The 5 Best Matcha Cafés in Matsue (2026)

The reason Matsue is on this list, and one of the most historically significant places to drink matcha anywhere in Japan. Meimei-an was built in 1779 under the direction of Lord Fumai himself, and it survives as a thatched tea house standing on a low rise just off Shiomi Nawate Street with a direct view of Matsue Castle — one of only twelve original castle keeps left in the country. Visitors take matcha and seasonal wagashi in the adjoining tea room, Hyakuso-tei, looking out over the garden and up to the castle, which is about as complete a Japanese tea setting as exists outside Kyoto. What makes it more than a museum is that Fumai-ryū is still a living school in Matsue rather than a historical curiosity. Go in the morning before the coach parties reach the castle district.

A wagashi house founded 136 years ago, within walking distance of Matsue Station, and the best place in the city to understand why Matsue's sweets are taken as seriously as its tea. Saiundo is known above all for Wakakusa — young grass, one of Lord Fumai's three favourite confections, and still made to his specification — alongside more than thirty kinds of wagashi that rotate with the season. Buy at the counter and take them upstairs: the second floor is a café where you can eat them with a hot bowl of frothy matcha, which is the correct pairing and the way locals do it. Two things make the visit better than a simple shop stop. The artisans work in view from outside, so you can watch the sweets being formed by hand, and the second floor also displays a collection of sugar confectionery artworks.

A temple tea house and one of the quieter places in Matsue to take a bowl properly, without the visitor traffic that reaches Meimei-an. Kangetsu-an sits within the grounds of Fumon-in, and the name — roughly moon-viewing retreat — signals the intent: this is a room built around a specific contemplative pleasure rather than a general-purpose café. Temple tea houses in Matsue are a direct legacy of Fumai's patronage, which pushed tea practice out of the castle and into the city's religious and civic life, and drinking here rather than at the famous sites is the closest a visitor gets to how Matsue actually uses its tea culture. Matcha is served with seasonal wagashi in the usual format. Check opening times before travelling, as temple tea rooms keep shorter and more variable hours than commercial cafés.

The family temple of the Matsudaira lords who ruled Matsue, which makes it the natural counterpart to Meimei-an — this is where Fumai himself is buried, among the tombs of nine generations of his family. The grounds are known for their gardens and, in early summer, for hydrangeas that draw visitors in their own right, and matcha is served so you can take it looking out over them. The atmosphere is markedly different from the castle district: quieter, greener and much less visited, in a part of western Matsue most day-trippers never reach. For anyone who has read about Fumai at Meimei-an, drinking tea at the temple where he is buried closes the loop in a way that is genuinely affecting. Best in June for the hydrangeas, good year-round for the quiet.

Housed in the former Matsue branch of the Bank of Japan, a solid early-twentieth-century building repurposed as a craft and workshop space, and the place to go if you would rather make wagashi than only eat them. The studio runs wagashi-making classes in which you shape the seasonal sweets by hand under instruction and then drink matcha with what you have made — which is a considerably better way to understand why Matsue's confections are shaped and coloured as they are than reading about it. The classes suit visitors without Japanese, and the making itself is harder and more absorbing than it looks. The building also houses craft studios and shops, so there is reason to stay after the class. Book ahead; sessions run to a schedule rather than on demand.