identifying turn-of-the-century illustrated Japanese mushrooms...
August 3, 2021 1:42 PM Subscribe
This handsome early 20th century ukiyo-e woodblock print shows fifteen Japanese mushroom types. I'm fairly confident in having identified seven species, on the basis of this translation of the 1643 classic 料理物語 Ryōri Monogatari and a Polish mycologist's analysis of its chapter on fungi. Can you help attribute the other eight?
Using this numbered version of the print, I think they are:
1. matsutake マツタケ / 松茸 Tricholoma matsutake
3. hatsutake (hatsake) ハツタケ / 初茸 Lactarius hatsudake
6. shiitake シイタケ / 椎茸・香蕈 Lentinula edodes
9. iwatake (wakatake) イワタケ / わかたけ / 岩茸・石茸・岩竹 Umbilicaria esculenta
10. kikurage きくらげ / 木耳 Auricularia auricula-judae
12. shōro しょうろ / 松露 Rhizopogon roseolus
15. kōtake (kawatake, shishitake) かうたけ / 香蕈・革茸・茅蕈 Sarcodon imbricatus
Several types of fairly common/classical Japanese fungi that are in the Ryōri Monogatari and in other period naturalist repertories (like Iwasaki Kan-en's 1828 本草圖譜 Honzō Zufu catalogue) are not featured, such as hiratake ヒラタケ / 平茸・学名 Pleurotus ostreatus, iguchi いくち (an undetermined Boletacea), hōkitake ねずたけ / 鼠茸 Ramaria botrytis, but I'm more surprised not to find the really common shimeji しめじ group (which comprises various Lyophyllum-Hypsizigus-Cyclocybe species) depicted, nor a popular species like nameko 滑子 Pholiota nameko.
Is your period Japanese - or your trained Asian mycologist's eye - up to this (admittedly niche) challenge? [Disclosure: MycologyInstagram, so far, was not.]
Using this numbered version of the print, I think they are:
1. matsutake マツタケ / 松茸 Tricholoma matsutake
3. hatsutake (hatsake) ハツタケ / 初茸 Lactarius hatsudake
6. shiitake シイタケ / 椎茸・香蕈 Lentinula edodes
9. iwatake (wakatake) イワタケ / わかたけ / 岩茸・石茸・岩竹 Umbilicaria esculenta
10. kikurage きくらげ / 木耳 Auricularia auricula-judae
12. shōro しょうろ / 松露 Rhizopogon roseolus
15. kōtake (kawatake, shishitake) かうたけ / 香蕈・革茸・茅蕈 Sarcodon imbricatus
Several types of fairly common/classical Japanese fungi that are in the Ryōri Monogatari and in other period naturalist repertories (like Iwasaki Kan-en's 1828 本草圖譜 Honzō Zufu catalogue) are not featured, such as hiratake ヒラタケ / 平茸・学名 Pleurotus ostreatus, iguchi いくち (an undetermined Boletacea), hōkitake ねずたけ / 鼠茸 Ramaria botrytis, but I'm more surprised not to find the really common shimeji しめじ group (which comprises various Lyophyllum-Hypsizigus-Cyclocybe species) depicted, nor a popular species like nameko 滑子 Pholiota nameko.
Is your period Japanese - or your trained Asian mycologist's eye - up to this (admittedly niche) challenge? [Disclosure: MycologyInstagram, so far, was not.]
Best answer: No. 13 is kuritake (kuri = "chestnut").
No. 14 is enoki.
posted by Sockin'inthefreeworld at 2:06 PM on August 3, 2021 [1 favorite]
No. 14 is enoki.
posted by Sockin'inthefreeworld at 2:06 PM on August 3, 2021 [1 favorite]
Best answer: 2 is samatsudake サマツダケ 早松茸 The only source I could find for a scientific name said Tricholoma colossum, but I have my doubts about whether that is correct. It's described as being simlar to matsutake but it appears earlier in the year and doesn't taste as good.
