• Contents: 160g, approx. 16 caps (count is a guide, not a guarantee) in a gift box, 33 × 25 × 6cm, with a leaflet
• Cap size: Approx. 5–6cm
• Ingredients: Log-grown shiitake (Oita, Japan) — single ingredient
• Allergens: None. No fish, no animal ingredients, no wheat, no soy — plant-based and naturally gluten-free.
• Storage: Unopened, keep somewhere cool and dark and use within a reasonable time — dried shiitake draw moisture from the air. For long keeping, freeze. Once opened, move them to a sealed container and refrigerate. See our full storage guide.
• Origin: Oita, Japan

Himeno Ichiro Shouten has been a shiitake merchant in Taketa, Oita, since 1877. Not a grower — a grader. Oita produces about half of all the dried shiitake in Japan, grown the slow way on felled oak logs over two years rather than on sawdust blocks, and what the house has done for a hundred and forty-nine years is look at that harvest and sort it: by size, by the thickness of the cap, by colour, by how the edge curls. Seven grades come out of one forest. It is unglamorous work and it is the whole business, and it is why Isetan in Tokyo and the department stores of Kyushu have bought from them for generations.

The same house sorts the small-cap donko in our Kombu & Shiitake Dashi Set — the everyday end of the same forest.

Hana-donko are gathered once a year, in spring. Whether there are any at all depends on how the cold ran that winter — the flowering of the cap happens when conditions are severe and steady, and in a mild or unsettled year the crop simply does not come. This year's harvest was very small, and what remains is at the smaller end of the size range.

We would rather tell you that than imply a shelf that refills. When these are gone, the next chance is the following spring, and only if the weather agrees.

Rehydrate them slowly — cold water, in the refrigerator, overnight rather than in a hot rush — because the flower pattern is worth keeping intact and heat makes the cap slump. Keep the soaking liquid: it is a clear, faintly sweet dashi in its own right, and pouring it away is the one mistake worth naming. Simmer the caps whole in that liquid with a little soy sauce and mirin until they are glossy and yielding, and serve them as they are, cap up, so the pattern shows — this is how they appear on a New Year's table in Japan, and the reason anyone pays attention to which mushroom cracked open and which did not.

The gift box is flat and wide, so it travels in a larger carton than its weight suggests. Import duties are calculated and collected at checkout, so nothing is billed to you after the box arrives.