80 Years of Sugimoto Tea
In 2026, Sugimoto Tea celebrates 80 years of tea making in Shizuoka, Japan.
What began with one tea maker delivering handmade tea by bicycle has grown into a family tea company spanning three generations, with our teas now enjoyed far beyond Japan. Each generation of our family has brought new experiences and ideas to Sugimoto Tea while carrying forward the relationships, craftsmanship, and dedication to tea that have shaped us from the beginning.
As we celebrate 80 years, we look back at the people and moments that have brought us to where we are today.
Where It All Began
The Sugimoto story began in 1946 with first-generation tea maker Zenichi Sugimoto.
Japan was at the beginning of its long postwar recovery, and Zenichi was looking for a way to support his family and community in Shizuoka. He began making tea by hand and delivering it directly to local customers by bicycle.
His tea soon became popular in the community, and as demand grew, a factory was built to keep up. This marked the beginning of Sugimoto Seicha.
These early years and Zenichi’s efforts marked the beginning of the close relationships with the local farmers and customers that continue to shape Sugimoto Tea today.
The Second Generation
In 1967, Zenichi’s son, Hiroyuki Sugimoto, moved to Tokyo to prepare to take over the family business. He apprenticed at a well-known Japanese tea shop near the Tsukiji Fish Market, where working directly with customers gave him a deeper understanding of the flavors people enjoyed in their everyday lives.
Hiroyuki returned to Shizuoka in 1978 with his new-found experience working in the tea industry and became the second-generation head of Sugimoto Seicha. Over the following years, he continued developing his knowledge and skills as a tea professional.
Hiroyuki’s efforts earned national recognition in 1986, when he won both the Shizuoka Prefectural Tea Competition and the National Blind Tea Tasting Championship, receiving the Agricultural Ministry Award twice in the same year.
Yet reaching this point also changed the way Hiroyuki viewed tea. He came to recognize a difference in preference between tea esteemed by tea industry professionals and tea loved by everyday tea drinkers.
For Hiroyuki, the people drinking his tea mattered more than the awards.
“I’m proud of the many awards I have received, but the most important thing to me is customer satisfaction. Ultimately, customers like you decide whether my teas are worthy of these awards; if my customers aren’t happy, these awards mean nothing to me.”
— Hiroyuki Sugimoto
Tradition Meets Innovation
That realization helped shape a new direction for Sugimoto Tea. Rather than strictly following established tea-making methods simply because they were traditional, Hiroyuki focused on making tea that people would genuinely enjoy drinking.
One example is the finishing roast, or hi-ire (火入れ), used in Sugimoto Tea’s Sencha Fukamushi. Hiroyuki developed a higher-temperature roasting method that brings out a deeper aroma and fuller character in the finished tea. Most tea leaves could easily burn under such high heat, but he knew that certain teas grown in the mountains of Shizuoka could withstand these temperatures.
Finding the right leaves meant working closely with the farmers who grew them. Sugimoto Tea had cultivated direct relationships with farmers since Zenichi’s generation, and these relationships made it possible to consistently source tea suited to this distinctive method.
This balance between tradition and innovation has carried through the generations and continues to define Sugimoto Tea, with the goal of making Japanese tea that people genuinely enjoy as part of their everyday lives.
The Third Generation
As Sugimoto Tea entered a new century, the next generation began taking on their own roles in the family business.
Masaaki Sugimoto started working alongside his father, Hiroyuki, at the age of 20. Over the years, he absorbed his father’s knowledge and developed his own expertise in tea evaluation and blending. He went on to become responsible for Sugimoto Tea’s blending and continued the family tradition of participating in tea tasting competitions. In 2006 and 2007, Masaaki advanced to the national competition as Shizuoka prefectural champion.
Masaaki’s younger brother, Kyohei, on the other hand, had planned to become a P.E. teacher growing up. However, a 2002 trip to the United States with his father changed the course of his life. At 22, he was surprised to realize how difficult it was to find the quality Japanese green tea he had always taken for granted back home.
Determined to bridge the gap in accessibility, Kyohei became a Certified Tea Adviser in Japan. In 2004, he moved to the United States and established Sugimoto’s U.S. branch dedicated to bringing authentic, high-quality Japanese tea to an international audience.
Together, Masaaki and Kyohei brought Sugimoto Tea into its third generation, one continuing the family’s tea-making work in Japan and the other building a new chapter for Sugimoto Tea in the United States.
From Shizuoka to the United States
As Sugimoto Tea expanded beyond Japan, the company continued to build on the same combination of tradition and innovation that had shaped the generations before.
Through the efforts of the third generation, Sugimoto Tea obtained internationally recognized certifications for product safety and became one of the early companies to produce and import certified organic matcha into the United States.
The company had grown far beyond the tea Zenichi once made for his local community, but the relationships behind that tea remained an important part of how we worked.
From relationships with farmers in Japan to the teams in Japan and the United States, wholesale and foodservice partners, and the people who make Sugimoto Tea part of their daily lives, each connection has become part of the company’s story.
80 Years of Sugimoto Tea
Today, 80 years after Zenichi began making tea in Shizuoka, Sugimoto Tea remains a family tea company spanning three generations.
Much has changed since 1946. Japanese tea has found new audiences around the world, the company has expanded beyond Japan, and each generation has found new ways to carry the family business forward.
At the same time, many of the values at the heart of Sugimoto Tea have remained the same. We continue to work closely with farmers, carefully evaluate and blend our teas, and make tea with our customers in mind.
As we reached our 80th anniversary, one idea that feels especially meaningful to us is En (縁), a Japanese word for the connections and relationships that bring people together. From the relationships Zenichi first built in Shizuoka to those we share today with farmers, our team, partners, and customers, these connections have carried Sugimoto Tea through three generations.
Looking Ahead
As Japanese tea reaches more people around the world, the industry behind it is also changing. An aging farming population, limited growing regions, and rising costs continue to create challenges for the future of Japanese tea production.
For Sugimoto Tea, looking ahead means continuing to strengthen the relationships that have sustained us for the past 80 years. By working closely with local farmers and building long-term partnerships, we hope to support the future of Japanese tea while continuing to share its culture with generations ahead.
As we celebrate our first 80 years, we are grateful to the farmers, team members, partners, and tea drinkers who have been part of that story.
We hope to continue making and sharing Japanese tea with you for many years to come.