<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ajinomoto" id="mwARo" rel="mw:WikiLink" title="Ajinomoto">Ajinomoto</a> is founded. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kikunae_Ikeda" id="mwARs" rel="mw:WikiLink" title="Kikunae Ikeda">Kikunae Ikeda</a> of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Tokyo" id="mwARw" rel="mw:WikiLink" title="University of Tokyo">Tokyo Imperial University</a> discovers that a key ingredient in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kombu" id="mwAR0" rel="mw:WikiLink" title="Kombu">kombu</a> soup stock is <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monosodium_glutamate" id="mwAR4" rel="mw:WikiLink" title="Monosodium glutamate">monosodium glutamate</a> (MSG), and patents a process for manufacturing it.