Kakegawa lies in the east of Shizuoka, on what used to be the Tokaido highway between Kyoto and Edo. It was an inn town first and a tea region second: when the modernization of the 1870s took away the work on the roads and the river crossings, the people who had done that work turned to the hills and planted tea. Kakegawa now has one of the largest production volumes in Japan.

The conditions there suit the plant. Nutrient-rich soil, a large difference between day and night temperatures, and terrain where fog settles in during picking season. Kakegawa is also where fukamushi took hold, the deep steaming method that produces a denser, cloudier cup with less astringency. Most of what people outside Japan recognize as Japanese sencha comes from this style.