# 新井耕吉郎紀念碑，立在一杯紅茶的源頭

- URL: https://justfly.idv.tw/%e6%96%b0%e4%ba%95%e8%80%95%e5%90%89%e9%83%8e%e7%b4%80%e5%bf%b5%e7%a2%91%ef%bc%8c%e7%ab%8b%e5%9c%a8%e4%b8%80%e6%9d%af%e7%b4%85%e8%8c%b6%e7%9a%84%e6%ba%90%e9%a0%ad/
- 日期: 2026-10-19
- 分類: 我知故我在
- 標籤: 台灣茶, 日月潭, 紅茶, 農業史

![新井耕吉郎紀念碑，立在一杯紅茶的源頭]
日月潭畔的魚池,茶園旁立著一塊石碑。新井耕吉郎紀念碑不大,沒有導覽牌喊著「必拍」,多半是喝完紅茶的訪客順路走到,才發現茶香的上游站著一個外地人的名字。

##### 留下來的技師

農業部農業知識入口網收錄的〈臺灣紅茶的守護者〉說得直接:台灣紅茶雖然源於清朝劉銘傳時期,真正進入商業規模,要等到[三井合名會社於1899年在北部大規模開拓茶園](https://kmweb.moa.gov.tw/knowledgebase.php?func=2&id=25968&type=0)。新井耕吉郎是日本群馬縣人,光復後日本人陸續撤出,政府看中其在紅茶研究上的專精,希望他留下協助指導試驗工作。他答應了,把紅茶試驗改良當成畢生志業。

這段話裡沒有戲劇性的轉折,沒有挽留,沒有含淚告別,只有一份請託和一個點頭。技術史多半長這樣:試驗所裡反覆做同一件事,一做就是大半輩子。

##### 紅玉不能算在他頭上

日月潭一帶的紅茶如今最出名的名字是「紅玉」,於是很容易順手把功勞也一併記給紀念碑的主人。這個連結有問題。農業知識入口網那篇文章談的是新井的研究與留台,並沒有說他育出了紅玉。紅玉是後來的品種育成,屬於另一段工作、另一批人。

把兩件事分開,新井的位置反而清楚。他做的是前一棒:研究紅茶栽培與製造,在戰後的空窗期守住試驗工作。據日本方面的旅遊文章整理(出處為[茶業改良相關單位的網站條目](https://www.tbri.gov.tw)),他曾引進印度阿薩姆茶苗,並得面對氣候與瘧疾的困難;這部分屬於二手摘要,細節仍待原始檔案核對。比較穩妥的說法是:他把一個地方的紅茶試驗撐住,後人才有機會在這個基礎上選育新品種。

##### 921之後的茶香

知識入口網那篇文章的結尾提到,台灣紅茶產業歷經興衰,在921大地震之後再現風華,而日月潭畔的紀念碑,至今仍守護著魚池分場。石碑立在試驗分場旁邊,位置本身就在交代身分:這座碑是研究者的碑,立在研究者工作過的地方,並非為旅客打卡而設的景點。

一杯用[紅茶](https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/紅茶)沖出的茶湯,味道裡有品種、有海拔、有製茶師傅的手感,也有很多沒被寫進包裝標籤的早年試驗。紀念碑做的事很單純:提醒那些試驗有人做過。

下次到魚池,不妨先去石碑前站一分鐘,再回茶室點那壺紅茶。順序不要反。

— 溫以君

### The Arai Kokichiro Monument and the Tea Behind It

Beside the tea fields at Yuchi, near Sun Moon Lake, stands a modest stone: the Arai Kokichiro monument (新井耕吉郎紀念碑). No sign shouts “photo spot.” Visitors tend to wander up after finishing a cup of black tea and discover that the upstream of that aroma carries a foreigner’s name.

##### The technician who stayed

A piece in the Ministry of Agriculture’s knowledge portal, titled “Guardian of Taiwan Black Tea,” lays out the outline. Taiwan’s black tea traces back to the Qing-era Liu Mingchuan period, but commercial scale began when [Mitsui Gomei Kaisha opened up large tea plantations in northern Taiwan in 1899](https://kmweb.moa.gov.tw/knowledgebase.php?func=2&id=25968&type=0). Arai Kokichiro, from Gunma Prefecture, was in Taiwan when Japanese personnel withdrew after Retrocession. The government valued his expertise in black tea research and wanted him to remain and guide the trials. He agreed, and made black tea experimentation and improvement his life’s work.

There is no drama in that account: no tearful farewell, no one begging him to stay. Just a request and a nod. Technical history often looks like this, one person doing the same job in the same station for most of a lifetime.

##### Hongyu is not his

The best-known name around Sun Moon Lake black tea today is “Hongyu” (紅玉), so it is tempting to hand the credit to the man on the monument. That link does not hold. The portal article covers Arai’s research and his decision to stay; it does not say he bred Hongyu. Hongyu was a later cultivar, the product of a different stretch of work and different hands.

Separating the two makes Arai’s place clearer. He was the earlier leg of the relay: studying black tea cultivation and manufacture, and keeping the trial work alive in the uncertain years after the war. Secondary summaries of Japanese travel writing (via [a tea-research institute’s website entry](https://www.tbri.gov.tw)) add that he brought in Indian Assam seedlings and faced climate and malaria; those details are second-hand and still need checking against original records. The safer claim is that he held one locality’s black tea trials together, so that later breeders had something to build on.

##### Fragrance after the 921 earthquake

The portal piece closes by noting that Taiwan’s black tea industry went through booms and busts and regained its glow after the 921 earthquake, and that the monument by Sun Moon Lake still watches over the Yuchi branch station. The stone’s location says who it is for: not a stop designed for tourists, but a researcher’s marker placed where the researcher worked.

A cup of [black tea](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_tea) carries cultivar, altitude and a tea maker’s hands. It also carries early trials that never made it onto the label. The monument does one plain thing: it says someone ran them.

Next time at Yuchi, stand in front of the stone for a minute first, then order the pot of tea. Keep that order.

— 溫以君