Monolith's vision: Supporting the health of the whole family through the power of supplements

March 11, 2025

Monolith's Vision

Dogs, cats, and humans alike all have limited time in this life.
What matters is how we spend that precious time, and the love and choices we make along the way.

Pets fill our days with laughter, comfort, and joy. Their quality of life depends on us, their humans.
That's why at Monolith, we care deeply about pet wellness and QOL, and we want to help families grow even closer with their furry companions.

Our vision is simple: more smiles, more happy moments, and more time together for pets and the people who love them.

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What Inspired Us to Start Monolith

At Monolith Co., Ltd., we are committed to supporting your family's health and helping you live each day with vitality and a smile.
Our story began in 1998, when our founder, CEO Moro, was looking for a way to support the health of his elderly grandmother, without relying on medication. What he chose was a mysterious mushroom known as Cordyceps sinensis.
Cordyceps has been valued for centuries. Legend has it that Emperor Qin Shi Huang of ancient China sought it for his own well-being, and even the famous beauty Yang Guifei is said to have used it to maintain her radiant appearance.
Moro sensed the hidden power of this remarkable mushroom. When his grandmother began taking Cordyceps, he saw firsthand how effective it was, confirming his intuition.
Driven by the desire to share this incredible natural power with as many people as possible, he founded Monolith.

For my health, I ended up turning to Cordyceps

Hoping to help maintain my grandmother's health, I chose the mysterious mushroom, Cordyceps sinensis.
The existence of Cordyceps has been known since ancient times, and there is a theory that it was used by Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of the Qin dynasty, in the hope of improving his own health, and that Yang Guifei, one of the three most beautiful women in the world, sought it to maintain her beauty.
Moro intuitively sensed the hidden power of this mysterious mushroom, and when he had his grandmother try Cordyceps, he realized that his intuition was correct.
I decided that I wanted as many people as possible to know about the wonders of Cordyceps.

>The mysterious mushroom I chose in the hopes of maintaining my grandmother's health was Cordyceps sinensis.

After much trial and error, the cordyceps supplement was completed

Initially, we considered importing Cordyceps from China, where it originates.
However, faced with the problems that natural Cordyceps is very expensive, has unstable quality, and there are many counterfeits in circulation, he decided to cultivate Cordyceps instead of natural Cordyceps.
We began research into the ecology of Cordyceps in 1998, and in 2000 we began researching methods for cultivating Cordyceps, and have continued research and development to establish mass production techniques.
After extensive basic research, Monolith Cordyceps was launched in 2007. In 2009, Cordyceps supplement for pets was also launched.

>>After extensive basic research, Monolith Mushigusa was launched in 2007

>>In 2009, Cordy, a cordyceps supplement for pets, was also launched.

Monolith's Cordyceps

Commitment to harvesting

We believe that the key to cultivating Cordyceps is "freshness."
We knew from experience that "repeated cultivation gradually weakens the power of bacteria," but an experiment conducted in cooperation with a venture company spun off from the University of Tokyo proved that this idea was correct.
That's why we are so committed to cultivating "lively Cordyceps that are as close to natural as possible" and "unmistakably fresh Cordyceps," and our collection staff travel all over Japan every year, on average, from early spring to late autumn, to collect natural Cordyceps. It's a dirty and costly process, but we believe it's an essential step in creating better products, and we continue to collect it every year without fail.

>We are very particular about cultivating "lively cordyceps that are as close to natural as possible" and "unmistakably fresh cordyceps."

Commitment to cultivation

The collected Cordyceps are visually selected, and then further selected under a microscope. Any that have small scratches that are not visible to the naked eye are removed, and the Cordyceps cultivation begins.
The cultivation room is a clean room where temperature, humidity, and light intensity are strictly controlled 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
In addition, Monolith has incorporated its own unique technologies, such as ozone generation technology, space energy technology, and special water production technology, into the cultivation process and applied them to Cordyceps cultivation.

The collected Cordyceps are visually selected and then further selected under a microscope. Any that have small scratches that cannot be seen with the naked eye are removed, and the Cordyceps cultivation begins.

