Editor’s Letter
No.73｜YUNNAN（2025）
YUNNAN – Mushroom Magic
By LUCAS B.B.
In Yunnan, mushrooms are not only food—they are a way of seeing the world. They sprout overnight, vanish by morning, and yet return each season, teaching us that life’s rhythm is one of appearance, disappearance, and renewal. For this issue, we followed Shinobu Okumura, founder of Mingei Okumura, on a journey through Yunnan’s mushroom mountains—wandering markets, tasting mushrooms of every shape and color possible, and meeting the people who live among these quiet teachers of the forest.
From Kunming to Dali, Lijiang to Shangri-La, we encountered a landscape where nature and culture blur beautifully.
At Kunming’s 24-hour mushroom market, baskets overflowed with Ganbajyo, the speckled green mushroom that bruises blue when handled and carries a rich, dashi-like aroma. Nearby sat the Milky Orange mushroom that releases a white sap when cut, and the Blue-Staining Bolete, whose vivid color warns cooks to handle it with care—dangerous raw but delicious once properly cooked. Jizong mushrooms, smoky and meaty yet notoriously hard to wash, lay piled high like tangled roots of the forest floor. Traders polished each cap to a gleam, their stalls glowing like galleries of forest art.
In mountain kitchens, copper pots bubbled with these treasures—creamy broths rich with Bamboo Fungus Mushrooms and Cauliflower Mushrooms, their aromas mingling with pine and rain. But mushrooms feed more than appetite. Low in calories yet high in protein, minerals, and B vitamins, they strengthen the immune system, reduce inflammation, and nurture both body and mind. Their compounds are used in medicine, bridging folk wisdom and modern science—a reminder that food, at its best, is healthy knowledge made edible.
Our three “Mushroom Queens”—Xiaoli, Dengzhou, and Zhenhao—guided us through their personal mushroom networks. Each woman carries her own rhythm of creativity: foraging, cooking, weaving, or dyeing with mushroom pigments. Together, they form an unseen web of care and imagination, linking forest, culture, and craft.
The spirit of Jiama folk art, carved and printed as blessings of protection, mirrors the forest’s own hidden web—the mycelium that binds roots to trees and people to place. Whether in a hand-stitched cloth, a steaming copper pot, or a forager’s basket, the same quiet intelligence hums beneath the surface—a reminder that all things are linked.
Artist Maeda Yuki’s cover captures this perfectly: Okumura, dressed in Ankorau, a highly original and creative outdoor and lifestyle clothing brand from Shanghai, parting his way through a forest of mushrooms, walking between the visible and the invisible.
Welcome to our Magic Mushroom journey through Yunnan’s forests, kitchens, and imaginations, where every step brings us closer to the unseen world that keeps everything alive.
Soundtrack
YUNNAN
PAPERSKY Soundtrack For Travelers
YUNNAN Edition
A list of Songs to enjoy over a cup of coffee, while driving, and of course while flipping through the pages of the YUNNAN edition of Papersky.
Selected by:
GOOD NEIGHBORS’ MUSIC VENDER
Kenji Hatogai (BAGN Inc.)
- SUO / A Ka Gang Rui / Ai Bao & Yi Zhuai
- FENGTONG DRUMS OF MANGLAI / The People’s Rhythm
- MUSHROOM / Happy Tobi & Jost Esser
- MUSHROOM SAMBA / Saib
- DISKO MUSHROOM / Sunni Colón
- MUSHROOM / Joachim Kühn
- BROKEN PROMISES / Quiet Village
- SPORES / Cloudchord
- FUNGI / Emilio’s Quartz
- I SING HIGH / Sam Gendel & Sam Wilkes