Shunmei Tea Cultivar: The Early Sencha That Lost to Saemidori

Shunmei (しゅんめい) is a Japanese green tea cultivar registered in 1988 as Cha Norin No. 37. It was bred at Kanaya, in Shizuoka, from Yutakamidori and a breeding line called F1NN8. There, it buds and is ready to pluck four to six days before Yabukita. Right after breeding it drew attention as a good early cultivar. Then Saemidori, registered two years later, overtook Shunmei.

What makes Shunmei worth a whole page is a short note by Ikeda Namiko, a breeder at Japan's national tea research station, reprinted by the World Green Tea Association. She makes the case that Shunmei is the sturdier plant to grow. It's vigorous and high-yielding, less exposed to late frost than Saemidori, and quicker to recover when frost does hit. Saemidori's edge was a brighter green. So this piece follows that record, the rival that beat it, and the one sibling Shunmei shares both parents with. If you want the wider family first, our guide to Japanese tea cultivars maps where it sits.

Key Takeaways

• Shunmei (しゅんめい) is Cha Norin No. 37, registered in 1988 and bred at Kanaya, Shizuoka under the line name Kanaya No. 4 (金谷4号).
• Shunmei's parentage is Yutakamidori x F1NN8, exactly the same as Okuyutaka (Cha Norin No. 34, 1983). In the Cha Norin list, which runs to No. 52, they're the only two cultivars with those parents.
• At Kanaya, Shunmei buds and is plucked four to six days before Yabukita, resists gray blight better than Yabukita, and out-yields it in the second and third flush.
• Shunmei drew attention as a good early cultivar, then was overtaken by Saemidori, registered in June 1990.
• A breeder's note rates Shunmei the better plant to grow, with less frost worry and faster recovery, and Saemidori the better-looking tea.

What is the Shunmei tea cultivar?

Shunmei is an early Japanese sencha cultivar bred at Kanaya, Shizuoka, and registered in 1988 as Cha Norin No. 37. At Kanaya it buds four to six days before Yabukita, and Saemidori, registered two years later, overtook it. The Cha Norin registered cultivar list gives it one row: former line name Kanaya No. 4 (金谷4号), parentage Yutakamidori x F1NN8 (ゆたかみどり×Ｆ1NN8), bred at Kanaya, registered use sencha. The list's host was down when I first checked on 2026-09-15, so I read the Internet Archive copy. The host is back up now, serving an identical file.

Most of what we know about how Shunmei behaves comes from Ikeda's note. She is the second author of the 1999 breeding report for Ryoufuu, and the 2006 Saemidori paper lists her among Saemidori's own breeding staff. So she was weighing Shunmei against a cultivar she had helped raise. Her note is reprinted on O-CHA NET, the World Green Tea Association's site, from the Shizuoka tea trade monthly 月刊「茶」. The note carries no date, and an English version sits alongside it.

Shunmei at a glance

Attribute	Detail
Japanese name	しゅんめい. Written 春茗 by My Japanese Green Tea; the registered list uses hiragana only
Registration	Cha Norin No. 37 (茶農林37号), 1988
Line name	Kanaya No. 4 (金谷4号)
Parentage	Yutakamidori x F1NN8, where F1NN8 is recorded as Tamamidori x S6
Bred at	Kanaya, Shizuoka
Registered use	Sencha
Season	Early. Buds and is plucked 4 to 6 days before Yabukita at Kanaya
Strengths	Strong cold tolerance, gray blight resistance stronger than Yabukita's, vigorous growth, higher second and third flush yields than Yabukita
Cautions	Bacterial shoot blight on young bushes. First flush yield matches Yabukita only in years without late frost. Leaf can turn blackish. Shoots harden if plucking runs late

Look for the hiragana しゅんめい when you shop or search. The romanisation wanders: O-CHA NET's own Japanese page address spells it syunmei.

