Japanese Brown

What do Japanese Brown cattle look like?

The Japanese Brown is a small beef breed. Its coat is brown, and both bulls and cows grow horns. The shade differs by district: Kōchi cattle are reddish-brown, Kumamoto cattle lighter brown. Six breeds are counted as native to Japan, and this is one. It also belongs to the wagyū group, a set of four Japanese beef breeds; the others are the Japanese Black, the Japanese Shorthorn and the Japanese Polled. Its Japanese name, 赤牛 or Aka Ushi, means 'red cow', which fits the Kōchi type well. Like the rest of the wagyū it is a twentieth-century breed, formed by crossing and then by selection.

Where does the Japanese Brown come from?

Cattle came to Japan from China with rice growing, probably in the second century AD, in the Yayoi period. They worked: ploughing, forestry, hauling in mines and on roads, and their dung went back onto the fields. Dairying was unknown, and custom and faith kept beef off the table. Between 1635 and 1854 the country was shut off, so no outside blood entered. After the Meiji Restoration of 1868 some 2,600 foreign cattle were brought in over about twenty years. Cross-breeding took hold around 1900 and stopped in 1910, when farmers saw that the hybrids were bigger and milkier but weaker at work and poorer for meat. From 1919 the mixed regional herds were registered as Improved Japanese Cattle, and four strains became breeds in 1944.

What the Japanese Brown is known for

For most of its history this was a working animal, and the breed's reputation rests on that role. Until the late nineteenth century the cattle of Japan were kept for hauling and ploughing rather than for milk or meat, and an ox was prized highly enough that many small farmers could not afford one. When the early crosses were judged, the complaint against them was weaker working ability and worse meat. Japanese Brown cattle are small, and that compact frame suits the southern districts where the breed was shaped.

How the Japanese Brown is bred and kept

The breed is the result of planned crossing followed by closed selection. Native Japanese cows were mated with imported bulls, chiefly European ones, and here the main outside contributions came from the Korean Hanwoo and the Swiss Simmental, with British Devon blood also recorded. Once crossing halted in 1910, breeders sorted the jumbled regional herds into groups and registered them from 1919 as Improved Japanese Cattle. Which foreign breed had left the deepest mark decided how the groups were divided. Four groups were accepted as breeds in 1944, and the Japanese Brown was one. Selection has been within the breed since then.

What the Japanese Brown is kept for

The Japanese Brown is kept for beef. That has not always been so. For centuries the cattle of Japan pulled carts and ploughs, dragged timber and ore, and supplied manure for the fields; their milk was not drunk and their flesh was not eaten. Beef became the purpose only after the Meiji Restoration, when the national herd was rebuilt. Farmers who tried the early crosses found the larger, milkier animals less handy at work and less good on the plate, so the breed that emerged was selected for eating quality. The animals are also shown at wagyū events.

The land and climate of the Japanese Brown

The breed belongs to southern Japan, in two separate districts. One is Kōchi Prefecture, on the island of Shikoku; the other is Kumamoto Prefecture, on Kyushu. Cattle in each district carry their own shade of brown, which points to two herds kept apart and bred within their own areas for a long time. Both districts are home ground rather than places the breed was later taken to, and the breed is still identified with them. The Japanese name, red cow, suits the warmer-toned Kōchi animals best.

Faith and ritual

Before the modern era, cattle in Japan were not food. Custom and faith kept beef off the table, and the animals were kept instead for their strength and their manure. That old attitude shaped the breed as much as any breeding decision did: the cattle behind the Japanese Brown were valued while alive, as working partners on the farm, not as carcasses. The habit of sparing cattle from the knife was a matter of tradition and belief, and it lasted until the years after the Meiji Restoration.

The Japanese Brown at fairs and festivals

Wagyū cattle are shown, and the Japanese Brown takes part. One photograph of the breed was taken at a wagyū show in Sasebo, in Nagasaki Prefecture, where the animal stood in the foreground during a judging. Such events let breeders set animals from different districts beside one another and keep the Kōchi and Kumamoto types distinct. Showing is part of how the wagyū breeds are kept in the public eye.

Custom and folk tradition

For centuries these cattle were part of the working landscape of Japan. They ploughed and harrowed, hauled timber out of the forests and ore out of the mines, and carried goods along the roads. Their dung went back onto the fields, closing the loop between stock and crop. A trained ox was a serious investment, highly prized and beyond the means of many small farmers. While the country kept its doors shut between 1635 and 1854, that working population stayed as it was, with no new blood arriving.

Related breeds and crosses

Three other breeds share the wagyū name with the Japanese Brown: the Japanese Black, the Japanese Shorthorn and the Japanese Polled. All four came out of the same period of crossing and were recognised together in 1944. The foreign breeds that left a mark on this one were the Korean Hanwoo, the Swiss Simmental and the British Devon. The Hanwoo is a Korean cattle breed, the Simmental a large Swiss dual-purpose breed, and the Devon a red English breed.

Numbers, conservation and the herd book

Numbers have fallen steeply. More than 525,000 Japanese Brown cattle were counted in 1960. By 1978 the figure was 72,000, and in 2008 it stood at 18,672, which is about 4.8 per cent of the national beef herd. In 2007 the FAO listed the breed as not at risk. In 1994 a handful of animals were sent to the United States.

Questions people ask about Japanese Brown

Good reading and sources

• Japanese Brown on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data