I've been wanting to try Kobe beef. Have you tried it?
Yes, I have! It's delicious! The beef comes from cattle brought to Japan from China!
Wow, and what makes it so special?
Japan was effectively isolated from the rest of the world from 1635 until 1854; there was no possibility of intromission of foreign genes to the cattle population during this time. Between 1868, the year of the Meiji Restoration, and 1887, some 2600 foreign cattle were imported, including "Braunvieh", Shorthorn, and Devon. Between about 1900 and 1910 there was extensive cross-breeding of these with native stock. From 1919, the various heterogeneous regional populations that resulted from this brief period of cross-breeding were registered
Mishima cattle
The Mishima (, Mishima ushi) is a criticallyendangered Japanese breed of beef cattle. It is found only on Mishima Island, some 50 km north-west of Hagi, in Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan. It is one of six native Japanese cattle breeds, and one of two small populations that have never been cross-bred with Western cattle, the other being the Kuchinoshima breed from Kuchinoshima island in the Tokara Island group.
History.
Cattle were brought to Japan from China at the same time as