Ota Jubei (太田重兵衛)
Jubei OTA (1817 - 1869) was 茶司 and a former feudal retainers of Zeze Domain from Zeze, Omi Province (Otsu City).
Jubei, who aimed at encouragement of new industry, was retired from samurai and went to Uji City, Yamashiro no Kuni to master method of tea manufacture. He went back to Zeze to open the tea garden and was appointed as 御茶司 by Zeze Domain. At the time of the arrival of Commodore Matthew Perry, Jubei's tea "Mumei" was praised and it became the Japan's first export goods toward the United States.
In 1855, by the domain's command, he cultivated 13 chobu (hectare) of the land of Sonoyama which used to be waste land, and opened Sonoyama tea garden. After that, his reputation grew and he named his tea shop "Long Jing Do." In addition, Tomomi IWAKURA named Jubei's tea garden "Nenbutsu En" after IWAKURA's ancestor, Jubei NENBUTSU. Although Jubei established tea party places in the domain and took part in agricultural administration and worked hard for it, he was caught up in trouble of water and killed by farmers.