The so called “Takeno-Tani Tsuru-Ushi”, has been being revived in mountainous Okayama, Japan by Mr. Itsumi Hirata, a stubborn old cattleman, spending forty years to revive genetically these pure Japanese Cattle. Mr. Hirata has been living in this mountainous area, six hundred maters high, in Kamamura village, Niimi City of Okayama prefecture, six hundred kms southwest from Tokyo.
Takeno-Tani, meaning bamboo valley, is located three kilometers from his house. This was the birth place of Takeno-Tani Tsuru-Ushi in 1830 at the end of the Edo era, by Mr.Nanba’s family. It was the oldest ancient Japanese black cattle line. This was 70 years before Mendel’s laws.
In Japanese, Tsuru means runner or vine, bearing some fruits, Tsuru-Ushi cattle can give birth to the very same shape of cattles, horn, bone, and body. Also it carries no finding of hereditary disease or depression even by inbreeding. At one time those Tsuru-Ushi disappeared under intercross with other lines in Japan. Fortunately in his area there were descendants of pure Tsuru-Ushi, he did research and made a phylogenetic tree from1864, the Ganji period of the Edo era, and he has been inbreeding among nine generations of cattle for 40 years.
Mr. Hirata, 71 years old, is called the “ True genius of cattleman” by his friends, he has been developing new breeding of black cattle under very difficult economic conditions. He said “ I’m single. I have been doing my favorite things. I am sure my cattle’s gene will save Japanese black cattle”
Recently Japanese black cattle face a shortage of genetic diversity. His cattle could be a savior for Japanese Wagyu, Japanese black cattle. Some Japanese researcher found the genetic characterizations of Hirata’s cattles are far from ordinary spreading Japanese black cattle genetically. The more the generations go forward, the more Hirata’s black cattle's pure, inbreeding coefficient number was increased, from 7.94 to 16.79 according to PhD Kazuhiro Yoneda.
On the other hand, those mountainous areas are suffering from a declining of population, so called limited society-Genkai Shuraku where half of its residents are over 65 year old, limited villages can’t work as well as before. Mr. Hirata said “ I don’t want to see the extinction of our village. The only useful measure must be breeding pure cattle as a business.” Mr. Hirata’s black cattle are red meat more than marbled beef. It must be welcomed to the “satiation period” as a healthy Japanese beef. Government or local government should support Mr. Hirata’s efforts to revive Japanese pure black cattle.
Eiji Sone, Author of “Limited village”, Professor of Hannan University, Osaka, Japan