Apparently, dried bonito was made in or around the fifth century, but it seems to have been quite different from the present varieties; a record states that there were methods of producing dried bonito, but they seem to have produced something like stockfish.
5世紀頃には干しカツオが作られていたとみられるが、これらは現在の鰹節とはかなり異なったものであったようだ（記録によるといくつかの製法があったようだが、干物に近いものであったと思われる）。