About Sera, the largest producer of tea in Hiroshima Prefecture

Do you know a place called Sera in Hiroshima Prefecture?

In terms of location, it is right in the center of Hiroshima Prefecture, around the navel if you compare it to a human being.
Onomichi in the south and Miyoshi in the north. There is a watershed that flows into the Sea of ​​Japan and the Seto Inland Sea.
It has long been famous for its rice, and Onomichi was opened as a port to present Sera's rice to Mt. Koya in Wakayama.
In other words, it was Onomichi with Sera.

Sera has long been the best tea-producing area in Hiroshima Prefecture. However, it seems that the industry started about 90 years ago. Tea was planted behind the school, and the children's classes were neglected, and it seems that they picked up tea and picked up tea seeds and gave them to earn pocket money. It seems that each house always had a mushiro and a cauldron for roasting tea.
Most of the tea seeds are brought from Shizuoka.
The altitude is about 300 to 500m, and the air and water are clean. Our predecessors must have thought that tea with a strong aroma could be produced here.

Sera used to be a place where there was nothing but rice. Therefore, tea trees were planted as a cash crop. Tobacco making was popular in front of the tea tree. And now, pears, grapes, and tourist farms are thriving. Tea cultivation in Hiroshima Prefecture is now in a dying state, and as of now, there are only three tea farmers (self-produced) that we know of. The aging wave is inevitable. In the last few months, all the large tea gardens have become solar panels. Unfortunately, we were helpless and could do nothing but stare blankly at it.

Tea production in Sera peaked 30 years ago and then declined, and the communal tea factories and privately owned tea factories were closing down one after another. When I first came to Sera 5 years ago, I was very worried when I saw the desolate and rusted tea-making machines of the tea factory and the abandoned and growing tea fields. I remember