4 is shimeji シメヂ 王茸 Not sure on the exact species
5 is kishimeji 黄茸 キシメジ Tricholoma equestre
7 I think the senbon shimeji that Sockin'inthefreeworld identified is Lyophyllum fumosum
8 is sasatake 笹茸 ササタケ Cortinarius cinnamomeus
11 is naratake 楢茸 ナラタケ Armillaria mellea subsp. nipponica
posted by Jeanne at 2:22 PM on August 3, 2021 [2 favorites]
4 is shimeji シメヂ 王茸 Not sure on the exact species
5 is kishimeji 黄茸 キシメジ Tricholoma equestre
7 I think the senbon shimeji that Sockin'inthefreeworld identified is Lyophyllum fumosum
8 is sasatake 笹茸 ササタケ Cortinarius cinnamomeus
11 is naratake 楢茸 ナラタケ Armillaria mellea subsp. nipponica
posted by Jeanne at 2:22 PM on August 3, 2021 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: No. 13 is kuritake (kuri = "chestnut").
Interesting, not a species I would have been aware of: Hypholoma lateritium, the "brick cap/top"; here in Italy it's considered toxic/inedible :-D
No. 14 is enoki.
Perfect, another super-common Asian type, though the way it's drawn it didn't trip my radar. The (current) Latin binomial is Flammulina velutipes, known in its more adult/wild form as the "velvet shank"; how is it written on the print?
posted by progosk at 2:22 PM on August 3, 2021
Interesting, not a species I would have been aware of: Hypholoma lateritium, the "brick cap/top"; here in Italy it's considered toxic/inedible :-D
No. 14 is enoki.
Perfect, another super-common Asian type, though the way it's drawn it didn't trip my radar. The (current) Latin binomial is Flammulina velutipes, known in its more adult/wild form as the "velvet shank"; how is it written on the print?
posted by progosk at 2:22 PM on August 3, 2021
Enoki is written as 榎茸.
posted by Jeanne at 2:25 PM on August 3, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Jeanne at 2:25 PM on August 3, 2021 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: @Jeanne this is really helpful, I'll be sure to dig into each of these identifications in time. Am I right in thinking you are able to read what's written in the frame of the print, too?
posted by progosk at 2:27 PM on August 3, 2021
posted by progosk at 2:27 PM on August 3, 2021
The text at the top of the print says "varieties of edible Japanese mushrooms." The text on the left side looks like a geographic location, maybe the location where the print was produced - I'd need to look it up. (On my way to run errands now but I can probably look it up tonight if you need it.)
posted by Jeanne at 2:30 PM on August 3, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Jeanne at 2:30 PM on August 3, 2021 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: 5 is kishimeji 黄茸 キシメジ Tricholoma equestre
The yellowness is definitely T. equestre's giveaway trait (though it's more general than the illustration shows it, and the little green top on the right one also threw me off somewhat). Is there some linguistic root-meaning to "shimeji", some quality that warrants the rather varied grouping use for mushrooms?
posted by progosk at 2:33 PM on August 3, 2021
The yellowness is definitely T. equestre's giveaway trait (though it's more general than the illustration shows it, and the little green top on the right one also threw me off somewhat). Is there some linguistic root-meaning to "shimeji", some quality that warrants the rather varied grouping use for mushrooms?
