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A History of The Onagadori Fowl in Nankoku City by Hidekazu Hiraoka
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Kochi Gakuen College

Bull. Kochi Gakuen College. 35 : 21 - 30 (2004)

A History of The Onagadori Fowl in Nankoku City

Hidekazu Hiraoka

Abstract

I summarized the career of the onagadori, a consideration of the onagadori history, its generation factors, the breeding spirit and the unique social environment for hybridization in Nankoku city, Kochi prefecture where people say is its birthplace. In conclusion, it is thought that the onagadori was hybridized in the back ground of the unique social environment, which the life of people was composue, breeder have breeding spirits of iggosou and the breeder use the tomebako box for breeding onagadori etc..

Introduction

The Onagadori is the most peculiar form of almost 20 indigenous Japanese fowl breeds, in that its tail grows continuously through out its life, reaching a length of over 7 meters. It is thus among the oddest of almost ten-thousand known bird species and is itself the result of a fascinating artificial breeding history. This report has been written as a history of the onagadori in Nankoku city, considers how the first onagadori appeared and its development among breeders in the small community of Nankoku city, Kochi prefecture.

1 The first onagadori
It was once believed that about 200 years ago, during the Meiwa (1764-1772) eras1, a local barber, Riemon, who lived in Shinohara, Nankoku City successfully, hybridized the first long-tailed fowl1,2. The reason for this belief comes from a report of an old letter of commendation that had been kept in the house of his son, Sakuzou that stated that Riemon had presented a 'goshikidori (an older term for an onagadori) fowl to the local ruler of Tosa0han (present day Kochi prefecture). According to the document, "When Riemon and Kuemon in Shinohara viliage presented a goshikidori fowl to the lord Yamanouchi, he was well pleased and gave them silver 15 monme (about 57g of silver) as a reward"3. Various onagadori preservation society chairmen kept this document from generation to generation, which has been independently verified until the more modern Taiso and Showa eras. Regrettably however, this letter of commendation is currently missing.

Another document, a diary entry written in 1827, noted that Rienmon's son Sakuzou said, "My father is Riemon, 63 old, who presented the goshikidori fowl that the 10th lord Toyokazu Yamanouchi desired, and he did receive a letter of commendation and 15 monmeof silver from him, These he put on the family Shinto alter and worshiped them every April." (As recorded in Shigemichi Okuma's Diary 27. 11. 1827 " a branch family of the lord Yamanouchi).3

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Department of Food and Nutrition Kochi Gakuen College, 292 Asahi-Tenjincho, Kochi 780-0955 Japan

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高 知 学 圏 短 期 大 学 紀 要　　第３５号
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Although the letter of commendation did not have a date inscribed upon it, it was affixed with the name of Tokusuke the Shinohara village headman. An investigation shows his term of office corresponds to that of the Bunsei era (1821-1828) which helps establish the date of the fowl was actually presented. Another document has suggested that because the original letter carried no date, this is evidence that the onagadori was in fact created by chance genetic mutation in the earlier Meiwa era and then prsented to the lord.2
Interestingly, the original paper does describe that two men, Riemon and Kuemon, presented the onagadori and the two men were in fact the main breeders2.
However, it has been noted that Riemon, a very quiet and taciturn man, was managing a barbershop at that time while Kuemon was about ten years older than Riemon.2
In conclusion then, the historical evidence supports the idea that the original onagadori hybridizing breeder was the taciturn barber Riemon and that the village headman Kuemon was with him for support and advice on the day he presented the fowl to their lord. Thus the onagadori hybrid can be assumed to have originated in the late Bunka (1804-1818) or early Bunsei (1818-1830) eras. As shown in Table 1 below, we can summarize the known dates in the history of the onagadori hybridizing as follows:

Riemon died 84 years old in 1859 to the obituary at the Kokuban temple, Nankoku City3.
Kuemon died 83 years old in 1857 according to the genealogy of the Takechi family2.
(*) Note: hybridizing is of a silver gray variety. A white variety and a brown variety are thought to have been created in the later Meiji era (see how)

2 Place of hybridization
The remarkable onagadori was introduced to the rest of Japan by the compact encyclopedia "The Shouhinkou" written by the botanist Hiroyasu Nishimura and published 1857.3,5 The article highlighted the very range of the fowl, as the onagadori were not recorded in any other area outside of Nankoku City in southern Shikoku.

3 Hybridization
The question can be fairly asked "what was the motivation for the creation of the fowl whos tail grows continuously and reaches such great lengths?" The answer may be in a consideration of the unique social environment that was present in Edo era Japan.

