Two 80 g packs (160 g total), with a handy pack-style mini pamphlet — gift-ready. Origin: Toyohashi, Aichi. Shelf-stable — keep at room temperature (best within about 8 months). Ingredients: soybeans, ginger, salt, roasted grain (kōsen), koji starter, and soy sauce. Contains wheat and soy. A ginger-free, vegan "crush" type is made only in limited seasons.

Kunimatsu Honten has made hamanatto in Toyohashi since 1884, following a recipe handed down from Goshin-ji temple. Toyohashi once had six hamanatto makers; today Kunimatsu is the last, still working by hand with only domestic soybeans, salt, and koji — no additives. The beans are soaked in salt water and aged for about half a year, concentrating their umami, then finished with a sun-drying that rounds out the flavor. In 2021, this hamanatto earned Aichi Prefecture's "Shoku no Mitsumaru" quality certification — one of the few outside markers of recognition a nearly forgotten craft still receives. It is a small house, held together by family, keeping it alive.

Profoundly savory — somewhere between miso and soy sauce, with a gentle warmth from the ginger. A little goes a long way; think of it as seasoning, not a side dish.

Chop it fine and melt it into warm oil with garlic — the way you'd start a sauce with anchovy — then build a bolognese, a puttanesca, or a simple aglio e olio. It deepens tomato sauces and ratatouille, rubs beautifully into lamb or chicken before roasting, and lifts a bowl of plain rice or hot tofu. Because it carries so much umami, you'll reach for less salt.