posted by progosk at 2:33 PM on August 3, 2021
Response by poster: No. 7 is another variation of shimeji, 千本しめじ which is like "thousand-stalk shimeji"
7 I think the senbon shimeji that Sockin'inthefreeworld identified is Lyophyllum fumosum
Regarding the "numerous" name, the species Lyophyllum decastes, the "clustered domecap" got its Latin binomial for its typically "ten-fold" gregarious growth form, so that's an interesting assonance (but it's a common trait for a lot of Lyophyllum species), and L. fumosum is also considered an excellent edible here in Italy (though only by avid specialists, I'd say) - and it can range from darker caps to quite blond ones, like the illustration, so: this works for me ;-)
posted by progosk at 2:48 PM on August 3, 2021
7 I think the senbon shimeji that Sockin'inthefreeworld identified is Lyophyllum fumosum
Regarding the "numerous" name, the species Lyophyllum decastes, the "clustered domecap" got its Latin binomial for its typically "ten-fold" gregarious growth form, so that's an interesting assonance (but it's a common trait for a lot of Lyophyllum species), and L. fumosum is also considered an excellent edible here in Italy (though only by avid specialists, I'd say) - and it can range from darker caps to quite blond ones, like the illustration, so: this works for me ;-)
posted by progosk at 2:48 PM on August 3, 2021
Response by poster: 2 is samatsudake サマツダケ 早松茸 The only source I could find for a scientific name said Tricholoma colossum, but I have my doubts about whether that is correct. It's described as being simlar to matsutake but it appears earlier in the year and doesn't taste as good.
There's such a cult around matsutake (ever since the Edo period, it's quite the story) that the existence of an "early" subcategory doesn't surprise me at all. Some of the matsutake that's picked abroad these days specifically to satisfy the voracious Japanese appetite for the species (unmatched anywhere else these fungi grow, incidentally: the Latin binomial for the species, bestowed by a Scandinavian, was T. nauseosum :-D ) is very likely unidentical to the autochthonous Japanese variety, so a subcategory is probably still a useful concept; not sure what would have been the turn-of-the-century version of that, but: close enough for me to make sense of this print illustration ;-)
posted by progosk at 3:12 PM on August 3, 2021
There's such a cult around matsutake (ever since the Edo period, it's quite the story) that the existence of an "early" subcategory doesn't surprise me at all. Some of the matsutake that's picked abroad these days specifically to satisfy the voracious Japanese appetite for the species (unmatched anywhere else these fungi grow, incidentally: the Latin binomial for the species, bestowed by a Scandinavian, was T. nauseosum :-D ) is very likely unidentical to the autochthonous Japanese variety, so a subcategory is probably still a useful concept; not sure what would have been the turn-of-the-century version of that, but: close enough for me to make sense of this print illustration ;-)
posted by progosk at 3:12 PM on August 3, 2021
Response by poster: 8 is sasatake 笹茸 ササタケ Cortinarius cinnamomeus
I find sasatake 笹茸 coupled as ヌメリササタケ numeri sasatake - 滑り笹茸 suberi sasatake ("slippery bamboo mushrooms") as an edible Cortinarius species here and here, but Wikipedia places it at C. cinnamomeus - which in Italian is considered toxic/deadly :-D
(One other Japanese site does warn to never confuse with the "poisonous mushroom オオササタケ osasatake"...)
11 is naratake 楢茸 ナラタケ Armillaria mellea subsp. nipponica
楢 nara is oak (Japanese fungi names so often start with the tree-host specification, something that's actually a lot less common in other languages' common fungal nomenclature); I'll take naratake to be a group name for the generally conditionally edible Armillaria sp., the "honey mushroom" family; odd, though, that the illustration does not feature the species' typical (indeed, as regards its Latin moniker, name-giving) ring...
posted by progosk at 3:52 PM on August 3, 2021
I find sasatake 笹茸 coupled as ヌメリササタケ numeri sasatake - 滑り笹茸 suberi sasatake ("slippery bamboo mushrooms") as an edible Cortinarius species here and here, but Wikipedia places it at C. cinnamomeus - which in Italian is considered toxic/deadly :-D
(One other Japanese site does warn to never confuse with the "poisonous mushroom オオササタケ osasatake"...)
11 is naratake 楢茸 ナラタケ Armillaria mellea subsp. nipponica
楢 nara is oak (Japanese fungi names so often start with the tree-host specification, something that's actually a lot less common in other languages' common fungal nomenclature); I'll take naratake to be a group name for the generally conditionally edible Armillaria sp., the "honey mushroom" family; odd, though, that the illustration does not feature the species' typical (indeed, as regards its Latin moniker, name-giving) ring...
posted by progosk at 3:52 PM on August 3, 2021
Response by poster: 4 is shimeji シメヂ 王茸 Not sure on the exact species
I'm seeing the kanji 王茸 rendered as "ōtake" ≈ the "king's mushroom"... or is that a misreading/-translation? (Also: シメヂ as an alternate to シメジ... is that distinction present in the labels used in this print? I'm still rather Japanese-blind, despite poring over these characters...)