A History of The Onagadori Fowl in Nankoku City

1) Motivation for long tailed hybrids
During the Edo era of feudal Japan, the ruling leader or Shogun, who was based in the capital Edo (now downtown Tokyo), decreed that all loyal lords and their clans must pay homage to his court - in person. These were large, stately processions that lasted months at a time as the lords came from all over the archipelago. When the Yamanouchi clan of Tosa (which includes Nankoku) came to visit the capital, they marched behind prominent banners or 'Keyari'. These were spear sheaths decorated with animal hair or birds feathers carried at the head of the procession. (Photograph 1)
People in the Nankoku area have claimed "because very long feathers were necessary for these keyari, growers tried to hybridize fowls by cross-breeding for log tails and this the onagadori were created." However, there is no historical written evidence to support this theory according to local Tosa historical Kijyuro Hirotani3. A comparative examination of keyari that were drawn in an Edo era book of records called "the Bukan", show that the keyari of Tosa do appear far bushier and considerable larger than those of other daimyos (a feudal lord) and it is likely that, by their conspicuousness, they became well renowned.3
In archival documents from year 14 of the Tempou era there is a record that two thousand of tail feathers, some with a length of 36 cm or more, were gathered from local farmers and that these in turn were used to make over two thousand or more keyri banners for the feudal lords processions.3
Poultryfarming was certainly very important to the Tosa economy at that time, with many eggs being exported to Osaka.3 It would appear therefore that there existed some 'stimulation' to hybridize a long tailed fowl (and ready market for the feathers that local poultry farming produced) even if there survives no documentary evidence of direct encouragement to breed such birds.

Photograph 1 Otorige or Tosa Keyari (At the Tosa Yamanouchi Heirloom Museum, Kochi 2004. Note: It is about 1.8m in height)

An examination by the author of a Tosa keyari or Otorige on display at the Tosa Yamanouchi Heirloom Museum, Kochi, did not seem to consist of onagadori feathers - although it may be made of 'shokoku' feathers. (see above)

2) Poultry farming conditions
If the original antecedent of the onagadori were 'shokoku' fowl, then the female shokoku's weight would have been about 1.5kg. and thus larger than the 'tosajidori' or 'uzurao', two other fowl species commonly kept in Kochi prefecture (a female weight being only about 0.8kg). Chickens of this size require a lot of fodder and would have eaten a protein rich diet of rice bran, loach and crucian, frogs, insects (like grasshoppers, earthworms and small locust) abd dragonfly nymphs according to "Onagadori narabini syokei no ki" written in the Taisho era by Sheiryu Igarashi6. The farming communities of Nankoku, while poor, were stable and supported by abundant rice harvests. Paddy rice farming had been important even before the Bunka / Bunsei eras but in 1704 it is first recorded that crops could be harvested twice a year7,8. This depended on the availability of lime from local veins of limestone naturally in soil. It was 1817, that lime based fertilizer was first recorded as being added and with this development,8 the harvest of 8,758 kg of rice in 1786 jumped to 13,022 kg in 1839, an increase in production of 48.7% for Nankoku city (Satokaida)9. As for the local population at this time, there were around 440,000 people recorded in 1697 which rose to 500,000 in 1850 in Tosa-han,9 a population increase of just 60,000 people during 123 years. In this period, Large-scale social disruptions like the peasant riots of other prefectures did not incur, although there were a few small protests over the surcharges of the unpopular land tax.10 Neither the population increase nor the land tax hardships seem to have beenmajor problems because of this abundant, twice yearly rice harvest. It seems that the farmers and their families enjoyed a condition of self-sefficient security.
A further proof that life was comfortable can be seen in an ordinance issued by the local ruler in 1819 that tried to restrict the leisure pastims that could be enjoyes in daily life. it prohibited the breeding of pet birds and the playing of Jpanese chess and Go for example, as activities not consideredd suitable for hard working farmers.9
However, Farms did enjoys the crossbreeding and rasing of fowls and Tosa being such a fertile, granary area meant that local breeder had the extra rice bran etc. avaialble for the breeding of particularly large varieties like the shokoku (compare with tosajidori).
Fowls like the 'tomaru' and the 'chabo' that had first been imported from neighboring Asian countries at the beginning of the Edo era.11 were selectively improved in Japan and introduced to the Kochi area through its avid breeders. Within the kacho region of Kochi prefecture (that includes Nankoku City, Shinohara) the breeding of these and other fowl varieties was particularly active. Thus we find that no less than 6 of the 17 fowl varieties designated as a 'nationally recognized special breed (special and natural monument fowl)' in Japan are considered to have originated in Kochi prefecture as are 8 of the 24 'ordinary' fowl types. it is felt that the availability of such a diverse pool of fowl varieties concentrated in one area certainly added to the successful development of the onegadori.12

4 Breeding spirit
In addition, it may be claimed that a unique spirit of 'iggosou' (obstinancy or "I'll do it my way") that prevails to this day in Kochi prefecture also played a role in the development of onagadori breed.