Yutakamidori x F1NN8: the same cross that made Okuyutaka

Shunmei's only full sibling in the Cha Norin list is Okuyutaka. Both were bred at Kanaya from Yutakamidori x F1NN8, but Okuyutaka is plucked later than Yabukita, and Shunmei four to six days earlier. Okuyutaka was registered in 1983 as Cha Norin No. 34 under the line name Kanaya No. 3. No other row in the list, which runs to No. 52 in 2003, shares that parentage.

Shunmei and its full sibling Okuyutaka

Attribute	Okuyutaka	Shunmei
Registration	Cha Norin No. 34, 1983	Cha Norin No. 37, 1988
Line name	Kanaya No. 3 (金谷3号)	Kanaya No. 4 (金谷4号)
Parentage	Yutakamidori x F1NN8	Yutakamidori x F1NN8
Bred at	Kanaya, Shizuoka	Kanaya, Shizuoka
Registered use	Sencha	Sencha
Season	Mid-late, plucked later than Yabukita (Sanrokuen); late (Hagiri)	4 to 6 days before Yabukita at Kanaya (Ikeda)

The first parent is familiar. Yutakamidori is an early cultivar and the backbone of Kagoshima's tea, and Ikeda describes it as the early cultivar with the largest planted area. Our Yutakamidori profile traces it to a seedling of Asatsuyu, which will matter again when we get to Shunmei's rival.

The second parent isn't a cultivar at all. F1NN8 is a breeding line, and the register explains it in one parenthesis on Okuyutaka's row: Tamamidori x S6 (たまみどり×Ｓ６). Tamamidori is Cha Norin No. 4, one of four Kanaya-bred cultivars in the list's first 1953 batch, selected from Uji native tea seedlings for tamaryokucha. The register never spells out S6. My Japanese Green Tea does: it gives F1NN8's parents as Tamamidori and Shizuoka zairai No. 6 (静岡在来6号), a Shizuoka native tea. The national tea station's 1971 report on Kanayamidori, a cultivar bred from S6 and Yabukita, defines the code the same way.

Where the siblings part is timing. Okuyutaka is a mid-late cultivar, plucked later than Yabukita, even though its parent Yutakamidori is plucked earlier. That's how the tea shop Sanrokuen puts it in a column on Okuyutaka. Hagiri, a Shizuoka tea merchant that sells an organic Okuyutaka, gives the purpose on its Okuyutaka page. It says the cultivar was developed for cold mountain growing areas and is, true to its name, a late one. Registered five years later from the same recorded parents, Shunmei is an early plant.

Opposite seasons from one recorded cross aren't as strange as they sound. Tea plants are self-incompatible, so seed doesn't keep the parents' traits. But tea roots easily from cuttings, so once breeders find a seedling worth keeping, they can use it as a cultivar without fixing it genetically (Saemidori breeding group, 2006). The paper makes that point in general and never mentions Okuyutaka or Shunmei. My reading is that it explains how one recorded cross gave Kanaya two very different cultivars, one late and one early.

Four to six days ahead of Yabukita: what the breeder recorded

At Kanaya, Shunmei buds and is ready to pluck four to six days before Yabukita (金谷での萌芽期及び摘採期は「やぶきた」より四～六日早い). It's a vigorous grower. Everything in this section comes from Ikeda's O-CHA NET note unless I say otherwise.

Growth and hardiness

Shunmei cuttings root well, and young plants take hold well after planting. The bushes grow strongly as young plants and as mature ones. Ikeda rates Shunmei's cold tolerance as strong (耐寒性は強い). Against disease, its anthracnose resistance runs medium to somewhat strong. Its resistance to gray blight (輪斑病, translated as "ring spot disease" on O-CHA NET's English page) is strong, and stronger than Yabukita's.

The disease Ikeda tells growers to watch is bacterial shoot blight (赤焼病), which can show up on young Shunmei bushes. The bush has an intermediate shape and spreads well sideways. Unlike Yabukita, young plants don't need to be pruned low.

