生産者：湊製茶
地域: 京都府和束町
品種：さえみどり
産地について
私たちと湊製茶との関係は、2023年に京都・和束町のなだらかな丘陵地を訪れたことから始まりました。霧がかかった谷と起伏に富んだ地形に恵まれたこの土地は、日本でも高品質なお茶を育む環境として知られています。
和束町は、日本有数の茶産地である宇治茶の中心地として名高い一方で、日本全体の茶生産量に占める割合はわずか約2％にすぎません。その希少性ゆえに、毎年の収穫はより一層かけがえのないものに感じられます。
パートナー農園について
高い技術力とあたたかな人柄を持つ生産者に出会えることは、そう多くありません。湊家は代々お茶づくりを受け継いできた茶農家であり、その伝統は今も力強く続いています。
収穫期に訪れた際には、世代を超えた家族が並んで茶畑に立ち、一つひとつの茶葉から最も鮮やかな風味を引き出そうと丁寧に作業する姿を目の当たりにしました。1850年代以降、全国や地域で数々の賞を受賞してきた、まさに「名人」ともいえる存在ですが、その実績に甘んじることはありません。
常に学び続け、探究心を持ち、そして惜しみなく知識を共有してくださいます。苗の育成から被覆、仕上げ加工に至るまで、その工程をオープンに見せてくださいました。
品種について
さえみどりは、もともと鮮やかな色合いとクリーミーな味わいで知られる品種ですが、湊製茶の表現はひと味違います。和束の地で自ら苗を育て、遮光資材を直接茶樹にかぶせるのではなく、棚を設けて被覆する方法を採用しています。
この手法により、茶樹が蒸れにくく、健やかに育つ環境が保たれます。その結果、よりなめらかで、香り高い仕上がりへとつながります。また、収量を追い求めるのではなく、芽がやわらかく繊細なうちに早摘みすることも大切にしています。
その一つひとつの選択は、茶碗の中にはっきりと表れます。明るく鮮やかで、渋みが少なく、凝縮した旨みとやさしく長い余韻を楽しめる抹茶です。
Art has always been a big deal to us
Honestly, this project started because art is something we care about deeply. We wanted that to show up somewhere tangible — not just in the tea, but in the things you hold, the things that sit in your pantry.
So we started Artists of Tomo. The idea is simple: we invite an artist or designer to create original work that lives on our packaging. No structured briefs that kill the creativity, no safe choices. Just real collaboration with people whose work we genuinely love. Yoshiko is our first, and we couldn't be happier about it.
Yoshiko is a graphic designer and creative director based in Tokyo. She doesn't box herself in. Her work spans branding, logo design, printed materials, websites, merch, and event direction. She follows the concept wherever it needs to go and finds the right form for it. That flexibility is exactly what drew us to her.
Before going independent, she worked as an art director at an artist agency, directing international advertising campaigns with artists based mostly in London.
The thing she's most proud of? The studio she's been running with a close friend from university, Slogan Studio, which just hit its fifth anniversary. It's a design studio, an office, and a risograph print workshop all in one. Slogan was also the birthplace of our Saemidori labels. She calls it a hideaway. "A space filled with curiosity, mistakes, and joy." That last part really stuck with us.
Why it looks the way it does
Risograph printing isn't for people who need everything to be perfect. The process has its own character — slight misregistrations, ink variations, a handmade quality that you just can't fake. Yoshiko leaned into all of that.
She started by getting to know Tomo — the vision, the daily illustrations, the tea's origins in Wazuka, Kyoto. What she kept coming back to was the idea of human texture. Hand-drawn lines, paper, imperfections, the feel of something hand-picked. She didn't want the labels to feel corporate or overproduced. "The texture of people, materials, and process became the inspiration behind the labels." We think she nailed it.
Yoshiko drinks tea every day. Not as a big formal thing, more like a natural pause after a meal, or a cold glass after coming in from a hot Tokyo summer. She gets it. That ease and simplicity is something we hope comes through in the work she made for us.
Ask Yoshiko about her mission and she'll tell you she's still figuring it out — and she's made peace with that. There was a time she felt pressure to "be someone," but she's moved on from that. She holds onto a quote by Bruno Munari: that a designer's role is to help eliminate cultural ignorance across all social classes. For her, staying rooted in her own culture and keeping her curiosity alive is enough of a north star.
About the Designer: Yoshiko Tezuka · Tokyo, Japan · @yoshi____tokyo
https://yoshikotezuka.com/
