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

When asked to develop recipes for a company, I asked for
a tour of the company and documented the manufacturing
process. The photos of the natto factory are examples of such
a tour.
I enjoyed meeting other Americans who were
discovering the joys of tofu and natto. During one of these
visits, Richard Leviton from Soy food magazine asked me
to write an article for the journal. Natto: The Taste of Japan
was written and printed in 1982. Natto was everywhere in
Japan, but because of it’s unusual texture was not liked by
many Westerners. There was a lack of ideas on how to use
it in recipes that might appeal to Americans. The article was
my attempt to inspire Americans to incorporate natto in their
meals.
I learned about the tofu making process by working
alongside a tofu master in a small neighborhood tofu shop in
Kyoto. This experience was arranged by the soy food trade
newspaper, Toyo Shinpo. During my short apprenticeship I
was intrigued by the meditative experience of making tofu.
I carried that feeling of being present in my daily chores.
Washing dishes were never the same for me. Seeing the
craftsman’s tools, many handed down from father to son,
were honored and cared for. Today, my mother’s well worn
wooden spoon looks different to me. It is not just an old
spoon, but something that holds a family spirit and it imparts
that spirit into everything I stir.
I left Japan in 1982 to go back to school. I wrote my
master’s thesis on introducing tofu to high school students.
Tofu ice cream and tofu spice cookies were the fi rst ways my
students experienced tofu.
When I taught preschool in the 1990s, I put my tofu
making tools in the home making center, and served tofu
carrot cake at snack time. The little ones learned how to say
“Ohiyo” [Ohayô = “Good morning” in Japanese] and how
to use chopsticks. They folded origami, and made fi sh kites.
They dressed up in mama-san aprons and walked in tabi
socks.
I returned to the high school classroom, this time in
Carmel, Indiana, to teach foods classes. It was fun to expose
young people to new tastes, culture and soy foods. For a
special experience, the Japanese language teacher and I
divided our classes. She taught my cooking class some
Japanese phrases, and I taught her students how to prepare
something with tofu.
The “way of tofu” changed my life, career, and my
student’s lives. Tofu not only nourished my body, but it
nourished my spirit and experiences. And yes, The Book
of Tofu is still on my bookshelf, complete with scribbles,
and stains, right next to the not so worn English-Japanese
dictionary. Address: 10868 North Cornell St., Indianapolis,
Indiana 46280.
1928. Herz, Rachel. 2012. You eat that? Disgust is one of our
basic emotions–the only one we have to learn–and nothing
© Copyright Soyinfo Center 2012
HISTORY OF NATTO AND ITS RELATIVES 591
triggers it more reliably than the strange food of others. Wall
Street Journal. Jan. 21. p. C3.
• Summary: This interesting article begins: “Nattô is a
stringy, sticky, slimy, chunky fermented soybean dish that
Japanese regularly eat for breakfast. It can be eaten straight
up, but it is usually served cold over rice and seasoned with
soy sauce, mustard, or wasabi.”
For Westerners, nattô suffers from its alien smell and
odor; it “smells like the marriage of ammonia and a tire fi re...
I’ve never met a Westerner who can take a bite of nattô on
the fi rst attempt. What Japanese love, we fi nd disgusting.”
A color photo shows natto on chopsticks being lifted out
of a bowl partly fi lled with nattô; stretchy strings connect the
upper nattô to the lower nattô. Address: Teacher and author,
Brown Univ. [Providence, Rhode Island].
1929. Deutsch, Jonathan; Murakhver, Natalya. 2012. They
eat that? A cultural encyclopedia of weird and exotic food
from around the world. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-
CLIO, LLC. 220 p.
• Summary: The fi rst entry under the letter “N” is “Natto.
Natto is a traditional Japanese food.” “Bacterial fermentation
yields its strong earthy aroma, often compared to ripe cheese,
rotten mushrooms, or body odor, and mucilaginous texture
(neba-neba in Japanese), the combination of which makes
natto an acquired taste for many.”
“Natto’s strong odor and status as an everyday breakfast
food in some parts of Japan give it important iconic status.
For foreigners living in or visiting Japan, enjoying natto is
considered a sign of Japanese acculturation, of having made
the transition from visitor to resident.”
1930. Ishitsuka, Makoto. 2012. Ibaraki-ken nazotoki sanpo:
nattô, ankô, nabe kara antoraa, su kômon sama made
hitachinokkuni niwa ima mo mukashi mo miryoku ga ippai
Ibaraki ni itte mippe [A walk through mysterious Ibaraki
prefecture: natto...]. Tokyo: Shinjin-butsu Ooraisha. 287 p.
15 cm. Internet resource. Series: Shinjinbutsu bunko I-8-1.
[Jap]*
• Summary: Mito, the capital of Ibaraki prefecture, located
just north of Tokyo, is famous for its small-seeded soybeans,
long preferred by manufacturers of natto.
1931. Spots: Natto. See front of book.
1932. SoyaScan Notes.2012. Soyfoods historical research
and writing wish list (Overview). Compiled by William
Shurtleff of Soyinfo Center.
• Summary: 1. Early history of Chinese soyfoods companies
and products in America and Europe. Especially Chinese
tofu manufacturers in San Francisco and Los Angeles from
1850 to 1910.
2. Statistics on soyfoods in China during the 1980s.
3. The Swedish trading mission in Canton during the