Judo

Judo, correctly the fourth bull of the 1976 importation (never 'Mikimoto'), was the second Akaushi bull, alongside Rueshaw, brought to the United States by individual importer Morris Whitney in the first-ever Wagyu export from Japan. Sourced from Kumamoto Prefecture, the cradle of the Akaushi breed, he arrived to a country with no fullblood females and was used, like the others, for graded-up research breeding while Colorado State collected his semen; the bulls were subsequently bought by Wagyu Breeders Inc. Because only four founder bulls and, later, a small band of Akaushi females ever left Japan, Judo's chief value to modern breeders is as a genetic outcross: his blood widens an unusually narrow Akaushi foundation and helps manage inbreeding in a closed population. Recorded as sired by Shigetakara H 40 out of Sakae RK23331, he is noted as an F11 carrier, and his semen is exceptionally scarce, making him a sought-after but hard-to-source outcross sire. Though less celebrated than the champion Rueshaw, Judo remains one of the irreplaceable pillars of American Akaushi, and correcting the record on his identity matters: the 1976 red pair was Rueshaw and Judo, both from Kumamoto.