Enoki mushroom Coloring Pages

White, Thin, and a Mysterious Shape

The Enoki mushroom is a mushroom shaped like bean sprouts, with dozens of thin, white stems bundled together.
At the tip of each stem, there is a tiny little cap.
It is said that its Japanese name comes from growing often at the dried roots of the hackberry tree.

Enoki Mushrooms in the Mountains are Brown

Actually, wild Enoki mushrooms growing in the mountains look completely different from the ones at the supermarket.
Their caps are large and brown to chestnut-colored, and their stems are short and dark brown.
They grow on tree stumps like hackberry, persimmon, and oak trees from late fall through spring.

Why Are They White?

Supermarket Enoki mushrooms are white and thin because they are grown in the dark.
Older types turned yellowish-brown when exposed to light, so people grew them without any light.
Today, almost all of them are a white type that does not change color even in the light.
They are grown in bottles, wrapped in paper so they grow straight up, and picked in about a month and a half.

More Than 60% Come from Nagano Prefecture

The Enoki mushroom is the most produced mushroom in Japan.
According to a 2025 study, Nagano Prefecture grows more than 60% of the whole country's total.
They are used in stir-fries, miso soup, and hot pot dishes. Compared to the fall mushroom, the matsutake mushroom, their shapes are totally different!

Each Stem Is Very Thin

Each single stem of an Enoki mushroom is only a few millimeters thick.
Dozens or even hundreds of them gather together to make one big bunch.
At the bottom, the stems stick together to form a single clump. When you cook them, cut off this bottom part and pull them apart with your hands.
You cannot eat Enoki mushrooms raw. Always cook them well before you eat them!

Many Different Textures in Cooking

When you cook the Enoki mushroom, it gets a nice, crunchy texture.
You can wrap the long stems in pork and grill them, put them in miso soup or kenchin soup, or eat them in a hot pot.
If you chop them up small and simmer them, they get a smooth, silky texture. Jarred "nametake" mushrooms are made this way.
Even with the same Enoki mushroom, the texture changes a lot depending on how you cut and cook it!

The stems are white, and the bottom is light brown

Leaving the Enoki mushroom stems white makes them look the most real.
Instead of coloring the stems, try putting very light gray or cream in the spaces between them. Each thin stem will stand out!
Color the hard part at the bottom light brown.

Color the caps cream

Give the tiny caps just a little more color than the stems, making them cream or pale yellow.
Each cap is very small, so sharpen your colored pencil before you color!
It can also be fun to color the caps brown, just like wild Enoki mushrooms.

Color the pork wrap with pork colors and grill marks

For the picture of the pork wrap, color the pork light pink and brown.
If you add dark brown over the grill marks, it will look nice and crispy!
Leaving the Enoki mushroom peeking out from the ends white, making the lemon yellow, and making the lettuce yellowish-green will make the plate look bright and delicious.

Try coloring wild Enoki mushrooms too

Wild Enoki mushrooms that grow in the mountains have chestnut-brown or dark brown caps, and their stems are brown too.
It can be fun to color the first picture brown as a wild Enoki mushroom.
If you color one white Enoki mushroom and one brown Enoki mushroom to compare, they will look so different you won't believe they are the same mushroom!
Try coloring while comparing them to the white Enoki mushroom you buy at the store.

"Nametake" is made from Enoki mushroom

Do you know about nametake, the canned or jarred topping for rice?
It is actually Enoki mushroom cooked in soy sauce until it is sweet and salty.
Even though its name is "nametake," the inside is really Enoki mushroom!

It grows even in the snow

Wild Enoki mushroom grows during the cold seasons.
It can even pop its head up in the middle of falling snow!
It is a special mushroom that you can find in winter woods when other mushrooms are hard to see.

The world's first white type

A Japanese mushroom company created a type of Enoki mushroom that stays white even in the light.
Before this type was made, they could only grow them in dark rooms.
Now, white and straight Enoki mushroom is in stores all year round!

"GABA," a helper for relaxing

Enoki mushroom has a lot of a nutrient called GABA.
People say GABA helps your body and mind relax.
Also, Enoki mushroom is the most grown mushroom in Japan!

Grown with paper wrapped around it

When growing Enoki mushroom, growers wrap paper around it as the stems grow out of the bottle.
This keeps the stems from spreading out so they can grow straight up.
Enoki mushroom looks like a neat bunch in the store thanks to this clever idea!