104 
MUSHROOMS IN JAPAN. 
with the Japanese for the cultivation of mushrooms ; the tree 
known to natives as shii giving the best results. This tree grows 
abundantly in warm places having a south-easterly aspect ; it 
attains to a height of about eighteen or nineteen feet. It has a 
long narrow leaf, thin and stiff, the front surface of a deep green 
colour, the back of a brownish tint and glazed. The tree is an 
evergreen, the fruit (acorn) small, with a rough cupule. The 
acorns are steamed and eaten. The wood of the tree is used in the 
making of boats’ oars, also for fuel and charcoal. 
Another oak, the kashma, from Avhich mushrooms are obtained, 
is also plentiful in warm localities, and attains to a height of thirty 
or forty feet. The leaves are used in cookery, and the wood is in 
great demand for divining sticks for which it is considered the best. 
The donguri, another species, is to be found all over the country ; 
it grows to about eighteen or nineteen feet, has very thick branches 
and dense foliage ; the leaf is slightly oval and slightly wrinkled. 
The fruit (acorn), after being pounded and steeped in w'ater,is made 
into dumplings and eaten in this form. The wood is much used in 
boat-making and also for carts. 
Mushrooms are obtained from any of the above in the following 
manner : — 
About the beginning of autumn the trunk, about five or six 
inches in diameter, of any one of these trees, is selected and cutup 
into lengths of four or five feet; each piece is then split down 
lengthwise into four, and on the outer bark slight incisions are 
either made at once with a hatchet or the cut logs are left till the 
following spring, and then deep wounds seven or eight inches long 
are incised on them. 
Assuming the first course to have been pursued, the logs, after 
having received several slight incisions, are placed in a wood 
or grove where they can get the full benefit of the air and heat. 
In about three years they will be tolerably rotten in parts. After 
the more rotten parts are removed they are placed against a rack 
in a slanting position, and about the middle of the ensuing spring 
the mushrooms will come forth in abundance. They are then 
gathered. The logs are, however, still kept, and are submitted to 
the following process. Every morning they are put in water, 
where they remain till the afternoon, when they are taken out, laid 
lengthwise on the ground, and beaten with a mallet. They are 
then ranged on end in the same slanting position as before, and in 
two or three days mushrooms will again make their appearance. 
In Yenshin the custom is to beat the logs so heavily that the 
wmod swells, and this induces mushrooms of a more than ordinarily 
large growTh. 
If the logs are beaten gently a great number of small-sized 
mushrooms grow up in succession. In places where there is a 
scarcity of water, rain water should be kept for steeping the 
logs in. 
