録品種一覧, the Chanorin registered cultivar list. Used for: Chanorin No. 31, line name G15613, Yabukita seedling pedigree, 1971, Saitama, sencha; Musashikaori (No. 46, 1997) and Sainomidori (No. 50, 2003); Chatsubaki No. 1 (茶中間母本農1号, 1988, Kanaya), Sayamakaori crossed with ヤブツバキ; and KM8 and KM62 (2004, Makurazaki).
農研機構, 茶品種ハンドブック 第6版. Used for: the four benchmark statements in the Hokumei, Sainomidori, Sakimidori and Yumekaori records; the pedigree notation やぶきた ♀ 自然交雑 ？♂; Yumekaori (February 2009, Miyazaki) and Nanmei (February 2014, NARO Makurazaki); and Sayamakaori in the lineage of Danshin 37 (2021) and Kanaemaru (2022).
農林水産省, 「新品種・新技術の開発・保護・普及の方針 茶」. Used for: the 2012 cultivar composition for Shizuoka and Kumamoto; Shizuoka's 33,400 tonnes at 39 percent of the national crop; Yabukita at roughly 80 percent of national area; and the count of 61 registered cultivars.
中村順行, 静岡県立大学茶学総合研究センター, 「静岡県におけるチャの品種育成とその活用」. Used for: the Shizuoka planted area readings peaking at 421 hectares and ending at 295; Shizuoka's adoption of cold tolerant cultivars naming Sayamakaori and Okuhikari; and the 農林認定品種 route from 1953 against Seed and Seedling Law registration from 1978.
Those five are Tier 1: a prefectural research institute, a national cultivar register, the national agricultural research organisation's handbook, a ministry policy document, and a prefectural university research centre. All were read in the original Japanese on 10 September 2026, the two PDFs via text extraction.
Two merchant sources are used for character and are labelled as merchants in the text, not as research: 葉桐, a Shizuoka retailer selling a single cultivar Sayamakaori, and CHANOYU (山年園).
Written by Christian, founder of One with Tea. We source organic Japanese tea directly from growers and write about what we find, including the teas we do not sell.
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