Floating ink
Suminagashi
The Japanese art form behind the look of THAT MATCHA.
What it is
Ink, water and paper
Suminagashi translates loosely as floating ink.
It is one of Japan's oldest marbling techniques. Ink is placed gently onto water, coaxed into soft swirling patterns, then captured on paper. No two prints are ever the same.
What drew me to suminagashi wasn't just how it looks. It was what it represents.
Why it fits
A quiet elegance
It reminded me straight away of milk poured into matcha: the soft swirls that form on the surface of a latte before they disappear. That connection felt too perfect to ignore.
In the workshop
Made by hand, with a sumi artist
In Japan I spent time in the workshop of a traditional sumi artist, learning how the ink is floated, guided and lifted onto paper by hand.
The prints we made together became the artwork that runs through THAT MATCHA.
From paper to package
Honouring the craft, not borrowing from it
I didn't want THAT MATCHA to borrow from Japanese culture in a superficial way. The original sumi prints, each formed in water and transferred to paper by hand, became the foundation of the brand.