Yield

Ikeda records that Shunmei's first flush yield equals or beats Yabukita's, but only in years without late frost damage (晩霜害を受けない場合は). Second and third flush teas yield more than Yabukita, and their quality is good. To me, that conditional clause sums up an early cultivar: its new shoots are out while a late frost can still reach them.

The leaf and the cup

First flush Shunmei makes a tightly rolled leaf with a deep green colour and good lustre (色沢は緑が濃く良好). The aroma is mild (温和). The taste has little astringency and carries umami.

Processing cautions

Ikeda gives Shunmei's tea makers two warnings. The green runs so deep that it can turn blackish (黒みを帯びる), so the tea needs care in manufacture. And if plucking is delayed, the new shoots harden easily, so she advises picking young shoots or plucking right on time.

My Japanese Green Tea gives slightly different figures in its Shunmei profile: budding four to five days before Yabukita "on a warm region," and cold resistance "similar to Yabukita." I lean on Ikeda's note, since it reports Kanaya's own observations, but the gap is worth knowing about.

Why Saemidori overtook Shunmei

Saemidori overtook Shunmei, but no source I read says why growers chose it over Shunmei in particular. My Japanese Green Tea says only that most tea farmers prefer Saemidori. Ikeda's notes show Saemidori made the better-looking tea, and the 2006 Saemidori paper describes patient promotion behind it, though that paper never mentions Shunmei. Ikeda states the outcome in one sentence. Shunmei drew attention right after breeding as a good-quality early cultivar, but it was overtaken by Saemidori, registered two years later (二年後に登録された「さえみどり」に追い越されてしまいました).

Saemidori is Cha Norin No. 40, a Yabukita x Asatsuyu cross bred at Makurazaki and registered in June 1990. It received plant variety registration No. 2881 in November 1991 (Saemidori breeding group, 2006). The rivalry is a family matter, too. Asatsuyu is Saemidori's parent, and through Yutakamidori it's Shunmei's grandparent. Our Samidori vs Saemidori guide covers why Kagoshima wanted Saemidori, so here's only the part that matters for Shunmei.

Ikeda's two notes side by side

Ikeda wrote a matching note on Saemidori, reprinted the same way. Its appeal, she says, is above all its quality: a bright, vivid fresh green (明るい冴えた鮮緑色), an elegant aroma, and a taste with little astringency and umami. Among early cultivars she calls it outstanding, and says it gives nothing away even to its parents, Yabukita and Asatsuyu (少しもひけをとりません). Saemidori's weakness is the one Shunmei's note keeps circling. Late frost damage is, in her words, the fate of early cultivars (早生品種の宿命), and Saemidori is susceptible to it and recovers poorly. Saemidori is also weak to gray blight, and its yield isn't outstandingly high, though Ikeda calls it stable among early cultivars.

Shunmei and Saemidori in Ikeda Namiko's two O-CHA NET notes (qualitative ratings, not trial scores)

Trait	Shunmei	Saemidori
Budding	Early, a little later than Saemidori	Early
Late frost	Less worry, and recovers faster	Susceptible, and recovers poorly
Cold tolerance	Strong	On the strong side
Anthracnose	Medium to somewhat strong	Medium
Gray blight (輪斑病)	Strong, stronger than Yabukita	Weak
Yield	High, with second and third flush above Yabukita	Not outstandingly high, but stable
Leaf colour	Deep green, can turn blackish	Bright, vivid fresh green
Aroma and taste	Mild aroma, little astringency, umami	Elegant aroma, little astringency, umami
Where it suits	A wide range	Suitable areas are limited

One trap is worth flagging. The 2006 Saemidori paper puts Saemidori about four days ahead of Yabukita, and Ikeda puts Shunmei four to six days ahead. Subtracting those would make Shunmei look like the earlier plant. Ikeda says the opposite: Shunmei buds a little later than Saemidori. The figures come from different trials, so her direct comparison is the one to trust.

Why could a sturdier plant lose?

