There is a farmer who specializes in maitake mushroom production in a place called Nyuuno in Kouchi-cho, Higashihiroshima City. This time, MICHISHIRUBE would like to introduce Mr. Toshiaki Higashi of the Nyuuno Mushroom Center in Hiroshima.
The Nyuuno Mushroom Center was established on Christmas Day, December 25, 1995.
"It was snowing that day, and we ate udon noodles with maitake mushroom tempura in the garden to commemorate the establishment," says Mr. Azuma, looking back on those days.

However, the maitake mushrooms we served at that time were not grown by us, but bought at a supermarket.

Before becoming a maitake mushroom farmer, Mr. Azuma had worked for Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. In his dream, he wanted to be the president. Just at that time, he decided to start a business in Nyuuno, partly because he wanted to do something with a large piece of land that had been used as a tennis court by his wife's family.

With the declining birthrate and aging population, Mr. Azuma turned his attention to maitake mushrooms in the midst of the social trend of spreading the culture of eating healthy food. When learning that beta-glucan, a nutrient contained in maitake mushrooms, was effective in preventing cancer, he chose to become a maitake mushroom farmer so that everyone could be healthy.

However, at that time, maitake mushrooms were not well known, and Mr. Azuma himself did not know what they were.
He visited maitake mushroom farming trainings held all over Japan to learn about process of making and the sawdust that serves as the soil for the mushrooms. At first, he packed 3,400 maitake mushrooms, but only about half of them turned into maitake mushrooms, and he had to repeatedly pack sawdust and throw another half away.
As a result of repeated trial and error, including improvements in sawdust and water, and the temperature and humidity of the growing area, he is now able to grow maitake mushrooms with a 95% harvest rate.

Mr. Azuma, who started growing maitake mushrooms at a time when people didn't know how to eat them even if they were available, continues to take on the challenge of planning processed products using maitake mushrooms and harvest experience programs at the Nyuuno Mushroom Center.

"I'm trying my best," Mr. Azuma says with a smile, "I can only do so much while I'm alive, so I want to keep trying new things without giving up.”　
The thick-fleshed maitake mushrooms that he produces always seem to be just like the energetic his personality.

At MICHISHIRUBE, we are planning to offer an experience using Mr. Azuma's maitake mushrooms. Hope you will be able to get power from the maitake mushrooms.