The roots of WMATCHA & CO. trace back to KANECHU (カネ忠), the tea house once run by Toshi’s ancestors in Wazuka, Kyoto. This lineage was gradually interrupted—by an accident that injured his great-grandfather, his grandfather’s early passing, and his father’s decision to leave tea behind during Japan’s postwar economic growth. With each generation, the craft and spirit of tea quietly faded.

At twenty-two, after studying in the United States, Toshi rediscovered his identity as a Japanese and felt drawn back to the spiritual culture of tea that had long remained at the margins of his life. Rather than preserving it as nostalgia, he chose to revive it with purpose. With no prior experience, he committed himself to inheriting the sleeping lineage of Wazuka—and to carrying his family’s tea heritage into the future.