Does Nagoya-style miso katsu fit a five-ingredient rule, or does the hatcho miso sauce alone break it?

The sauce question cuts right to how you define the constraint. If hatcho miso counts as one ingredient, you're at five and you're clean. But most traditional versions layer in mirin, sake, sugar, and dashi, which pushes you past that line. I think the counting rule matters less than whether the dish still feels like it's working within the limitation or if it's just bending the rule to fit something that wants to be more complex. With peanut-based dishes especially, I've noticed the ones that stick are the ones where you commit to the constraint instead of negotiating around it. The sauce could be one component or five depending on how you're thinking about it, but either way, the real question is whether the final dish feels honest or like it's hiding something.