Saemidori's own breeding group, whose staff included Ikeda, explains why any new cultivar struggled in that era. When Saemidori was bred in 1990, they write, Yabukita's spread had already peaked, and there was almost no room left for replanting with new cultivars (改植の余地がほとんどなかった). Even an excellent new cultivar was in no position to spread easily (Saemidori breeding group, 2006).

Saemidori's breeders call their own patient promotion a major force in its eventual rise. In Kagoshima, with help from the prefecture's research bodies, cultivar briefings (品種の説明会) and product evaluation sessions were held again and again at extension offices, towns and tea markets. The wider shift came later. Growers, markets and consumers grew uneasy about harvests bunched into one window and the overwork that caused. Factories needed more operating days to cut costs, and people worried about one flavour everywhere and rising pest-control costs. And nearly 30 years after Yabukita's big spread, its fields were coming due for replanting. Our piece on Japan's dependence on Yabukita tells that bigger story.

The ministry's 2012 figures show where Saemidori stood two decades on: 9 percent of Kagoshima's tea area, 11 percent of Miyazaki's and 0.5 percent of Shizuoka's. Shunmei isn't named in any of those three prefectures' lists (MAFF).

The 2006 paper never mentions Shunmei, so what follows is my reading, not its claim. Shunmei arrived in 1988 into much the same crowded field. Its strengths show up in a grower's records over several springs, while Saemidori's show up in the cup the first time someone tastes it. At a product evaluation session, that's a real advantage.

The case for Shunmei, in a breeder's words

Ikeda Namiko's O-CHA NET note ends with an argument for Shunmei: among early cultivars, it has good growing traits, high yield and a wide range of suitable areas.

Saemidori is certainly a good cultivar, she writes, but its growing traits have several problems, and the places it suits are limited. Because Shunmei buds a little later than Saemidori, there's that much less worry about frost damage. And when damage does come, Shunmei recovers faster (立ち直りが早い).

She doesn't oversell it. In quality, Shunmei's colour runs a little blackish, so it falls one step short of Saemidori (「さえみどり」には一歩及ばない). Then comes the comparison that matters to anyone growing early tea. In quality, Shunmei is considerably better than Yutakamidori, the early cultivar with the largest planted area, and than the other early cultivars.

Yutakamidori is a large benchmark to beat. In 2012 figures from the agriculture ministry's cultivar strategy document for tea, Kagoshima produced 26,000 tonnes of crude tea, 30 percent of Japan's output. Yutakamidori covered 28 percent of its tea area, second only to Yabukita at 37 percent. Our Kagoshima tea region guide covers the region itself.

I find the note honest in a way I don't often see. It would have been easy to write Shunmei off as the one that lost. Instead Ikeda spelled out where it fits. It's an early cultivar for a wide range of areas, with less frost worry and faster recovery, at the cost of a slightly darker colour. It's the same plain voice she used about Ryoufuu.

What does Shunmei taste like?

By Ikeda's note, first flush Shunmei sencha has a mild aroma, little astringency and umami, with a deep green, tightly rolled leaf. I haven't tasted it myself, so everything here belongs to the sources I name.

My Japanese Green Tea describes it much the same way: "a mild taste with some umami," and an aroma that is "lightly sweet."

Two Japanese tea merchants describe what they sell. Shinkoju (心向樹), a shop that specialises in single-cultivar teas, lists a Shunmei regular sencha with "a beautiful, even appearance" and a story that unfolds over several steeps. It also lists a Shunmei deep-steamed sencha with aroma, taste and colour all in place. It rates both three stars out of five for umami, astringency and body.

Miyazakien (宮ザキ園), a tea wholesaler in a growing area, sells a first flush Shunmei sencha under the name 額田一番茶. Its shoots are grown in full sun and lightly steamed, and the shop describes it as clean on the palate with a soft, lightly steamed aroma (すっきりとした口当たりとふわっと薫る浅蒸し香).

Notice that the same cultivar turns up both lightly steamed and deep steamed. Steaming is the maker's choice, so the cup reflects the maker as well as the plant. No breeder or merchant I read publishes brewing parameters for Shunmei, so start where you'd start with any sencha.

