Akihiro Kita "Akky"
President / Founder / Lead Farmer
Akihiro “Akky” Kita is our president and head farmer. His desire to make this tea available to the general public is the foundation of Kyoto Obubu Tea Farms. In college, Akky took up a part-time job as a farmhand in Wazuka, and fell in love with the tea he was drinking on the farm. He made the decision then to leave college and devote his time to mastering the art of tea farming. Recognizing the need for independent farmers like himself to spread their wings and passion about the joy of drinking Japanese tea, he travels each year during the winter off season to introduce tea to people around the world
Yasuharu Matsumoto "Matsu"
Vice President / Founder / Business Development Lead
Yasuharu “Matsu” Matsumoto spends much of his time connecting with Obubu’s customers in Japan and focusing on management of the business. Together with Akky, the visionary pair seek to transform the tea farming industry in Japan. Matsu is also the driving force behind Obubu’s push to overseas markets. He travels the world teaching people about Japanese tea with events such as the Euro Tour.
Hirokazu Matsumoto "Hiro"
Founder / Business Development / Tourism, Event and Factory Lead
Hiro is an event manager, factory manager and tea tour instructor at Obubu. His love of tea can be traced back to his college days where at the age of nineteen, he took a job as a tea farmer. Hiro is responsible for overseeing the operation of Obubu’s sencha factory. He ensures its smooth operation and that it meets a high standard of hygiene and safety for Obubu’s staff. His bubbly personality also equips him as the ideal host for our public events where he loves meeting new people and sharing his knowledge of tea!
Kayo Takeuchi
Tea Club Lead
A mother of two, an avid reader, a social media savant and a great cook. After falling in love with the tea in Wazuka, Kayo moved her family to the area to work with Obubu as the Head of Operations. Kayo is the "Obubu mama" for the interns, periodically whipping up udon or soba lunch for everyone in the office. But her favorite food of all is Thai food!
George Guttridge-Smith
International Department
One of his deepest passions is to share his love for tea with people from around the world. Originally from the UK, his passion for tea grew deeper after visiting a tea farm and factory in Sri Lanka. He followed his passion to India and Nepal in search of amazing tea and spent five months learning about tea in the foothills of the Himalayas. He decided to discover more about tea cultivation and production in other tea producing regions of the world and this is what led him to Obubu. At Obubu, George works as an international manager, looks after the international tea club, helps keep our internship program running strong, and also documents what we get up to at Obubu! ⠀
Miwako Kita
Farming/Website Support
Miwako is one of the leaders managing “Aoi Mori,” one of Obubu’s pesticide-free and fertiliser-free tea fields. In addition to overseeing the field, she is responsible for designing and managing our domestic website and also takes care of our storefront operations. With a deep love for agriculture, Miwako dove into the world of tea, and now her greatest joy is being in the tea fields. She has learned the art of tea field management from our Co-President, Akky-san, gaining valuable experience and honing her skills in evaluating tea leaves. Miwako is passionate about creating delicious tea. We invite you to take this opportunity to try her wonderful tea!
Pau Valverde Molina
Staff Member (Tea Club/Management/Education/Retail)
Pau was born in Catalonia, Spain. Now lives in the tea village of Wazuka, Japan, after living in Sweden, Osaka, Tanzania and the UK. He likes to tend to tea, in and out of the fields, learning and teaching, its culture, and craftsmanship. Tea's most valuable quality is that it brings people together. Whether you invite friends to share a brew or join a tea club, it's about the people you meet and the connections you make. If you see him around, he most likely has a teapot with him.
Katrina Wild
Staff Member (Wholesale Support/Management/Creative Marketing)
Katrina, originally from Latvia, first joined Obubu as an intern in autumn 2022. After living in places like Scotland and Egyptian Sahara, and spending a year and a half travelling across Asia (including Vietnam, Taiwan, Thailand, South Korea, Bangladesh, and Nepal) as a vagabonding tea freelancer, her deep love for Wazuka, farming, Obubu community, and Japanese tea brought her back as an assistant manager in 2024. Passionate about the cultural anthropology of tea and the craft of cultivating and producing delicious leaves, she is also captivated by the profound connections it creates between people, no matter where they are in the world. When not rocking up to tea fields in a keitora or in sencha factory, you’ll likely find her hiking in jikatabi shoes, sipping tea on mountaintops, practicing temomicha, documenting her explorations, or doing push-ups.
