Mazda

Mazda was one of only four Wagyu bulls, and one of two Japanese Black bulls, brought to the United States in the historic first export from Japan, arranged in 1976 by individual importer Morris Whitney (not the 'Morris family'). Sourced from Tottori Prefecture, he carried the larger-framed Kedaka/Tottori bloodline, cattle originally bred as pack animals in the grain trade and prized for strong backlines and growth. With no fullblood Wagyu females yet in America, Mazda was joined to Angus, Holstein, Hereford and Brangus cows; Colorado State University collected his semen for research before the bulls passed to Wagyu Breeders Inc. Whitney's venture underwhelmed commercially and the four bulls were sold to Texas veterinarian Dennis Wendt of Georgetown a few years later. A quirk of the record: the import paperwork reportedly described the bulls as Friesians. Mazda's genetics endured through his marbling reputation, with breeders reporting Mazda-bred carcasses out-marbling cattle stacked with elite Tajima lines. Because his semen is rare it commands premium prices at auction. He remains a genetic touchstone for breeders seeking an authentic Tottori outcross that boosts both marbling and frame. A word on his strain makeup, because it is regularly overstated. No 16/16 strain analysis was ever published for Mazda — the chart that covers the other export sires simply has no row for him — so any hard percentage attached to his name is an estimate rather than a record. The frequently repeated line that he is 'the only 100% Tottori bull ever to leave Japan' traces to auction-catalogue copy, and that same lot description also repeats the emperor-gift-to-the-governor-of-Hawaii story that the documentary record contradicts, so it is not a source to lean on. What is documented is narrower and still remarkable: he is a Tottori-prefecture bull, described in the breed histories as being of the Kedaka line, and Wagyu International notes Touhou appears three times in his pedigree. Two things follow. He carries no Tajima — the marbling blood nearly every other founder is built on — which puts him in a very small group. And 'no Kedaka' is a misreading of the terminology rather than a fact about him: Kedaka is itself a Tottori bull, so Kedaka content and Tottori content are not opposites, and Mazda is if anything associated with that line. He is best understood as the breed's deepest Tottori outcross available outside Japan, which is precisely why his semen commands what it does.