The cycle of life that connects the forest and the sea "The story of Akaezomatsu tea woven on the day of the grain rain" - A conversation with Tatsuya Ueii (Shizenshita) and Ami (Gofujuuu) @ L'Esperance (Sapporo)

Thursday, April 24, 2025

April 20th (Sunday) is the day of "Kokuu" (Grain Rain) in the 24th solar term. Kokuu is said to "rain that nourishes the grains," and is the season when soft, warm rain falls to moisten the fields. On that day, too, a blessed rain fell lightly, as if to moisten the new spring buds.

Tea party "A conversation with Tatsuya Ueii (Shizenshita) and Ami (Gofujuuame)"

A tea party fitting for this Grain Rain Day was held at the vegan restaurant L'Espérance in Maruyama, Sapporo.

This is a tea party where you can enjoy a conversation between Ami (owner of Gofu Touame), who developed the aperitif tea, and Kamii Tatsuya (representative of Shizenshita), the provider of the tea ingredients (Japanese spruce from the forests of Hokuryu Town), while savoring the delicious food at L'Esperance.

The theme is "Forest Tea"!

This is a specialty tea developed and planned by Ami (owner of Gofu Touame) as a special aperitif tea for L'Esperance, which celebrated its 4th anniversary in April.

The raw material for this tea is the leaves of Picea glehnii, grown by Tatsuya Kamii, who practices sustainable forest management with a high level of environmental conservation in Hokuryu Town!

A wonderful bond formed by the red spruce trees growing in the forests of Hokuryu Town!

A conversation between Ami and Tatsuya Kamii

• Ami opened her shop "Gofu Jyuame" in Minami-ku, Sapporo five years ago.
• Tatsuya Kamii moved to Hokuryu Town five years ago (April 2020) and started "self-logging forestry" in the town's forests.

The Birth of Akaezomatsu Tea

🍵 Ami-san

"When Hakusan, which serves vegan food, was thinking about future changes, the idea for a new tea was born.
It is important to us where we get our plants from.

This time, a trusted friend who is a lumberjack in the forestry industry introduced me to Mr. Uwai, who runs a self-cutting forestry business in Hokuryu Town. Through this connection, I made tea using the leaves of the trees that Mr. Uwai protects with his own hands.

We connect that tea to Hakusan's cooking and have everyone eat it, so we work while being conscious of the entire cycle of food."

Recycling-oriented and sustainable forestry "self-cutting forestry"

🌲 Kamii-san

"The reason I got involved in forestry is that I've loved nature since I was a child, and I thought it would be nice to have a forest in my garden, so I dreamed of living near a forest. I started forestry with the simple idea that I'd like to work in the forest.

And because I didn't want to see living things become extinct as a result of forests being destroyed, I was attracted to self-logging forestry, a circular, sustainable type of forestry.

When I think about forests, I think the foundation is soil. There is the sea, there is soil, and on that soil grass grows, there are insects and other living things, and then trees grow, and humans can live there.

Ordinary forestry is thought of as an industrial or manufacturing industry, where cutting down trees and eroding the soil makes landslides more likely.

"It is said that it takes more than 100 years for the top layer of soil to form. I dislike the current forestry approach of 'only me now,' so I practice self-cutting forestry with an eye to the forests 100 years from now."

☕️ Ami-san

"Mr. Uwai and I are of the same generation. I am very happy to be able to become friends with someone who is working hard in the forestry industry. This is the second time we have met. Even when we first met, we shared the same ideas and shared a common theme.

Mr. Kamii has been researching, through trial and error, how to make the most of his own forest for about five years, just like me.

Nowadays, human-centered thinking is mainstream, and society and river development are being carried out for human convenience. It feels like the environment is becoming difficult for the creatures that live there. Forests, rivers, and oceans are all connected."

🌲 Kamii-san

"If you live a self-centered life without considering the overall cycle in the long term, the natural flow will begin to break down, and ultimately it will be you who suffers."

Video of a visit to Uehi's forest in Hokuryu Town on March 10th

• Ami, Hakusan and Yuumi visited together

🌲 Kamii-san

"We have received forest materials from other companies before, but it was a surprise to me because it was rare for someone to suddenly visit the mountains. It was very unusual for someone to visit a mountain with snow still remaining on it with the desire to 'see the site'.

Looking back, we once provided materials to SHIRO, a cosmetics company in Sunagawa, and at that time the president of the company personally visited the mountain.

The red spruce tree used for the tea this time is still a young tree, about 30 years old. In a sense, the leaves are soft and the tree is full of vitality.

