Discovery of Umami

We can all easily imagine and describe the four basic tastes other than umami—sweet, sour, salty and bitter—because these tastes have clearly defined characteristics, and foods that exhibit each (such as sugar for sweetness or salt for saltiness) have been apparent since ancient times. Moreover, theorists from the philosopher Aristotle, who lived over 2000 years ago, to the early 20th century psychologist Hans Henning, have espoused numerous ideas on the basic tastes other than umami. Umami, however, was only identified a hundred years ago, by Professor Kikunae Ikeda, a Japanese scientist from Kyoto (also, coincidentally, the birthplace of modern Japanese gastronomy).