CATTLE: Tajima

Country of origin: Japan

International: Japan, USA, Australia

Arrived in Australia: late 1990's.

Photo: Tajima cattle at a farm in northern Hyogo Prefecture (Kobe). If its meat ends up with a sufficient grade, it will be sold as Kobe beef. Taken 5 June 2013 by Japanexpertna; Wiki

Population in Australia: 2022: 90 cows. Thank you to D. & B. Blackmore for census figures.

History: Wagyu simply means cow of Japan in Japanese (wa = Japan gyu = cow). There are four cattle breeds in Japan - the Japanese Black, the Japanese Brown, the Japanese Poll and the Japanese Shorthorn. The Japanese Black also called Black Wagyu, is called the Kuroge Washu. There are three strains of Black Wagyu -  Tajima, Kedaka and Shimane. Tajima are also called Tashima Gyu. 

Tajima got its name from the area they developed in over centuries, Tajima province in northern Hyōgo Prefecture. It's green and lush, with scenic mountains. As with Mishima cattle, the flat areas seem taken up with crops and the cattle have rough grazing on steep areas. This keeps them sure-footed.  They are uncommon there, and many locals never see them. They alls eem to wea the traditonal eladinghead harness of a nnose ring with rope from that to around the hors.

A bull of this line named Tajiri (1939-1958) left 99.9% of the lines of Tajima cattle. This bull, Tajiri, is thought to trace back to 1310 AD to a bull written about and described is thus very inbred. A little cow of the breed also left a famed cow line in this strain, she was Syusuke-Tsuru.

If these cattle are raised in Hyōgo Prefecture in the Kansai region of the main island of Honshu, the beef may be called Kobe beef if it fulfils the criteria for outstanding eating qualities. This title is seen as the ultimate accolade, although it's just a feedlot certification. Kobe beef is measured by the BMS (Beef Marble Score) -  generally 3 to 5 with most Wagyu - but must be 6 to be called Kobe beef. They must be born in the area of Tajima-Gyu lines. They must be from a feedlot before slaughter. They must also have a high meat score, and the animal must be a steer or heifer and must weigh under 470 kilos.

Of interest, Australia now raises the most Wagyu in the world and have our own marbling score system called AM (Aus-Meat), scoring going from 0 to 9; the AM 5 is the same as Japan's BMS 5. Any score above 9 in the AM system is called 9+. The USA also has a system but using only three grades, the highest of which is only a 3.5 BMS.

Obviously a highly successful strain of Wagyu for eating qualities, basically fat with some flesh ripples in it.

Keeping this strain is going in Australia is an insurance population, thank you again to the Blackmore family.

Once used as a draught animal. In the Showa era (from 1926, Emperor Hirohito), beef became eaten far more, hence they became beef animals. However the last Shogun had been opening to the west to learn and keep his country safe, before the Emperor Meiji took over. Meiji, Hirohito's father, introduced the registering of cattle in 1919. A good move for his country's breeds. As westerners came there a lot for trade and diplomacy (to be polite) they started a beef eating habit there much earlier, the trade ports such as Yokohama and Nagasaki being supplied locally and regularly from at least 1865 so eating qualities of the breeds were becoming important from then at least. Some European breeds came in during the late 1800's which may have affected genetics in some areas, but some little black Japanese cattle remained isolated in the mountain village area of Atsuta, which is where the Tajima breed had its roots.

Traits: Very heavily marbled beef, that is very tender. Fat makes flavour, tenderness and satiety. It is served either cooked or raw (sushi) as the fat also softens in the mouth  when raw. 

Black cattle. Some appear more brown, actually.

Small. Slight looking, tending to be deep through rather than big around.

Small horns. Nice shape, usually go out sideways, fairly straight, solid (rather like Corriente), in some. Some seem distorted. This trait hasn't been maintained well  by the look of it, since draught days, for them to become so randomly shaped and many misshapen. And many are sawn off after growing which is a cruel stupidity. Fortunately, the horns seem to have survived simply because of the design of the traditional head-stall which is left on the animal. No doubt the west will set about choosing a poll gene.

Organisation: None found here.The only full blood herd in Australia: Blackmore Wagyu

Notes: lovely photos of the cattle working in their historical roles, and their countryside habitat on Honshu, and the cattle today Kobe Beef

A good blog from a genetics place which explains the Tajima strain/breed and its lines, and the marbling Y2 Wagyu 

This blog gives the pedigree lines of the Tajima strain of Wagyu and explains quite a lot about them. It refers to Kenichi Ono’s three-volume series of books, Outstanding Wagyu of Japan. Lone Mountain Cattle

Useful website useful, explains the definition of the breed Crowd Cow: What is Tajima Wagya

This explains the marbling system Steaks and Game

A good look at the fatty fat fat that is a piece of Tajima beef, good photos Fine Wagyu

Feedlot animals must be fed a special diet to try and make up for the lack of sunlight, lack of movement, stinky air, lack of balanced self sought nutrition and fibre, and to stop the fat becoming a massive dose of unhealthy chemicals. Give me pasture raised any day. Feedlot beef has very white fat, a warning sign. Just a note from me; and thankfully the rare Wagyu breeds in Australia are pasture raised. The large farms of non-rare Wagyu here however, are mostly feedlot.

 

Page by Janet Lane
August 2022