Amanatto (甘納豆)
Amanatto, a Japanese-style cake, is candied beans, chestnuts, lotuses, and sweet potatoes cut into round slices (called Imo natto). It is not associated with natto but is sometimes confused with it. In the Kinki area, amanatto can be simply called natto.
The main ingredients are small beans, black-eyed peas, peas, broad beans, and kidney beans. Sweetened boiled peas are also used these days. These are boiled down with sugar, sprinkled with sugar again, and dried.
In 1857, the Eitaro Sohonnpo store started to make and sell amanatto. At first, it was named amana natto, similar to shiokara natto (tera natto), but it came to be called amanatto for short after World War II.
In Hokkaido and Yamanashi Prefecture, it is a custom to use amanatto for sekihan (festive red rice) instead of small beans. This custom remains in part of Aomori Prefecture, into which some people from Southern Kai Province (Yamanashi Prefecture) moved in the Muromachi Period.