I think it’s strange that ヤマ and ハンコ are written in Katakana, while むぎ is written in Hiragana. Maybe they refer to foreign words, or an usual japanese word that uses on’yomi only.
Another thoughts,
Negi and Yama are common Surnames.
Ayu and Hanko are common female names.
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Sure, “Yama” regularly appears in surnames, and “Ayu” regularly appears in girls’ first names, but neither are common names on their own. “Negi” is most certainly not a surname, though, and “Hanko” is most certainly not a girl’s first name.
Not at all sure how you intend to work “tomato” or “ushi” into that pattern either.
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Yeah, maybe “common” is not the right word. But you get the gist. I was just trying to think outside the box (or my box). ^^!
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Why can’t we all just get along 
. Nothing wrong with throwing some thoughts out there @sillysushi!
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It looks like this is probably a lost cause…sadly we are still no closer to an answer…please someone save all the people who can’t stand half-closed cupboards, unfinished songs, and unsolved riddles…This thread needs a hero. 
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No answers yet, but I’ve got half the teachers’ room on it!
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Dunno what you’re on about. I use cows as a substitute for celery all the time…
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“I made veggie soup! But I was out of celery, so I substituted it with beef!”
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Any news?
Maybe some new ideas?
What if OP never returns to let us know what the answer key said and we’re all left wondering what the answer was for the rest of our lives
Maybe OP died.
That would be unfortunate.
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Maybe we already solved it and posted the right answer but the OP is jealous and doesn’t want to give us the satisfaction of victory.
Maybe we are all the OP, and we each individually posted and solved it without realizing it, and the overlapping of our timelines caused the universe to warp in on itself resulting in the present situation where a projected other has become the OP’s resolved manifestation and the rest of us have forgotten what led to this timeline as well as the solution to the riddle during the whole process. Thus proving the existence of aliens…
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I don’t think we’ve actually posted any answers yet.
I’m gonna rectify that: the answer is clearly 四十二
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Maybe the answer is not answering at all. 
Oh, so you’re going for なし?
トマト ウシ＝ナシ
I dunno, it’s got something going for it.
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For some reason this thread made me remember how I felt when I realised there would be no 6th season of Babylon 5…
@sirtafeb さん, please, if nobody solves this riddle within a week (which seems just all too possible), please post the answer!
P. S. I tried to solve it, but if even syphus先輩、Leebo先輩 and Belthazar先輩 couldn’t do it so far, I highly doubt I would be able to…
The only thing that came to my mind was this: maybe, mountains are famous for onions and apples that grow there?
If so, then by ハンコ they might have meant not 判子, but
If that port town was famous for its wheat and sweetfish, then maybe the ? would mean a place famous for its tomatoes and cows…
But all of these statements seem wrong: mountains aren’t usually asociated with growing onions and apples; Hanko doesn’t seem to be the World’s leading supplier of wheat and sweetfish… And in any case, it would be strange for a Japanese puzzle to include a name of a town that has no obvious ties with Japan. Apart from anything else, it would make the answer too ambiguous (that would have meant that the answer could also be outside of Japan… I highly doubt that the authors of the puzzle intended for readers to look up the World map and read agricultural reports from different countries)…
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