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Ark of TAsTeJapanFrom researcher to Farmer to protector oF the rare nakijin agu– pig breed From the ryu–kyu– islandsthe stRan–ge case oF the agu pig114 almanaCtasaKi satoshiOn Okinawa, the largest of the Ryūkyū Islands, in the far south of the Japanese archipelago, Takada Masaru raises Agū pigs, a breed that has come close to complete extinction. His farm is in the village of Nakijin, on the Honbu penin- sula. Traditionally, Agū pigs would be left to graze on the beautiful island of Kouri, just off the coast from Nakijin and surrounded by a crystalline blue sea. The rare Agū is the most prized of the pig breeds farmed in Okinawa. Takada also farms black Japanese cows, origi- nally from the island of Kuchino and a variety of sheep from the islands (Shi- mayagi), and grows rice and other local crops. Takada has built a kind of nation- al monument to nature, raising pigs for a hobby rather than to meet the demands of the market and industry.from lab to fieldSTakada moved here from Tokyo 30 years ago. Previously he had worked as a researcher at the Institute of Evo- lutionary Sciences, but he had long wanted to leave the lab to work in the fields. The occasion presented itself when he met Professor Yamamoto It- suo of the University of Okinawa, and decided to move to Nakijin. He found an arid land covered in subtropical vegetation and began working with the local community, made up mostly of young people. Each one had a specific role in managing the farm. With the worsening of the Japanese economy, the cultivation of orna- mental plants, one of the businesses Takada had started, began to be less profitable. He began instead to breed Japanese cows.© arChIVIo Slow Food