Matsutake: An Ancient Tradition

Matsutake have been used and revered by the Japanese people for more than a millennium and have become more than just a seasonal delicacy. They also symbolize fertility, and by extension, good fortune and happiness. A gift of matsutake is considered special and is cherished by those who receive it. According to Ohara (1994), one of the earliest records extolling its virtues is found in a 759 A.D. poem. Later references to matsutake often were related to activities of nobles and priests. Records from the 13th to 17th centuries indicate that nobility enjoyed mushrooming events and often sent matsutake as gifts, a tradition that persists today,  especially in the corporate world.
 During the 11th century in the Imperial Court of Kyoto, women were prohibited from saying "matsutake" openly but instead were required to speak of it with the honorific marker "0," as O-Matsu. Until the 17th and 18th centuries, matsutake consumption was strictly limited to the imperial court. As matsutake consumption became more common among the public during these centuries, vulgar (phallic symbolism) and graphic short stories came into vogue, portraying comical characters attempting to conceal their matsutake picking areas and indulging in risqué talk about the mushroom. It was in this same period that the first stirrings of scientific interest were recorded: A

Buddhist priest in Kyoto recorded the annual productivity of matsutake (that is, mushroom numbers) in a mountain forest (Kinkakuji-yama). Later, based on the priest's diary, Professor M. Hamada of Kyoto University was able to approximate the seasonal precipitation, temperature conditions, age and ecological status of the mountain forest from 1636 to 1667 (Ohara 1994).