With a tea described as mild, the detail lives in the quiet parts. Smell the dry leaf, then the wet leaf, then the cup, and let a gentle tea be gentle.

Where to find single-cultivar Shunmei

Single-cultivar Shunmei is sold in Japan. The two shops I found are Shinkoju, a single-cultivar specialist, and Miyazakien, a wholesaler in a growing area. When I checked on 15 September 2026, Shinkoju's regular sencha was marked sold out (完売). My Japanese Green Tea notes that sencha made with it "can be found online in Japan."

How much Shunmei is planted, I couldn't find. The ministry's 2012 cultivar breakdowns for Japan's two largest tea prefectures don't name it. By share of tea area, Shizuoka's list runs Yabukita 93 percent, Sayamakaori 2 percent, then Kanayamidori, Saemidori and Okumidori at 0.5 percent each. Kagoshima's runs Yabukita 37, Yutakamidori 28, Saemidori 9, Asatsuyu 5 and Okumidori 4 percent. So Shunmei sits outside the headline cultivars in both, and no hectare figure appears in the sources I read.

Its home is still worth knowing. Kanaya, where it was bred, is in Shizuoka, the region covered in our Shizuoka tea region guide. If you do come across a bag, check for the hiragana しゅんめい or the parentage Yutakamidori x F1NN8 before you trust the romanised name.

Frequently asked questions

What does Shunmei mean?

Shunmei (しゅんめい) is written 春茗 by My Japanese Green Tea, which translates it as "spring tea" and reads the name as a sign of early budding. The Cha Norin registered cultivar list records only the hiragana, so the kanji comes from that site rather than the list.

What are Shunmei's parents?

The Cha Norin register lists Shunmei's parentage as Yutakamidori x F1NN8. F1NN8 is a breeding line recorded as Tamamidori x S6, and My Japanese Green Tea gives F1NN8's parents as Tamamidori and Shizuoka zairai No. 6 (静岡在来6号). Okuyutaka, registered in 1983, has exactly the same parentage, which makes it Shunmei's only full sibling in the registered list.

Is Shunmei a Yutakamidori seedling?

Not as a chance seedling. Tea Epicure's cultivar database lists Shunmei's source as "Selected from seedlings of Yutakamidori," but the Cha Norin register records a cross, Yutakamidori x F1NN8, bred at Kanaya. Yutakamidori is one parent of Shunmei, not the only one.

When is Shunmei plucked compared with Yabukita?

At Kanaya, Shunmei buds and is plucked four to six days before Yabukita, according to a breeder's note reprinted by O-CHA NET. My Japanese Green Tea gives four to five days for budding in a warm region. Shunmei's first flush yield matches or beats Yabukita's only in years without late frost damage.

Why is Saemidori more popular than Shunmei?

A breeder's note on O-CHA NET says Shunmei drew attention after breeding but was overtaken by Saemidori, registered two years later. The same breeder says Saemidori's appeal is, above all, its quality, starting with a bright, vivid green. She rates Shunmei the sturdier plant to grow, with less frost worry, faster recovery, high yield and a wide range of suitable areas. My Japanese Green Tea says simply that most tea farmers prefer Saemidori.

What does Shunmei sencha taste like?

A breeder's note on O-CHA NET describes first flush Shunmei with a mild aroma, little astringency and umami. Its deep green leaf can turn blackish without care in processing. My Japanese Green Tea adds a lightly sweet aroma. One Japanese merchant describes its lightly steamed version as clean on the palate.

A note from me

To be straightforward with you: we don't sell Shunmei, and I haven't tasted it. Everything above comes from the Cha Norin list, Ikeda's two notes, three breeding papers, the ministry's figures, two English reference sites and the merchants I've named. I write these cultivar pieces because the plants are the least told part of Japanese tea, and I'd rather show you the record than polish it.

What stays with me is how Ikeda wrote about a plant that lost. She didn't pretend it had won, and she didn't let it be forgotten either. She named what it does well, what it gives up, and who it's for.

