15 August 2025 | Author : Devina Catherina A. |  Illustration : Yuki Aikawa. Copyright by Tea Heaven Asia

In the misty harbors of 16th-century Nagasaki, Portuguese ships first anchored, carrying Jesuit missionaries, traders, and the sweet treasures of sugar from Goa and Macao. There, they encountered a Japanese custom unlike any other — the drinking of finely ground green tea, whisked into frothy emerald cups. A letter from a missionary Italian Priest, Alessandro Valignano mentioned tea after St. Francis Xavier arrival in Kagoshima 1549. He explains "the green drink" and its importance to the Japanese observed during his first sojourn in Japan. Tea was a silent language of diplomacy, where faith, culture, and trade intertwined.

From Japan and the Jesuit early missionaries work, tea knowledge traveled with the Dutch through Batavia, today’s Jakarta. However, it was in West Java that tea could grow optimally. The volcanic soils and tropical rains gave birth to gardens that would one day becomes one of the largest tea producer in the world. 

Tea Timeline: Chinese Tea, Nagasaki, Portuguese Missionaries, Dutch Tea Ship and the Path to Java, Indonesia

The first documentation on tea written in a book Classic of Tea by Lu Yu (804)

茶性自然清淡，生长在洁净的环境。茶汤清亮淡雅，宜于象征朴实端正的人品形象。

“Tea, by its nature, is light and pure, growing in clean environments; the clarity and elegance of tea reflect the qualities of simplicity and upright character.”

7th–12th Century - Chinese Tea first brought and planted in Nagasaki

• Tea seeds first arrived in Japan from China during the Nara period (710-794), carried by Zen monks who promoted tea as medicine and meditation aid. The first seed was planted in Hirado, Nagasaki prefecture. Tea was promoted as medicine and meditation aid.

Camelia Sinensis (Tea Plant) Flower. The Name Camelia is honoring the Jesuit botanist Georg Kamel, the species sinensis means "from China" in Latin. 

Oldest Tea field of Japan in Nagasaki

15th Century, Portuguese Arrival in Japan

Nanban Folding Screen Masterpieces, Japan-Portugal, XVIIth century

• First Portuguese trader comes in Tanegashima in 1543.

• On 15 August 1549, Jesuit missionary St. Francis Xavier who by that time was in Malacca, Malaysia met a Japanese, Anjiro who fled with a Portuguese ship, ended up in Malacca. Anjirō who is the first Japanese Catholic convert in 1545 after meeting St. Francis Xavier, asked the Jesuits to send missionaries to Japan.

• In 1550s–1570s, Portuguese establish stronghold in Nagasaki, which becomes a Christian port under Daimyō Ōmura Sumitada.

Daimyo Omura Sumitada, depiction after he becomes Christian and granting Nagasaki as Portuguese domain & St Francis Xavier

• Daimyō (Feudal Lord) Ōmura Sumitada was the first Daimyo to convert to Catholicism (Baptized as Dom Bartolomeu in 1563). Sumitada formally welcomed Jesuit missionaries and Portuguese traders, granting them special privileges and safe haven in his domain. Actively promoting conversions, Sumitada’s most significant act was ceding the port of Nagasaki to the Society of Jesus in 1580. This donation gave the Jesuits full judicial and administrative authority over Nagasaki, transforming the port from a small settlement into a thriving international gateway for Christianity and European trade. Through these generous measures, the population of Nagasaki and surrounding domains saw mass conversions and the rapid construction of churches and educational institutions, cementing the city’s identity as the “Rome of Japan” under Jesuit administration.

16th Century – Jesuit Missionaries Interest on Japanese Tea

• Jesuit missionaries wrote detailed accounts of the Japanese tea ceremony, showing a keen understanding and respect for the practice.

Based on his knowledge of the Portuguese Jesuits, Giovanni Pietro Maffei already mentioned tea in Italian in the orthography Chia in 1589.

• Tea gatherings were common in Jesuit compounds, where missionaries adapted to local customs and rituals, including tea drinking, as part of their engagement with Japanese society.

• Knowledge of tea crosses oceans: Europe begins hearing of this mysterious “green drink” from Japan and China.

  
  "Among other things that the Japanese would greatly enjoy and highly value and cherish is a drink of hot water with the powder of a medicinal and gastric herb which they called cha, both for the benefit that it confers as well as because it is the thing which amongst them has from earliest times been the most highly esteemed item with which to regale and show good hospitality to one's guests."