Tran Nguyen
Senior Assistant Manager / Café Development
Tran is Obubu’s first-ever Senior Assistant Manager and a former intern and Assistant Manager from Georgia, USA. She is currently leading the launch of the Obubu Café, where she is designing menus and helping build the café’s operational structure from the ground up. Known around Obubu for her warmth, Tran keeps the team well-fed with her delicious bakes, drink recipes, and home-cooked lunches — not to mention the many unforgettable birthday cakes she has made over the years. Outside of tea, she enjoys exploring cafés, photography, fashion, traveling, and discovering local food culture.
Garance Barnoin
Assistant Manager
Garance or Gahonsuu is a former intern turned Assistant Manager. She is Belgian but has lived in Canada, the UK, Spain and now Japan! After coming to Obubu during her gap year she fell in love with the tea world and decided to become a Tea Sommelier. She now wants to travel the world from tea farm to tea farm.
Ambre Thillier
Assistant Manager
Ambre is a new member of the team. Originally from France (though she considers herself more of a citizen of the world), she grew up moving between countries from a young age, sparking her curiosity for cultures and eventually leading her to Japan. After several years in hospitality and developing a love for tea, she decided to dive deeper into the tea world and joined us at Obubu, a decision she happily considers one of her best so far.
David (DJ) Tetreault
Assistant Manager
David brings endless good vibes and good tunes to the Obubu team! Originally from the United States, he first came to Japan to teach English in Tottori before joining Obubu through the internship program and later becoming an Assistant Manager. Somewhere along the way, he also picked up coffee roasting. A devoted Lord of the Rings fan and natural people person, David is a mentor to interns and a supportive presence for everyone around him, always finding ways to bring people together over a cup of tea.
Trey Stowe
Assistant Manager
"I’m excited to be back on the farm and looking forward to learning more about how tea is harvested and processed. Learning how a tea farmer makes decisions about harvesting and processing with regard to weather and crop conditions is also something I intend to explore. Experiencing the different seasons is something else that I’m interested in, with respect to how this affects the final product. I was glad to be able to travel home for a short time to spend time with my family. It’s looking to be a fun-filled year with many new experiences and faces here at Obubu."
Marusya Lukianova
Assistant Manager
After completing the Summer Harvest 2025, Marusya returned to Obubu in 2026 as an Assistant Manager. Between her internship and the new program, she hosted workshops and lectures on Japanese tea and wagashi back home in Ukraine. Marusya works in brand direction and strategy, and has chosen to grow within the fields of hospitality and lifestyle. Outside of her core work, she develops her personal Instagram blog. Hence, she leads the SMM & communications for Obubu’s international accounts.
Maren Fichter
Assistant Manager
Maren is a professional tea nerd originally from Germany. She has worked with tea in Japan, China, the US, and the UK, covering its full lifecycle from farming and processing to retail, wholesale, cafes, events, and tastings. An Obubu intern during the 2023 factory/cafe renovation, she’s now back at Obubu as an Assistant Manager to experience the full year’s tea season, lead on education programmes, and turn ever more people into equally intense tea nerds!
Fiona Vermersch
Assistant Manager
Fiona moved from spreadsheets to steeping leaves, guided by a curiosity that grew during her time in the procurement department of a tea company in France. Wanting a more hands-on understanding, she stepped into a role as an assistant manager to experience tea more directly through its seasons, processes, and everyday craft. She will also partake in the selection of the incoming interns as well as the development of the café. With a deep appreciation for traditional foods, she continues her journey with open senses, always ready to learn, savor, and explore the richness the world has to offer through food and drink.
Obubu Interns
Tourism/Farming/Daily Operations
Coming from all over the world, interns look after the international side of Obubu. From replying to daily emails and making social media updates, to taking creative leaps into new initiatives that help Obubu grow. Despite their different backgrounds and interests, all become members of the Obubu family and go on to become Obubu’s ambassadors in their own countries.