5 The development of the Tomebako box (photograph 2, 3)

Photograph 2 tomebako | Photograph 3 tomebako

The 'tomebako' is a unique raised hen house popular with breeder of the onagadori. Basically a small-elevated hut, it provided dim lit, sheltered roost about 1.8m off the ground for a single birds. It is unknown when breeders first begun to use the tomebako roost, but it is thought its use began to expand rapidly from the Taisho era onward.13 There is a possibility that an onagadori tail may lengthen to some small degree if provided with a tomebako roost as the long tail feathers are protected against the day-to-day abrasions that would occur if the bird is kept outside or in an ordinary roost.
In the Shinohara district, 11 breeders are recorded as using the boxes according to records made in 1904,14 and in design, these were almost identical to those used in 1953 and more recently, with a width of 18cm, a depth of 80cm and a height of 170cm. It is felt that the noticeable extensions in tail length that have been recorded (see table 2), would have been impossible without this unique roost.

6 The Genetics of tail feathering extendibility
It was commonly believed by local breeders that the gene for tail feather extendibility was a mutation in a shokoku fowl and that later breeding selection and the tomebako roost etc. led to the notable extensions of the onagadori tail13. Moreover, breeders seeking ever-longer feather lengths have regularly crossbred the silver gray onagadori variety with the brown onagadori. However, Phylogenetic studies and comparative blood analysis15,16 of the silver gray and brown onagadori found in Kochi prefecture today reveal that they are closer to toutenkou fowls than shokoku fowls. These studies have revealed that he blood groups of the onagadori are a mixture of goshiki-shokoku + toutenkou grouping and a shirafuji-shokoku + haku-shokoku grouping.17
The Onagadori present in Kochi today are the result of post war hybridizing between the shokoku and toutenkou fowl lines and none could be regarded as a 'pure-bred' strain.

Thus the author believes that the Shokoku antecedent theory for the Onagadori is still the most appropriate and that in the future, genetic analysis and DNA studies will reveal the mutated gene that causes the tail feathers to extend without molting.

7 The Onagadori Varieties - A phylogentic summary
1) The Silver gray variety (photograph 4)
The Shokoku (or 'jidori') fowls were kept and bred extensively in the vicinity of Nankoku City and Tosayamada-cho district for many years. A Shokoku fowl individual with continuously growing tail feathers arose from them and started the Onagadori breed. Once called goshikidori fowl12,18, there is white, black, green, yellow and brown colorations on the wing feathers and this was the poultry variety that Riemon presented to Lord Yamanouchi. Phylogenetically, the silver grays appear closer to the Shokoku variety than the Totenko variety.
(Note: the classification of a bird as a silver gray is actually based on the arrangement of the tail feather rows.)18

2) The Brown Variety (photograph 5)
It is believed that at the behginning of the Meiji era (1868-1912), a brown Onagadori variety was developed through the cross breeding of a silver gray and a Toutenko by Konzo Shinohara in the Tosayamada-cho district.19 The chicken was commonly referred to as a "wakuyato"19 (a name derived from the breeders occupation - Shinohara manufactured a frame, 'waku' in Japanese, for weaving machines). However, this original brown veriety died out20.21 in about 1943 (the war years). Theoretically a brown variety is created rather easily22 as it is dependent on a sex-linked inheritance in which the silver gray variety is dominant and the 'akazasa' (brown) is recessive. Hybridizing by the Kochi Prefecture Livestock experiment Station reproduced a brown variety, as shown in figure 1 below.

3) The White Variety (photograph 6)
Two theories have arisen over the origins of the white variety. One suggests21 that in the middle of the Maiji era, the white was a result of a feather color mutation in the a Shokoku fowl. The other says that two breeders, Kikujiro and Kusujiro of Nankoku City, purchased a white leghorn from a breeder, Yasuji Matsizakaya. They then crossed this white leghorn with a local silver gray variety and produced a white Onagadori strain with long tail feathers4,23.
But genetic studies have revealed that the white coloration on the white Onagadori is a recessive gene, while the white feathers of a white leghorn are clearly of a dominant gene and so no genetic link can be established between the leghorn and the Onagadori on the basis of feather color24 thusit is most likely that the white Onagadori variety arose from chance mutation in a Shokoku variety.

Figure 1 Brown Onagadori Breeding Chart (Oana)

8 Extension of the tail
Historical records have revealed that from the first Onagadori (1804-1830) onwards, the length of the birds' tails have extended considerably. In the Tenpou era (1830-1844), lengths of over 2m are felt to be common and by the Meiji era (1868-1912)25 they had become about 3.6m. Then through the Showa era (1926-1989) a common fowl tail length was about 8m, peaking at an outstanding 13m in the modern Heisei era in 1870 (as measured by breeder Kubota).
Since then however, maximum tail lengths recorded for the Onagadori have appeared to decline and this has been confirmed by measurements taken by this author between 2002 and 2003.
A silver gray's tail feather was recorded as extending by 7 to 10cm a month and one individual grew a 3m tail in 3 years. The longest brown tail record was 8.9m (measured by Ikemoto) while the longest white tail recorded was 10.3m (measured by Kubota) both in around 1965.

Table 2 A record of silver gray's tail lengths (longest) by era