The relationship between humans and fungtional mushrooms predates written history. Archaeological evidence suggests medicinal mushroom use extending back at least five thousand years — with Otzi the Iceman, the 5,300-year-old mummy discovered in the Alps, carrying two species of medicinal fungi in his belongings. But it is in the medical traditions of East Asia where this relationship was most systematically cultivated, documented, and refined.
The earliest written record appears in the Shennong Ben Cao Jing (The Divine Farmer's Materia Medica), compiled during the Han Dynasty around 200 CE. This foundational text of Chinese pharmacology classified Reishi (Lingzhi) among the "superior" herbs — substances considered safe for long-term use that support the body's fundamental vitality rather than treating specific diseases. This classification was not incidental. It reflected a philosophical framework that valued prevention over cure, harmony over intervention.
The Shennong categorized Lingzhi into six varieties based on color, each associated with different organ systems and therapeutic properties. The red Lingzhi (Chi Zhi) was associated with the heart and considered the most potent for calming the spirit and promoting longevity. This systematic approach to mushroom classification anticipated modern mycological taxonomy by nearly two millennia.
During the Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE), mushroom medicine expanded significantly. Court physicians developed elaborate preparation methods — decoctions, tinctures, and powders — each designed to extract different therapeutic compounds. They understood, intuitively, what modern chemistry would later confirm: that different extraction methods release different bioactive compounds. Hot water extracts the polysaccharides. Alcohol extracts the triterpenes. The duality of extraction is not a modern invention; it is a rediscovery.
In Japan, the integration of mushroom medicine took a distinctive path through Kampo (漢方), the Japanese adaptation of Chinese medical theory. Kampo practitioners emphasized the concept of "ki" (気) — vital energy — and developed formulations that combined multiple mushroom species with other botanicals to achieve synergistic therapeutic effects. Reishi, Maitake, and Shiitake became central to Kampo pharmacopoeia, each valued for its specific contribution to maintaining constitutional balance.
The Maitake ("dancing mushroom") holds a particularly poetic place in Japanese medical history. So rare and valued was this mushroom that feudal lords would trade its weight in silver. Foragers who discovered wild Maitake colonies guarded their locations with fierce secrecy, passing coordinates only to trusted family members. The name itself — meaning "dancing mushroom" — is said to derive from the joy expressed upon finding these precious fungi in the wild.
Cordyceps occupies an even more extraordinary cultural position. Known in Tibetan medicine as "yartsa gunbu" (summer grass, winter worm), this parasitic fungus was observed by Tibetan herders who noticed their yaks becoming more energetic after grazing on Cordyceps-infected caterpillars at high altitudes. By the 15th century, it had entered formal Tibetan medical texts. By the Qing Dynasty, it was reserved exclusively for the Emperor's household — a privilege of power reflecting its perceived supreme value.
What unites these traditions across cultures and centuries is a consistent philosophical framework: mushrooms as modulators, not drugs. Eastern medical philosophy never conceived of mushrooms as silver bullets for specific conditions. Instead, they were understood as compounds that support the body's inherent capacity for self-regulation — what Chinese medicine calls "zheng qi" (正気, upright qi) and what modern immunology increasingly recognizes as homeostatic immune regulation.
This distinction matters profoundly in the contemporary context. The Western pharmaceutical model seeks specific molecular targets — a compound that blocks one receptor, inhibits one enzyme, kills one pathogen. Fungtional mushrooms operate differently. Their polysaccharides train the immune system. Their triterpenes modulate inflammation. Their unique compounds support neurological, metabolic, and endocrine function simultaneously. They are, in the deepest sense, systemic medicines.
At Fungtion, we consider ourselves inheritors of this tradition — not merely users of it. Every formulation decision we make is informed by both the accumulated wisdom of these medical systems and the modern scientific evidence that increasingly validates them. The dual-extraction process we use is not a marketing innovation. It is the logical conclusion of centuries of observation that hot water and alcohol release fundamentally different therapeutic compounds.
Four centuries of documented practice. Five millennia of human-mushroom relationship. And we are only beginning to understand what the ancients already knew.
日本語
人間と機能性キノコの関係は、有史以前に遡ります。考古学的証拠は、少なくとも5000年前に遡る薬用キノコの使用を示唆しています。しかし、この関係が最も体系的に育まれ、文書化され、洗練されたのは、東アジアの医学伝統においてです。
最も古い書かれた記録は、紀元200年頃の漢代に編纂された「神農本草経」に現れます。この中国薬学の基礎テキストは、霊芝を「上品」の薬草に分類しました。これは長期使用に安全で、特定の疾患を治療するのではなく、体の基本的な活力を支える物質とみなされていました。
唐の時代（618-907年）に、キノコ医学は大幅に拡大しました。宮廷医師たちは精巧な調製方法を開発しました。煎じ薬、チンキ剤、粉末 — それぞれが異なる治療化合物を抽出するように設計されていました。彼らは直感的に、後に現代化学が確認することを理解していました：異なる抽出方法が異なる生物活性化合物を放出するということを。
日本では、漢方（かんぽう）を通じてキノコ医学の統合が独自の道を歩みました。漢方の実践者は「気」の概念を重視し、相乗的な治療効果を達成するために複数のキノコ種を他の植物と組み合わせた製剤を開発しました。
これらの伝統を文化と世紀を超えて統一するのは、一貫した哲学的枠組みです：キノコは調節剤であり、薬物ではないということ。東洋医学の哲学は、キノコを特定の症状に対する特効薬としてではなく、自己調節のための身体の固有の能力を支える化合物として理解していました。
Fungtionでは、私たちはこの伝統の継承者であると考えています。私たちが行うすべての処方決定は、これらの医学体系の蓄積された知恵と、それらをますます検証する現代の科学的証拠の両方に基づいています。