WORKING HANDS: Yamabushi Farms

As a stationery brand, we are always curious how and what people use our stationery goods for. With this blog series, focusing on the hands at "work" and beyond, we ask five questions about the usage and meaning of the stationery tools to our friends in Los Angeles.

For our thirty seventh Working Hands, we had a delightful visit with the team Yamabushi Farms – Tadashi, Len and Tyzo who grow mushrooms locally in the Mid-City neighborhood of Los Angeles. Then Len who does the design side of Yamabushi Farms showed us his home office in the 1920's Craftsman style house to walk through his day to day operation.

Three members of the Yamabushi Farms team sit and stand together in a workspace by a vision board.

Team Yamabushi Farms. From Left: Tyzo, Tadashi and Len in front of Yamabushi Farms' vision board.

Collage of stickers, photos and cards taped to a white wall with red tape, beside a coiled red cord.

Hanging Yamabushi Farms banner in red and black, reading "Fresh Mushrooms Harvested Daily in Los Angeles"

Yamabushi Farms sign designed by Len.

Rows of substrate blocks on black wire shelving, with white lion's mane mushrooms fruiting from the bags.

Healthy looking Lion’s Mane mushrooms growing out of hardwood grow blocks.

Smiling farmer in a cap and Yamabushi Farms t-shirt beside shelves of mushroom growing bags.

Hands holding a cardboard box filled with freshly harvested morel mushrooms, one held up above.

Here, Tyzo was showing us a box full of morel mushrooms. They wholesale their fresh mushrooms to renowned restaurants in town and also sell at farmers markets in West LA.

Q1 a: What do you use a Cargo Bag for?

I used the cargo bag almost every day for mail day. Usually on Mondays we have like twenty plus packages to take, and I walk them to the post office. And before I'd have to use four tote bags, so it's been really nice to use the cargo bag. And then just recently I took it up to Mammoth to take all my camping supplies, so that was really fun.

Person in a graphic tee lifting a large yellow and orange tote bag onto a sunlit porch, houses behind.

Q1 b: What do you like about the SOHO Sketchbook in B6, Clampy Clip M, and Perfection Pen in metal?

It feels like Perfection Pen was made for me haha. I really like how heavy it is and how small it can get, and it fits really well with the Life Noble notebook, the small one.

I always like carrying it around, I like things that are small but feel good. I use that every day.

The clip and the sketchbook, I like because they're so easy to tear, and I like how the clip can fit into my rack that holds all the products so I can see all the orders for the day. And it just feels really nice in my hand. And the sketchbook has a nice texture, I write the orders on the non-textured side so I can re-use it to make drawings on the nice side.

Yellow New Soho Series sketchbook on a sunlit desk beside a red Storage Caddy and dropper bottles in a red tray.

Yamabushi Farms fullfilment set-up: Penco Pile-up Caddy for a product knowledge sheet for customers, New Soho Sketchbook in B6 for order notes, Penco Melamine Tray in Small for desktop essentials like Yamabushi Farms tinctures, IBUKI and MEZAME, Penco Perfection Pencil Light and scissors.

Person writing on a small notepad at a white table, wearing a black beaded bracelet, pen resting nearby.

Hands writing on a small label with a black pen at a white table, a green tag holder nearby.

Green Penco Clampy Clip on a wire shelf holding a handwritten order note above stacked cardboard boxes.

Len tears up a page of Maruman SOHO Sketchbook in a half to jot down the day's order. Clipped with Penco Clampy Clip in Medium on the inventory shelf for visibility.

Q2. In our technology driven world, what does it mean to make things by your hand to you?

I think as a designer and in my past jobs, everything has been so digital and on the computer. So when I had the chance to start this company, it's really important for me to do things by hand. I think it's because it makes things feel real.

When I'm working on the computer - I mean, I love the computer, I love going on the computer, I feel like it shaped me, but sometimes it feels like nothing.

Making things by hand makes me feel like there's something there and that I'm making something, maybe important. And I'm really inspired by craft and craft culture, not just in Japan but everywhere. And I think being able to do things by hand and get better at that and be able to see that makes me feel connected to that culture.

Sometimes for me the process is more important than the finished product and sometimes you can’t even tell but it’s ok if it’s just for me sometimes.

A hand holds up a vintage green "Dictionary, Hand Red Edition" booklet with a red handprint on the cover. Open Japanese book on a red stand, showing illustrated pages with text beside a wall poster.

Len displays one of his vintage magazines, Dictionary Freepaper on a Metal Book-Stand.

Q3. Pencils or Mechanical Pencils?

When I was little I was big into mechanical pencils. I remember my mom would give me this Pentel Energize pencil from Japan almost every year or maybe I would just be good about not losing it. It was always 0.5 lead. I was always a mechanical pencil person.

But more recently I've really liked just regular pencils, and I think it's because I like the feeling of the wood and I like the feeling of sharpening it, the kind of resistance you get from sharpening it. It just feels a little better to me right now. Maybe it's that point in my life. I’m a pencil guy.

Hand-drawn packaging sketches on dot grid paper beside the finished IBUKI mushroom tincture box. Hand holding a seed box beside a pen plotter drawing with an orange pencil on paper by a window.

Len uses a traditional pen plotter for a packaging design for Yamabushi Farms products.

Q4. How do you organize your pens and pencils?

I feel like I’m best at organizing things I don’t use all the time. So the Caddy can keep my array of pencils and things of more obtuse colors that don’t get grabbed all the time but are pleasant to look at.

Then everything else ends up all over the place on the desk where I use them and the little trays have been helpful in making that seem more systemic.

I always keep that Perfection Pen attached to the notebook.

Green Penco Storage Caddy filled with pencils, pens and scissors on a desk below an orange pegboard.

Mitsubishi 9852 pencils in a Penco Storage Caddy in small along with other pens and stationery items.

Q5. What is your most favorite stationery?

I think that's really hard. What I have the most memories of is using the MD gridded notebook, not the smallest one but one above that. I used a bunch of those to journal every day and draw.

When I think of stationery I think of journaling in those notebooks and it makes me think about how time has passed. My life seems to be recorded in the journals, and even though the spine is broken and some of the covers are torn, I’m grateful to have them.

Purple fountain pen resting on a small notebook atop a magazine, beside a Japanese paperback on a wooden desk.

A worn white nähe notebook resting on a stack of frayed papers on a wooden shelf, plush toy behind.

Len's planner from 2025 by nähe spotted on the shelf.

Photograph of a sailboat beached on sand below coastal cliffs, held to a wall by a metal clip with a card below.

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Yamabushi Farms is an urban mushroom farm, founded by Tadashi, Len and Tyzo in 2024. The farm is located in the Mid-City neighborhood in Los Angeles. They grow super nutritious mushrooms like Lion's Mane, Turkey Tail and Cordyceps to make tinctures and capsules which we now carry ( Coming to online soon!). They also sell their select mushrooms at some farmers markets in the west side too.

Yamabushi Farms

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