Shiitake

SHIITAKE22 Paper submitted by Dr Robert Thistlethwaite 20/12/2019 Dr Kisaku Mori D. Agr., supported by a small team of Japanese scientists and officials, flew into Moresby from New Zealand as part of a theoretical test that the wild distribution of Shiitake would be found along a former equatorial zone passing through New Zealand and PNG at an oblique angle to the current equator. The North pole would have been in southern Greenland, or thereabouts for that to occur. While I could find no evidence of such an equatorial shift, then or since, Mori did find Shiitake in Fagaceae forest in New Zealand. His journey to PNG was primarily intended to investigate the presence of Shiitake there also.

Kevin White and Bob Thistlethwaite greet Dr Kisaku Mori and the OIC Mori Research at the Davara on

Ela Beach. Photo credit Bob Thistlethwaite. Kisaku Mori (1908 – 1977) was, at the time of his visit to PNG in 1972, the head of the Nippon Federation of Shiitake Producers Co-operatives and of the Mori Mushroom Research Institute. Dr Mori had researched edible mushrooms for many years but focussed on the cultivation of Shiitake receiving his doctorate in 1941. At the time of Mori’s visit, the scientific name of the species was Lentinus edodes (Berk.), Singer (1941)23. He is acknowledged as having led the way in 1943 for large scale commercial Shiitake production with a new inoculation method based on wooden dowels of colonized mycelia inserted into drilled holes in Quercus and Castanopsis logs. [This system has now been replaced by a bagged cultivation process24]. He became more widely known through the publication of his book Mushrooms as Health Foods (Japan Publications, 1974, English) which extolled the health benefits of mushrooms.

Mori research team: The 6-man Mori team arrive at Bulolo.

Little field work was necessary as Jack Simpson had already located Shiitake in higher elevation Castanopsis forest.

Jack Simpson, Department of Forests pathologist based at Bulolo in Morobe Province, guided the Mori team to Castanopsis forests where Shiitake was identified on the first morning of the field visit.

22 Article submitted by Dr Bob Thistlethwaite 29 Dec 2019 23 Now classified as Lentinula edodes (Berk.), Pegler (1976). 24 Katsuji Yamanaka: Mushroom Cultivation in Japan, Kyoto Mycological Institute, WSMBMP Bulletin (2011) 4:1-10.

Shiitake party 1: L to R? Bob Thistlethwaite, Egon Horak? Jack Simpson, Dave Lamb, Kisaku Mori

Dr Mori was delighted to find that the Shiitake form at Bulolo was like the hanu donko form of Japan, having a thick pileus, which in Japan was produced under slow winter growth conditions, and originally had a garlic flavour.

Shiitake party 2: L to R: Bob Thistlethwaite, Jack Simpson, Dave Lamb (partly obscured at rear), OIC Mori Research, Egon Horak, Kisaku Mori in Castanopsis forest at Bulolo.

Mori said it had taken considerable work to remove the garlic taste then disliked by Japanese; but with increasing westernisation Japanese sought garlic to enhance Asian cuisine and were prepared to pay the higher price demanded for hanu donko. After Dr Mori’s field visit, Shiitake was found widely distributed on Fagaceae, especially on Castanopsis in the highlands of PNG. At the Tari market in Hela Province, different varieties of edible mushrooms were being sold. Shiitake was known locally “abus long abus” or meat with meat and was highly prized. In 1974, Dr Mori flew to PNG to meet again with Kev White and Forestry Department staff in Port Moresby and sponsored a small reception. He explained that the PNG form of Shiitake had been crossbred with the Japanese hanu donko form, producing a thick pileus in summer along with the garlic flavour. The new variety had been well received by the pubic in Japan, boosting the value of Shiitake production. In appreciation for KJ’s assistance, this new mushroom variety had been marketed as the “White Forest Mushroom” [after Kevin White and Kisaku Mori (Mori means forest)]. He also presented two badges to Kevin and me, carrying numbers 99 and 100, stating that there were but 100 such badges in existence, and to receive one was an honour and a tribute to the assistance he had received. They would attract several gratis support services (including transport, accommodation, restaurants) when we visited Japan. I was never able to test that offer and whether Kev White did so on his travels I do not know. But I did receive a package of the new variety which helped me develop a high regard for Shiitake, both fresh and dried, which I consider essential to Asian cuisine today.