Dig Japan vol.24 “Amanatto (甘納豆)”

Amanatto is wagashi made by boiling beans such as azuki beans and kidney beans in sugar, drying them, and then coating them with refined sugar. There is no relation to natto, which is a fermented food. The history of amanatto dates back to the Edo period, and its origins are different in the Kanto and Kansai regions.

Ginza Suzuya's amanatto (Photography via Ginza Suzuya)

Amanatto is made with a wide variety of ingredients. In addition to the standard azuki beans, cowpeas, peas, fava beans, kidney beans, red kidney beans, mottled kidney beans, soybeans, even chestnuts, lotus seeds, millet, and sweet potatoes may also be used.

There are two types of amanatto: “traditional amanatto,” which is made by coating sweetly boiled beans with sugar and then drying them, and “nure amanatto,” which is not coated with sugar. Both are made using the same method of boiling the beans in sugar, but the difference is whether or not they are coated with sugar at the end.

Traditional amanatto has a matte texture, making it difficult to dry the surface properly, and requires skill in adjusting the sugar content and heat. On the other hand, nure amanatto is characterized by its glossy appearance, and since it is not coated with sugar, you can fully enjoy the original flavor of the ingredients.

It is common to eat amanatto as is, but there are other ways to enjoy it depending on the region. In Hokkaido and Yamanashi Prefecture, it is customary to put amanatto in sekihan. This custom also remains in parts of Aomori Prefecture, where people migrated from southern Kai Province (Yamanashi Prefecture) during the Muromachi period. Therefore, sekihan in these regions is a little sweeter than regular one.

Ginza Suzuya's amanatto (Photography via Ginza Suzuya)

The origin of amanatto differs between Kanto and Kansai. The origin that is mainstream in Kanto is amanatto made with cowpeas, invented in 1857 at the end of the Edo period by Yasubei Hosoda, the third generation owner of the confectionery shop “Eitaro” in Nishikawagicho, Nihonbashi (now Chuo Ward, Tokyo).

At the time, cowpeas were famous for being auspicious beans that would not break even when boiled, but were not used much for anything other than sekihan (steamed rice with red beans), and Yasubei noticed this and used it as an ingredient. Eitaro continued to develop the product, naming amanatto made with white kidney beans “Murashigure” in 1887, and amanatto made with chestnuts “Kurinatto” in the early Showa period.

Meanwhile, Kansai's amanatto was first developed by Otani, the first owner of Okamedo, a zenzai shop in front of Honnoji Temple in Kyoto, during the Ansei era. He discovered amanatto by chance when he overcooked his zenzai and it burned, and named it “amanatto” after the traditional Kyoto specialty “Daitokuji natto.” It was later exhibited as “Bodai no amanatto” at the 4th Domestic Industrial Exposition held in Kyoto in 1895, and is said to have become a purveyor to the Imperial Household Ministry.

This article was written by 𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐨𝐤𝐨, working as a freelance translator and press for overseas apparel brands in Japan, with the purpose of broadening her insight into the Japanese traditional culture.