Cattle in Japan

The presence of cattle in Japan dates to about the second century AD, in the Yayoi period – about the same time that the cultivation of rice was introduced.

[1]: 29 In addition, small quantities of projectile points made from polished wild cattle bones have been found at the same site.

[1]: 29  At the Ohama Site in Goto City, Nagasaki Prefecture, cattle teeth dating to the middle Yayoi period were excavated.

However, this excavation was controversial because it contradicted the statement in the Wajinden in Chen Shou's Records of the Three Kingdoms that there were no cattle or horses in Japan.

At the Funamiya Kofun Tumulus (late 5th century) in Asago City, Hyogo Prefecture, pieces of a cow-shaped haniwa (clay figurine), believed to be the oldest in Japan, have been excavated.

[8]: 413  Until about the time of the Meiji Restoration in 1868, cattle were used only as draught animals – in agriculture, forestry, mining and for transport – and as a source of fertiliser.

[9]: 2 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.