There's a quiet lesson in that for me. The steady choice rarely gets the attention. It keeps its footing when the frost comes, and it recovers. When I sit with a cup, I try to notice the teas that ask for less and give steadily, not only the ones that dazzle.

If you want to keep following the family tree, start with Yutakamidori, Shunmei's parent, and then Asatsuyu, Shunmei's grandparent and its rival Saemidori's parent. For a late cultivar that pairs with early ones in the field, see Okumidori.

Sources

• Cha Norin registered cultivar list (附表１ 茶農林登録品種一覧), publicly mirrored copy. The host returned a maintenance page (HTTP 503) on 2026-09-15, so it was read from the Internet Archive copy. The host was back up on 2026-09-16, serving a byte-identical file. Rows for Tamamidori (No. 4), Okuyutaka (No. 34), Shunmei (No. 37) and Saemidori (No. 40). Retrieved 2026-09-15.
• Ikeda Namiko, しゅんめい (subtitle 「萌芽期、摘採期が「やぶきた」より四～六日早い生育良好な早生品種です」), O-CHA NET, World Green Tea Association. Reprinted from 月刊「茶」, 静岡県茶業会議所. Undated. Growing, processing and dissemination notes. Retrieved 2026-09-15.
• Shunmei, O-CHA NET English version of the same note. Retrieved 2026-09-15.
• Ikeda Namiko, さえみどり (subtitle 「すぐれた品質で面積拡大中の早生品種」), O-CHA NET, World Green Tea Association. Reprinted from 月刊「茶」. Undated. Retrieved 2026-09-15.
• 茶品種「さえみどり」「おくみどり」育種グループ (representative 武田善行, Takeda Yoshiyuki), 「緑茶用早生品種「さえみどり」および晩生品種「おくみどり」の育成」, 育種学研究 (Breeding Research) 8: 113-117, 2006, via J-STAGE. Saemidori registration and plant variety registration, Figure 3 breeding staff including Ikeda Namiko, tea self-incompatibility, the 1990 replanting context, Kagoshima promotion. Retrieved 2026-09-15.
• Kondo S., Ikeda N. et al., 「煎茶用中晩生品種'りょうふう'の育成」, 茶業研究報告 (Tea Research Journal) No. 87, 1999, via J-STAGE. Ikeda Namiko as second author. Retrieved 2026-09-15.
• Katsuo Kiyoshi, Watanabe Akira and Masuda Kiyoshi (農林省茶業試験場), 「煎茶用新登録品種「かなやみどり」」, 茶業研究報告 (Tea Research Journal) No. 35, 1971, via J-STAGE. Defines S6 as 静岡在来6号, a Shizuoka native variety. Retrieved 2026-09-16.
• Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, 新品種・新技術の開発・保護・普及の方針 茶. 2012 (H24) crude tea output and cultivar shares of tea area for Shizuoka, Kagoshima and Miyazaki. Retrieved 2026-09-15.
• おくゆたか, Hagiri (葉桐), Shizuoka tea merchant. Okuyutaka's parentage, late season and mountain-area purpose. Retrieved 2026-09-15.
• 「おくゆたか」という品種は、どんなお茶？, Sanrokuen (お茶の山麓園), tea merchant column. Okuyutaka as mid-late, Yutakamidori as early. Retrieved 2026-09-15.
• しゅんめい, Shinkoju (心向樹), single-cultivar tea merchant. Product descriptions and ratings. Retrieved 2026-09-15.
• 額田一番茶【煎茶】しゅんめい, Miyazakien (宮ザキ園), tea wholesaler. Product description. Retrieved 2026-09-15.
• Ricardo Caicedo, Shunmei, My Japanese Green Tea. Name, F1NN8's parents, budding and cold-tolerance figures, farmer preference, taste. Retrieved 2026-09-15 and 2026-09-16.
• Tony Gebely, Shunmei, Tea Epicure. Cultivar database entry. Retrieved 2026-09-15.