“From our own Tea Garden until our own Factory”
“Kodawari” without using Chemical
About 20 years ago, Yasuhisa Horiguchi noticed that using chemicals kill not only pest but also some natural part. He was struggling to find a way to grow tea wihout using chemical everyday. One day, after a big typhoon, he realized that all the pest have diseappered blown away by the wind. With that hint, he started to develop a machine focused on wind and water pressure. From that time no matter if it was day or night, he immersed himself into steady study, forgetting sometimes food and drink. When he was almost feeling on the point to give up, the smile of customers encouraged him. Almost years later, after failure and failures, he finally succeed; the sprinkling/strong wind prevention machine “Hurikane King” was born. This machine respect the ecosystem of nature in our tea garden and allow us provide a tea that doesn’t need chemicals against pest. Today, It still protect our tea garden. There is even now a new machine call “Steam Buster SL” that use hot water with high pressure to prevent the weed from growing. In , all those effort make us abble to acquired the FSSC which is a world food safety standard. We have this certification from our ownTea garden until our own factory. We deeply blieve that :“Good for nature is good for human”.HISTORY
- 1948
- Horiguchiseicha Founded
- 1982
- It suffers catastrophic damage overnight. It was an expensive but valuable tuition fee.
- 「ariakemidori」Sales start
- First sale leaflet
- 1989
- Founded wakohen, opened the first wakohen store (Ariake store) Opening a store not only to make tea but also to see the reaction of customers
- 「undamoshitan」Sales start
- 「ryokucyamonogatari」 Sales start
- 2007
- wakohen harada open
120 hectares of farms are under direct management, and 100 hectares are contracted farms. Also, along the highway (Ariake-cho, Harada), the largest green tea factory in Japan was constructed. Furthermore, the Wakohen main store was built in front of the factory.
Company
- Company name
- Wakohen Co., Ltd
- Address
- 758 Futsuhara, Ariake-cho, Shibushi-shi, Kagoshima
- Representative
- President Yasuhisa Horiguchi
- Established
- 1989 (Accounting period June)
- Telephone number
- TEL: 099-475-1023 (representative) FAX: 099-475-1517
- Number of employees
- Full time: 33 people Part time: 24 people
- Retail stores
- 2 stores in Ariake, 1 store in Shibushi, 2 stores in Kanoya, 1 store in Izumi (6 stores)
- Names of some representative products
- Rokucha Densetsu Eisai Monogatari Kodama Arabikicha
- Wholesale offices
- Osumi sales office, Kagoshima sales office, and Miyazaki sales office (3 sales offices)
History of TV and Media Appearances
- 2007
- Visit and observation by a mayoral group from Khon Kaen, Thailand (Minami-Nippon Shimbun)
- 2008
- “The first tea of the season, grown from Autumn without chemicals” (3 TV companies, 5 newspapers)
- 2009
- Tea manufacturing experience session (Minami-Nippon Shimbun)
- 2010
- Shincha (First tea of the season) Festival (Minami-Nippon Shimbun)
- 2010
- Reporting on the Hurricane King (Gendai Nogyo)
- 2011
- Shincha Festival in support of reconstruction efforts for the Great East Japan Earthquake (Minami-Nippon Shimbun)
- 2011
- Information session on how to make good tea with shincha (Minami-Nippon Shimbun)
- 2012
- Shincha Festival hand picking experience session (Minami-Nippon Shimbun)
- 2013
- Shincha Festival hand picking experience session (Minami-Nippon Shimbun)
- 2014
- Wakohen Culture School (MBC Television)
- 2015
- Shibushi special product PR (BTV (cable TV))
- 2015
- Information program “Asachan” (TBS Television)
- 2015
- “Why in tea plantations? Rare famous views of Shibushi” (MBC Television)
- 2015
- Visit and observation by Shinjiro Koizumi, Parliamentary Secretary to the Cabinet Office. (Minami-Nippon Shimbun)
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Profile
President Yasuhisa Horiguchi- Career: President of Kagoshima Farm Managers Club Director of Kagoshima Tea Manufacturers Association President of Ariake-cho Tea Industry Promotion Group President of Wakohen Co., Ltd. President of Kagoshima Horiguchi Seicha Co., Ltd. Kagoshima Tea Management Improvement Contest Winner of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Award (1994) National Agriculture Contest (Management) Winner of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Award (1997) National Tea Fair Winner of the Japan Tea Central Public Interest Incorporated Association’s President’s Award (2001)