I am so interested in cooking and I've always wanted to cook with Kobe beef and have heard its delicious. 
Those cattle go back a long ways. They were brought to Japan from China around the 2nd century AD, around the same time as the cultivation of rice.
Oh wow. I didn't realize that. Do the cattle eat a special diet? 
They are grain fed. There was a ban on them being imported for awhile,  and just recently have been allowed to be imported to the US in 2012
I see. Why were they banned at all?
and selected as "Improved Japanese Cattle". Four separate strains were characterised, based mainly on which type of foreign cattle had most influenced the hybrids, and were recognised as breeds in 1944. These were the four wagyū breeds, the Japanese Black, the Japanese Brown, the Japanese Polled and the Japanese Shorthorn. The Tajima is a strain of the Japanese Black, the most populous breed (around 90% of the four breeds).
Beef consumption remained low until after World War II. Kobe beef grew in popularity
Kobe beef
Kobe beef is also called , or in Japanese.
History.
Cattle were brought to Japan from China at the same time as the cultivation of rice, in about the second century AD, in the Yayoi period. Until about the time of the Meiji Restoration in 1868, they were used only as draught animals, in agriculture, forestry, mining and for transport, and as a source of fertiliser. Milk consumption was unknown, and – for cultural and religious reasons – meat was not eaten.