Umami seasoning (component: monosodium L-glutamate), widely prevalent as the flavor enhancer "Ajinomoto" in many households in Japan, was discovered in 1907 by the late Prof. Kikunae Ikeda, who was a professor at the Department of Chemistry of Tokyo Imperial University (now the University of Tokyo). The bottle of the first sample of monosodium L-glutamate, extracted from dried kelp by Prof. Ikeda, has been handed down to successive professors in the Department of Chemistry as one of the historical materials of the Umami discovery.