History of Natto and Its Relatives (1405-2012 - SoyInfo Center

vegetable cheese, natto.” Bulletin of the College of Agric.,
Tokyo Imperial Univ. 2(2):68-72.
Note: This is the earliest German-language document
seen (Jan. 2012) that mentions natto, which it calls
Pfl anzenkäese, der Natto, and Nattokäese. Address: Imperial
Univ., College of Agriculture, Tokyo, Japan.
32. Age (The) (Melbourne, Australia).1894. [Vegetarianism
in Japan]. Dec. 29. p. 4. [1 ref]
• Summary: This untitled article begins: “Japan is moving.
The Sei-i-kwai, a medical journal published in Tokio, has
a number of original articles in the English language, and
while the tone and treatment are clearly imitative, there is
nevertheless evidence of a certain originality of thought. The
following of an extract from an article by Dr. Ishizuka on the
Natural Food of Man affords a good example of the peculiar
style and treatment.” Observes that the teeth of men or closer
in structure and movement to those of herbivorous, than of
carnivorous animals. “Now, among the foods which are fi tted
to the normal teeth of men, there is nothing better than the
cereals.” “It is the general opinion at present that meat and
vegetables are necessary articles for animal nutrition, but it is
contrary to the principal purpose of creation... Consequently
Shaka, the founder of Buddhism, separated days for
abstaining from meat and fi sh in order to regulate the use
of them, and Confucius also gave an instruction against the
excessive use of meat. It will be clear then that meat is not an
article of daily use.”
“It is a well known fact that Buddhist monks never eat
meat and fi sh, but they eat beans more than most people in
various forms, miso, natto, etc.”
33. Yabe, Kikuji. 1894. Nattô no kenkyû [Studies on natto].
Nogakkai Kaiho (J. of the Scientifi c Agricultural Society,
Japan) No. 24. p. 3-10. Dec. [Jap]
• Summary: Also published earlier this year under the same
title in Tokyo Kagaku Kaishi (Journal of the Tokyo Chemical
Society) 15:196-205.
34. Yabe, Kikuji. 1894. Nattô no kenkyû [Studies on natto].
Tokyo Kagaku Kaishi (J. of the Tokyo Chemical Society)
15:196-205. Also in Nogakukai Kaiho 24:3-10 (1894). [Jap]
• Summary: For an English-language version, see Yabe’s
1894 article titled “On the vegetable cheese, natto” in the
Bulletin of the College of Agriculture, Tokyo Imperial Univ.
2(2):68-72. Address: Nôgaku-shi, Japan.
35. Yabe, Kikuji. 1894. On the vegetable cheese, natto.
Bulletin of the College of Agriculture, Tokyo Imperial
University 2(2):68-72. German summary in Chemisches
Central-Blatt 1894(2):1049-50. [Eng]
• Summary: “Since remote times there has been prepared
in Japan from soya beans, a sort of vegetable cheese called
natto. The beans are fi rst boiled in water for fi ve hours to
© Copyright Soyinfo Center 2012
HISTORY OF NATTO AND ITS RELATIVES 37
render them exceedingly soft. The still hot mass is in small
portions wrapped in straw and the bundles thus formed, well
tied at both ends, are then placed in a cellar, the middle of
which a fi re is kindled, whereupon the cellar is well closed.
The heat is left to act for twenty-four hours, after which the
product is ready for consumption. Although the moderate
heat of the cellar acts only for twenty-four hours, there is still
a considerable bacterial change going on. The microbes may
be derived either from the air or from the straw. Of course it
can not be expected that bacteria on the surface of the soya
beans would still be very active. They are probably killed by
the fi ve hour’s boiling*. (Footnote: *Exceptional cases where
bacteria can stand boiling heat still longer are known, for
instance with Bacillus subtitlis.) This product has a peculiar
but not putrid smell. The soft mass of the beans is kept
together by a very thick viscid substance. In this substance I
have found four kinds of microbes present, and the chemical
decomposition of proteids must be due to one or more of
these microbes.”
The author then describes but does not give scientifi c
names for the four microbes. Three of these were micrococci
(a yellow, an orange yellow, and a white micrococcus), and
the fourth was a small, not motile, bacillus which liquifi ed
gelatine and produced a greenish fl uorescence. “With regard
to the specifi c smell of natto, repeated experiments have
convinced me that the above mentioned yellow micrococcus
is the chief cause, while with regard to the slimy substance
which shows such an enormous degree of viscidity further
experiments have to be carried out; because the yellow
micrococcus is not the cause of this viscidity.”
A table (p. 72) compares the nitrogenous substances
in soya beans and natto made from those same soya beans.
The moisture rises 3.9-fold from 15.16% to 59.12%. The
total nitrogen increases by only 2%, from 7.355 to 7.542.
Footnote: This may be chiefl y due to the loss of carbon
dioxide during the fermentation. The nitrogen of proteids
(excluding peptones) decreases by 42%, from 6.899 to 4.033.
The nitrogen of amides increases 14.7-fold from 0.128 to
1.892. The nitrogen of peptone increases almost fi ve-fold
from 0.328 to 1.617.
“There can hardly be any doubt that the nattopreparation
is more easily digestible than the original soya
bean, as it is very soft (Footnote: While the water of the airdry
soya bean amounted to 15.16%, that of natto amounted
to 59.12%) and contains peptone” (p. 72).
Note 1. This is the earliest English-language document
seen (Jan. 2012), written by a Japanese, that contains the
word “natto.”
Note 2. This is the earliest English-language document
seen (Jan. 2012) that gives a detailed description of how
natto is made, its chemical composition, a little about its
microbiology. and its fi nal appearance, smell, etc. However,
we told nothing about how or when it is eaten in Japan.
Although Yabe mentioned Bacillus subtilis in a footnote (p.