The forest is a completely isolated space, so we were able to have some really deep conversations. Ami and her friends tasted the leaves and the snow on the pine needles, and enjoyed the forest in their own way."

☕️ Ami-san

"I ate the leaves from the forest and enjoyed the forest to my heart's content, saying things like, 'This is delicious,' 'This leaf tastes different,' 'It tastes sweet,' 'It's sour,' 'It has a spicy, stimulating taste like ginger,' and 'It has a refreshing scent.'

The snow that had accumulated on the pine needles was so clear that if you melted it and added it to your tea it would change the taste.

Each plant essence contains its own original energy, so each has its own unique flavor."

"Rice balls" made with the feeling that all living things are connected

Ami was provided with spring water from Minami-ku, Sapporo, where she lives, and rice balls cooked with that spring water.

☕️ Ami-san

"Today is a day of grain rain, a blessed rain, a natural rain that nourishes us. Thanks to the rain and wind, we are able to live peacefully and safely.

Depending on how you look at things, they are not good or bad for human convenience, but everything has meaning and is necessary. Everyone has a different role to play, and they all complement each other. I believe that this Earth and the universe exist because not only humans but all living things are connected in a circular way.

"It is with these thoughts in mind that I make these 'Omusubi'. I think it is important for everyone to have their own role to play, and to come together in a rounded way. Omusubi, tea, and tea ceremonies are all filled with these shared thoughts."

☕️ Ami-san

"This rice ball is made from rice grown in a rice field at the foot of Mt. Sapporo, where spring water flows. It is Nanatsuboshi rice, grown without the use of chemical fertilizers or pesticides.

Hakusan asked me about making some sweets, but I felt that the best way to let people know about me was through rice balls, so I made some.

The key to this is sea salt, "Rausu Salt." In fact, the forest and the sea are good friends."

Everyone was impressed, saying things like, "It has a sweet and gentle taste!" and "It's so delicious!"

Changing the world through small everyday actions

🌲 Kamii-san

"Leaves fall in the forest, insects eat them, and then fish eat the insects that gather on the leaves, and the fish feces are carried to the sea, where plankton gathers, and this plankton becomes highly nutritious water that flows into the ocean, making the sea rich."

☕️ Ami-san

"Without plankton in the ocean, fish would not be able to thrive. There are creatures that eat that plankton, and that is how all life circulates.

Now, seaweeds such as kombu, wakame, and nori are in a critical situation. It is said that the harvest has decreased by about 40% over the past 10 years. One of the reasons for this is that the condition of the oceans and rivers is not good, so plankton can no longer grow. The same can be said for the condition of forests.

Research has shown that synthetic detergents and laundry detergents are flowing into our rivers and oceans, causing pollution in our daily water supplies and preventing plankton from growing.

However, with a sense of hope, an experiment was conducted on a remote island in Munakata City, Fukuoka Prefecture, to prevent pollution of the sea and rivers by domestic wastewater. In the experiment, the water quality improved within a few years, and the types and quantities of microorganisms and plankton increased.

Up until now, when I looked at the social and world situations, I thought there was nothing but pain, sadness, and despair. However, I feel that if we make small changes in our daily lives and raise our voices, the world can truly change. That is where I find hope. I think that not giving up hope leads to hope.

There are now an increasing number of young people of Kamii's generation and above who want to take part in some kind of activity with the same kind of enthusiasm.

I think it's important for everyone to join hands, regardless of generation. I think everyone who's here today is doing something or has something that resonates with them.

Instead of blaming yourself for what you can't do, I think the first step is to find out what you can do and gradually increase it. The rest is about knowing."

🌲 Kamii-san

"That's true. Most people don't know about it, so I would like them to first study it and find out."

Cherish the cycle of all life

☕️ Ami-san

"Rather than just knowing and believing one thing, it's important to look at things from various angles. There are many tools available to learn from, and you can even access foreign media through online translation services. I think it's really important to think about what you want to do from various perspectives."

Please smell the scent of the red spruce on your table. The leaves are so soft and lovely! Uwai-san brought some particularly soft branches from the forest in Hokuryu Town.

This time, the red spruce trees to be used for tea were sent to me around February. Usually, I would check the trees with my own eyes and collect the leaves, but Uwai-san observed the condition of the plants and selected the ones to be collected, so I trusted him and left it to him.

Since I can tell what condition the leaves are in, I really felt that Kamii had sent me a plant that he truly loved.

When we collect leaves from plants, we are also taking the life of that plant. I empathize with how Uwai treasures the lives of those plants. We take the lives of not only plants, but also insects and other living things in nature, and use them to sustain our own lives.