Use all of the culture

When Cordyceps fungus is cultivated, it extends its hyphae into the culture medium, forms a fungal bed, and eventually grows fruiting bodies (commonly known as mushrooms).
Fungi, including Cordyceps sinensis, produce "secondary metabolites" during their growth stage. We believe that the secondary metabolites produced by fungi may contain components that are as important as or even more important than those found in mushrooms themselves.
For this reason, Monolith Cordyceps and Cordy are made using all culture materials produced during the cultivation process, including not only the Cordyceps mycelium and fruiting body (mushroom), but also secondary metabolites.

＞＜Monolith Cordyceps＞ and ＜Cordy＞ are made using all culture materials produced during the cultivation process, including not only the Cordyceps mycelium and fruiting body (mushroom) but also secondary metabolites.

Commitment to commercialization

Once the cultivation process is complete, it's finally time to start manufacturing the product. After going through the manufacturing process using mixers, fillers, dryers, and other equipment that are strictly checked for cleanliness, Monolith Mushigusa and Cordi pass a final inspection before they are finally sent out as products.
Monolith Mushigusa and Cordi Capsules come in capsule form, and we pay particular attention to even the smallest of details. We don't use the commonly used gelatin, but rather high-quality, plant-derived HPMC capsules, which are widely used in medical products. HPMC capsules are resistant to moisture and dryness, preventing the contents from deteriorating, preserving the quality of Monolith Mushigusa. Furthermore, Cordi is made into a powder rather than tablets or granules, based on our strong desire to "avoid adding unnecessary substances to our products as much as possible."

Instead of the commonly used gelatin, we use high-quality, plant-derived HPMC capsules, which are widely used in medical products.

Commitment to safety and quality

We believe that safety and quality are paramount when it comes to health foods. For Monolith Mushigusa and Cordi, we manufacture our ingredients in our own GMP-certified (GMP for raw materials) factories, where everything from encapsulation to final product production is also done in GMP-certified factories. GMP stands for "Good Manufacturing Practice," a set of standards for manufacturing and quality control in factories. It requires that products are produced safely and of consistent quality throughout the entire process, from receiving raw materials to manufacturing and shipping the final product. Pharmaceuticals and health foods (supplements) undergo processes such as concentration and blending during manufacturing, which can lead to variations in the amount of ingredients contained in the product or the risk of harmful substances being mixed in due to contamination. To prevent this, pharmaceuticals have long been required to comply with GMP, and recently, the concept of GMP has begun to be adopted for health foods as well. Due to the significant costs associated with obtaining and maintaining GMP certification, only a handful of companies in Japan have achieved GMP for raw materials. Monolith Co., Ltd. is one of the few manufacturers with GMP certification for raw materials.
*As of June 2022, our company is the only Cordyceps cultivation factory that has received GMP certification.

We believe that safety and quality come first when it comes to health foods, and for Monolith Mushigusa and Cordi, the ingredients are manufactured in our own factory that is GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) certified, and everything from capsule filling to the final product is also done in a GMP-certified factory.

Numerous safety tests

Not only are we GMP certified, but we also conduct numerous safety tests, including acute toxicity tests, subacute toxicity tests, Ames tests (mutagenicity tests: tests to check for genetic abnormalities), and genotoxicity tests, at GLP-compliant institutions* to confirm the safety of Monolith Mushisou and Cordi.
Although conducting these safety tests incurs significant costs, we place "safety" first and carry out numerous safety tests, striving to deliver complete and reliable products.
*GLP-compliant organization: An organization that complies with GLP (standards to ensure that inspections and tests to evaluate the safety of pharmaceuticals, chemicals, etc. are conducted accurately and appropriately) as defined by the international organization OECD.

We conduct numerous safety tests and strive to deliver complete and safe products.

Regular DNA identification tests are conducted

When collecting and cultivating natural Cordyceps, it is important to be careful to eliminate any germs that may be attached to the collected Cordyceps and cultivate only the pure Cordyceps fungus.
Even if you think you are cultivating Cordyceps, if any foreign bacteria get mixed in along the way, it can no longer be called Cordyceps.
Therefore, we regularly conduct DNA identification tests to confirm whether the cultivated Cordyceps is identical to the original fungus. By conducting DNA identification tests, we can say that the product is identical to the original fungus and is truly Cordyceps.

>DNA identification tests are conducted regularly to confirm that the cultivated Cordyceps is identical to the original fungus.