Shimeji is a very species-inclusive term, so I have a feeling it's going to be impossible to pin down this specific turn-of-the-century use...
posted by progosk at 4:08 AM on August 4, 2021
I'm seeing the kanji 王茸 rendered as "ōtake" ≈ the "king's mushroom"... or is that a misreading/-translation? (Also: シメヂ as an alternate to シメジ... is that distinction present in the labels used in this print? I'm still rather Japanese-blind, despite poring over these characters...)
Shimeji is a very species-inclusive term, so I have a feeling it's going to be impossible to pin down this specific turn-of-the-century use...
posted by progosk at 4:08 AM on August 4, 2021
Best answer: Re: shimeji 王茸 vs シメヂ vs シメジ
王茸 is one of the [multiple] ways to write shimeji in kanji. This webpage posits that the derivation is from shimeji's prized flavor as "king" among mushrooms (at least in flavor; for aroma, matsutake is considered top).
ヂ vs ジ
These are phonetically equivalent. I don't know about non-modern usage, but nowadays you would distinguish these in typing ヂ as "di" and ジ as "ji." The reason one would use ヂ is that the underlying character would be チ ("chi"), as is the case in some of the kanji versions of shimeji (e.g., __地).
ヂ and ジ are both katakana, which is the script of choice in modern Japanese for writing things like species names.
Your print actually does not write these in katakana; it lists the various shimeji, and some of the other mushrooms, in an older form of hiragana (the print also uses archaic forms for some of the kanji). For example, note that it does not say し for the "shi" character. The last character, though, is ぢ (the hiragana version of ヂ).
posted by Sockin'inthefreeworld at 11:32 PM on August 8, 2021
王茸 is one of the [multiple] ways to write shimeji in kanji. This webpage posits that the derivation is from shimeji's prized flavor as "king" among mushrooms (at least in flavor; for aroma, matsutake is considered top).
ヂ vs ジ
These are phonetically equivalent. I don't know about non-modern usage, but nowadays you would distinguish these in typing ヂ as "di" and ジ as "ji." The reason one would use ヂ is that the underlying character would be チ ("chi"), as is the case in some of the kanji versions of shimeji (e.g., __地).
ヂ and ジ are both katakana, which is the script of choice in modern Japanese for writing things like species names.
Your print actually does not write these in katakana; it lists the various shimeji, and some of the other mushrooms, in an older form of hiragana (the print also uses archaic forms for some of the kanji). For example, note that it does not say し for the "shi" character. The last character, though, is ぢ (the hiragana version of ヂ).
posted by Sockin'inthefreeworld at 11:32 PM on August 8, 2021
Response by poster: Excellent info, all that, sockin', thanks so much: 4 being honshimeji, which has been designated as its own species (Lyophyllum shimeji) - and has only recently been found in Europe, too - makes total sense.
Amazing find, that perfectlifeproject page on the specific issue of shimeji philology... just wonderful that (what looks like) a typical life-hacks blog would consider this a relevant issue to address.
posted by progosk at 5:08 AM on August 9, 2021
Amazing find, that perfectlifeproject page on the specific issue of shimeji philology... just wonderful that (what looks like) a typical life-hacks blog would consider this a relevant issue to address.
posted by progosk at 5:08 AM on August 9, 2021
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>I'm more surprised not to find the really common shimeji しめじ group
I think No. 4 is labelled shimejitake (the spelling is an older form), and No. 5 is "yellow shimeji." No. 7 is another variation of shimeji, 千本しめじ which is like "thousand-stalk shimeji" but I haven't looked up the formal nomenclature.
posted by Sockin'inthefreeworld at 2:03 PM on August 3, 2021 [1 favorite]