Fr. Louis Frois & St. Francis Xavier Letter on Japan

• Portuguese traders also bring sugar from Macao and Goa, sparking the development of Japanese sweets (wagashi) paired with bitter matcha.

The Portuguese introduced new ingredients from trade such as sugar and eggs, and techniques like baking, leading to the creation of new types of sweets like castella and konpeito.

Beyond Ceremonial

Sen no Rikyu, influential figure in introducing The Art/Way of Tea. The painting depicts him before he is ordered to commit Seppuku (ritual suicide) by Toyotomi Hideyoshi for reasons that is still debatable until today. Toyotomi Hideyoshi is also known as the one who ordered execution of thousands of Christians in Japan. 

• Sen no Rikyū developed the Japanese tea ceremony on 16th century,  perfecting the practice into an art form known as wabi-cha.  The timeline of Christian century in Japan and Japanese tea ceremony coincides, and the relationship seems to be inevitable as most scholars mention.

• 5 of 7 disciples of Sen Rikyū (Influential Japanese Tea Master), such as Takayama Ukon, Gamō Ujisato, Hosokawa Sansai or Furuta Oribe were Christians, as was his second wife. This environment can be said to have at least indirect influence on Sen no Rikyu's perfecting The Way of Tea.

Bl. Takayama Ukon, one of the closest Sen no Rikyu (Tea Master)'s disciple who is beatified by Pope Francis February 7, 2017.

• Some researchers, pointing at apparent similarities between the temae (procedures for preparing tea) and Catholic Mass. 

The Tea Master, Late Gen Senshitsu, 15th-generation of Urasenke school of tea ceremony, a descendant of Sen no Rikyu during beatification of Bl. Takayama Ukon. 

Tea Bowl with Cross Decoration (collection of The MET Museum & Boston College), Virgin Mary statue disguised as Kannon, used by Hidden Christian who are forced to hide their faith. 

• Tea ceremony was often conducted between the Jesuits and Feudal Lord. The evidence of these Missionaries' involvement with the Japanese high society and widening spread of Catholicism lead to the Ban of Christianity in 1614 under Tokugawa shogunate viewing it as politically destablising. The Portuguese are then expelled while the Dutch enter.

Silence Book by Shusaku Endo & movie by Martin Scorcese depicting the Japanese Hidden Christian life.

The Dutch VOC gains advantage

• VOC gains monopoly trade rights with Japan via Dejima island, Nagasaki since Portuguese are expelled from the country. The Dutch VOC arrived in Japan in 1600 and presented themselves strictly as traders. Their neutrality on religious matters appealed to the cautious Tokugawa government, which was determined to suppress Christian influence.

• Initial Tea Exports: Nagasaki’s earliest tea exports to Europe began in the early 17th century, with green tea being shipped out by Dutch VOC merchants. Dutch ships carried Japanese tea to their Asian and European markets as part of their broader trade portfolio.

During the Edo period, the Dutch (VOC) was the only European country to have a trade with Japan although their activities are confined to Nagasaki Bay. It was the time when Christianity, after its wide spread in Nagasaki, was banned in Japan. In 1639, the Portuguese were expelled from the country.

17th-20th Century – Tea is Grown in West Java by Dutch VOC

• The Dutch VOC uses Batavia (Jakarta) as its Asian hub but Jakarta's low elevation, hot and humid conditions is not conducive in growing tea plants.

• In the 1820s, experimental tea plantings were conducted at the Bogor Botanical Gardens and West Java area. The rich soil, suitable rainfall and high elevation promoted success of these trials paved the way for larger plantations.

Tea Garden in Dutch Colonial Period

• By the early 20th century, Indonesia was among the world’s leading tea producers, exporting significant quantities of black tea to Europe and other markets,

• After independence, the Indonesian government nationalized many Dutch-owned plantations and continued developing the tea industry, with Indonesia remaining one of the world’s largest tea producers to this day. Unlike China or Japan, which guarded tea for cultural and ceremonial refinement, Indonesia grew tea at scale — forms the foundation of countless blends of English Breakfast to the soothing brews of milk teas across Asia.

Tea Heaven Asia's Tea Garden in the stripes of West Java dated back to Dutch colonial period. 

To be continued