I want to value the cycle of all life in the tea I make and other things. I always value the perspective of who grows the plants, how they grow them, and what their feelings are when they harvest them. I want to be conscious of various perspectives, not just the superficial aspects, such as the invisible feelings.

Identifying and Cutting Each Tree in the Forest

🌲 Kamii-san

"Self-logging forestry begins with building a path in the forest that will last for 100 years. We start in a place where you can't see anything around and the bamboo grass is about as tall as you are, and we patiently and carefully build a sturdy path that won't break. We maintain it little by little.

I think the best trees are the ones that have been growing for a long time. They have the strength to survive, so they drop seeds, and after three years the baby trees grow into big trees. It's so cute, and it's those moments when I feel happy that I made the right choice in what I'm doing.

If you bring trees from outside and plant them, various problems will arise, such as them getting diseased or being eaten by mice and not growing.

Even when cutting down trees, we don't cut them all at once, but instead leave the strongest ones and cut down the ones next to them. Since we carefully select and cut down each tree in the forest, it takes a lot of time, but we are conscious of the fact that the good trees remain and the forest inevitably becomes richer.

Without thick trees, owls cannot live, so we work in forestry with the conscious aim of leaving as many thick and sturdy trees as possible."

Chef Hakusansho's cuisine

Aperitif tea: Red spruce tea

☕️ Ami-san

"Since this tea is served before a meal, we have made it so that it has a subtle aroma and gentle flavor so as not to overwhelm the food."

Spruce tea is rare, and when I tried it before, it felt like it immediately became familiar to my body, and it had a fresh, clean taste. If you add a pinch of salt, it also has a soup-like umami flavor."

A glass of "Red Pine Tea" is served as an aperitif tea, and it is also used as second and third grade tea in the course menu, for example in sauce stocks.

The taste of tea changes subtly depending on how it is brewed and your mood that day. You can feel the change in taste every time you drink it, so I hope everyone can enjoy it in their own way."

"When you add salt, it takes on a rich, soup-like flavor. It's delicious!" the impressed participants commented, savoring the tea slowly and carefully.

A dish of California carrots: A dish that evokes a walk through the forest

🍸 Chef Hakusan

"When you mix in various ingredients, including mountain flowers, it takes on a yellow peach flavor and has a variety of aromas."

This dish features vibrant colors of carrots, radishes, peaches, and edible flowers, soothes the soul with its aroma, and fills the body with its gentle flavors!!!

Topped with crabs to resemble a river

🍸 Chef Hakusan

"The food feels like it's flowing from the forest into the river."

In the dish arranged using spring roll wrappers, vegetables such as dried daikon radish, maitake mushrooms, and celery create a mysterious harmony of flavors, creating a fantasy dish that floats gently in a river of vibrant green sauce!!!

The two crabs playing on top of the cream are so cute!

Ocean image

🍸 Chef Hakusan

"These dishes are inspired by sea fish."

This dish evokes the ocean world with a sauce made from couscous and turnip leaves, a green avocado puree, and fresh seasonal asparagus, topped with a monaka fish!

Cookies made from ancient wheat and charcoal shaped into the shape of a fishbone

I was surprised by the Monaka fish bone cookies!!

🍸 Chef Hakusan

"It's a course meal that tells the story of going from the forest to the river, from the river to the sea, and then back to the forest."

dessert

This bear monaka sandwich with tapioca ice cream and its tail facing you is super cute ❤️

The sweet and sour taste and slightly bitter taste of the kumquats round out the whole dish, satisfying both body and mind!!!

A slightly twisted bear with his backside facing us, tapioca ice cream monaka, and kumquat jam.

Ancient wheat muffins

Muffin of Hope

Japanese peppermint tea: A tea with a soft and gentle taste

• Peppermint tea combined with pesticide-free roasted green tea from Shiga Prefecture
• Tea brewed using Hakusan's Soryu water

A wonderful tea party with people whose souls resonate with each other; Ami-san, the creator of tea, Tatsuya Uei the lumberjack who nurtures the ingredients, and Chef Hakusan Masaru of L'Esperance, an artistic food creator chef!!!

With boundless love, gratitude and prayer, we hope to share precious moments with people who pay attention to the cycle of life in all living things, and who care for and treasure the small things in their daily lives.

Youtube Video

More Photos

Photos (91 photos) from the tea ceremony @ L'Esperance "A conversation between Ueishi of Shizenka and Ami of Gofujuuame" are here >>

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