“Matcha Psycho” — Wearable Postcards from Wazuka, Kyoto
The name Matcha Psycho is a split identity — drawn from the Japanese word saikō (最高, “the best”) and twisted through the lens of obsession. That’s where Sencha Maniac comes in — a nickname for Akky, the lead farmer at Obubu. That man lives, breathes, and sweats green tea. You feel it. The title fits…
Ethnographic returns — Spring harvest in Wazuka, Uji
May 12th, 2025. It is 6:45am in Minamiyamashiro Village, a hamlet on the Kizu river, which flows southeasterly through Kyoto prefecture’s ‘Uji tea’ producing territories. Sabrina and I are joined by Takeshi and Fumiya, the Street Dreams Magazine, Tokyo photographers who accompanied us for the fieldwork we’d conducted at Obubu Tea Farms during the dormant winter season several months prior. Now it is the height of the spring’s first harvest for the tea farmers across this region, and we have returned.