Mr. YASUE 

Mr. Yasue is a tea grower and tea producer from the Shirakawa Valley in Gifu Prefecture. He is actually a big farmer by local standards - he grows almost 500kg of tea, which is a lot of work. All the more so because Mr Yasue is of the old school and processes all his tea by himself, both aracha and the subsequent shiage – in the smallest tea factory I have ever seen. His gardens are some of the most beautiful tea plantations I've had the opportunity to visit. He grows his tea without pesticides or toxic synthetic fertilizers. He grows several classic cultivars and then local seed "zairaishu" tea plants. I was also intrigued by the somewhat unusual shape into which he prunes the tea bushes - he explained that it works well in the unusually harsh local climate for Japan.

In addition, Mr. Yasue is also a beekeeper, and his family lineage includes the position of priest caretaker of the local Shinto shrine. Not that I'm superstitious, but the help of the local Kami might be one of the more reasonable explanations for how he can manage all this with a smile on his lips.