Good evening everyone.
This is Midopa, an online staff member.
This time, I would like to introduce "蘭字(Ranji)", which is displayed in the main café in Uji.
What is the Ranji displayed in the café at the main store?
Have you ever heard of "Ranji"?
Ranji" refers to the labels that were attached to boxes of Japanese tea when it was exported overseas, mainly during the Meiji period (1868-1912).
When exporting, they also played a role in enhancing the value of the product (what we now call product package design) and introducing Japanese lifestyle and culture of the time through the pictures on the labels.
Illustrations of women in kimonos riding rickshaws and well-designed English letters.
The illustrations were created using the advanced printing techniques of Japanese ukiyo-e prints of the time, and are still considered valuable materials today.
The "Ranjis" at the Uji Main Store are sometimes replaced by decorated ones.
The head office was selected as an "Important Cultural Landscape" as a group of buildings representative of tea merchant residences in the Meiji period.
It will be a pleasure to watch orchid characters in the café, which was renovated from its former tea factory.
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【Click here for hours of operation of the main office.】 *We may close the café earlier if there is a long waiting list. |