Talk:Matcha/Archive 2
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History
It is incorrect to say that "powdered tea seems to have been invented in China during the Song Dynasty." Powdered tea is the original way of tea drinking. Tea Classic by Lu Yu, written during the Tang dynasty, doesn't know of any other. It is only in the Song period that the loose-leaf method appears. So, it seems that the article has got it backwards.
The fact that the powdered form has acquired a ritualistic importance in Japan seems to confirm that tea was brought to Japan during the Tang dynasty, when indeed great many things were brought to Japan from China. The cultural links were abruptly cut toward the decline of Tang, and have never achieved the same magnitude as during Tang. Since the loose-leaf method was unknown to Tang, it hasn't achieved the same status in Japan as the powdered form.