Who is Yasuhiko Kiya?

One of the best Japanese tea from Yame village

For Japanese tea, I would like to introduce Yasuhiko Kiya and his store as one of the most famous Japanese teas, Yame-cha in this story series.

KIYAHOYUEN started its business in 1931 by Mr. Yasuhiko Kiya’s grandfather and the current president Mr. Yasuhiko Kiya is the 3rd generation.  He just turned 56 years old in January, 2022. It was 17 years ago when he became the president at the age of 39 years old.  After he graduated college, he worked for one of the large tea companies for 4 years to study the tea business and its industry. After that, he entered Kiyahoyuen and worked under his father, who was the president for 13 years, to learn all about Yame tea to take over the family business.

Currently, HOYUEN store space is about 230 square meters which is about 10 times larger than its original store.  It was 11 years ago when Yasuhiko challenged to renew the store for this expansion. The local tea shop used to be a small one with its production area.  Their main customers were the people who lived nearby and those who came from the neighboring prefectures. At the time when Japanese tea was a part of their daily lives, it was common for ordinary household customers to buy 1-2 kg of tea leaves at once. However, the demand for Japanese tea has been gradually declining which was taken for granted in their daily life due to the introduction of coffee, black tea and other drinks. Under such a circumstance, Yasuhiko desired to search for a new Japanese tea service as a luxury item and tried to create a place where you can enjoy “tasting” and “cafe” not just as the business of “selling” and he ended up renewing the store. The current large HOYUEN has not only a cafe space but also a tasting (reservation required) where you can experience a new way to enjoy Japanese tea called “pairing.”