Natto
traditional Japanese food made from fermented soybeans
Natto (Japanese: 納豆, Hepburn: nattō) is a traditional Japanese food made from whole soybeans that have been fermented with Bacillus subtilis var. natto. It is often served as a breakfast food with rice. It is served with karashi mustard, soy or tare sauce, and sometimes spring onion. Within Japan, natto is most popular in the eastern regions, including Kantō, Tōhoku, and Hokkaido.
Natto is often considered an acquired taste because of its powerful smell, strong flavor, and sticky, slimy texture. A 2009 survey revealed that 70% of the 3,827 respondents found the taste pleasant, and others who may not find the taste pleasant still eat the food out of habit.
History
Sources differ about the earliest origin of natto. One theory is that natto was codeveloped in multiple locations in the distant past, since it is simple to make with ingredients and tools commonly available in Japan since ancient times.
Legendary origins
One story about the origin of natto attributes it to the samurai Minamoto no Yoshiie (1039–1106), who was on a campaign in northeastern Japan between 1086 and 1088 AD. One day, his troops were attacked while boiling soybeans for their horses.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q505711. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 2009, 1039, 1106 and 1086.
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This entry incorporates text from “Natto” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.