Japanese Black cattle standing in a pasture under morning mist, Iga, Mie

Healthy cattle, above all.

Japanese Black wagyu from the Iga basin, Mie — central Japan

Chosen for the health of the living animal, for the most beautiful balance of lean and marbling

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Wellbeing Comes Before Everything

Raised in good health, chosen by the human eye, no effort spared

Close-up of a Japanese Black's eye and glossy coat

Morning light on the greenery around an Iga cattle barn

Iga Beef is not selected by carcass grade — the score (A5 and the like) that Japan gives to meat after the animal has been slaughtered. Instead, buyers with a trained eye visit each farm and judge the living animal: the fullness of its frame, the luster of its coat, its calm bearing. A way of choosing unchanged for seventy years.

All the richness you expect of wagyu is here. Yet the fat of Iga Beef never overwhelms; it draws out the deep flavor of the lean, each lifting the other. Raised in good health, chosen by the eye, holding a quiet balance — that is Iga Beef.

This is not scarcity by design. Each animal is raised with unhurried care, so the numbers cannot grow. That is why Iga Beef has rarely left its home. Now, the door is opening.

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Healthy and beautiful: the mark of Iga Beef

Concept

A farmer's hand resting on the back of a Japanese Black

Basin mist, clear water

Terroir

Morning mist drifting across the Iga basin in Mie, Japan

Morning mist, cool nights➤

Clear mountain stream water over wet stones in Iga

Water that makes fine sake➤

A healthy Japanese Black grazing on Iga grassland

育Nurture

Iga is a basin held by mountains. Morning mist rises, days are warm and nights are cool, and mountain water feeds the fields.
In the quiet of this land, the cattle grow slowly, and grow well.
The same water has long given rise to sake prized across Japan.

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Nurture

A buyer judging a live animal in the farmyard, the Iga way of choosing

目The Eye

Not the grade of the carcass, but the health of the living animal.
The fullness of its frame, the luster of its coat, its calm bearing — judged in the farmyard, one animal at a time.
Only cattle raised in good health may bear the name Iga Beef.

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Eye

A single slice of Iga Beef served on a white porcelain plate

均Balance

The most beautiful balance of lean and marbling.
Sweet fat never overwhelms; it draws out the deep flavor of the lean, each lifting the other.
A wagyu to be savored, beautifully, to the very last slice. The luxury of restraint.

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Balance

An Iga farmer with a hand on a Japanese Black's face in the barn

Seventy years, one way to choose

Story

No effort spared —so there are few.

Today, 25 farms raise Iga Beef, and only about 1,200 head are shipped each year — fewer than one-sixth of the roughly 7,400 head of Matsusaka beef, its neighbour in the same prefecture. Each animal is raised with unhurried care and chosen, while alive, by the human eye. Raised this way, only so many can exist.

Iga is also the land of the ninja — a place that has long made an art of keeping things to itself. Lore has them carrying dried beef as provisions: the oldest thread between this land and its cattle.

1310The cattle of Iga are recorded in Kokugyū Jūzu, a chronicle of Japan's finest cattle
1905The first cattle are shipped from Iga to Tokyo
1953Top honors at Japan's first postwar national beef cattle exhibition; the Iga Beef Promotion Council is formed
1962The Iga Beef Production Promotion Council is founded, carrying the way of choosing to this day

70years

One way of choosing

25farms

Fattening farms

1,200head

Shipped per year (approx.)

Raised by the land of Iga

Council

Name: Iga Beef (Iga-ushi) / Iga Beef Production Promotion Council
Definition: Japanese Black (Kuroge Washu) heifers raised by council members,
with Iga as the final and longest place of rearing (12 months or more)
Origin: Iga City and Nabari City, Mie Prefecture — a mountain basin in central Japan, about 90 minutes from Osaka and Kyoto
Selection: About 80% are bought as living animals, judged by the eye in the farmyard.
Chosen for health, not for carcass grade
History: 1953 Iga Beef Promotion Council founded / 1962 Iga Beef Production Promotion Council established

Satoyama hills and rice fields of the Iga basin, Mie

Beyond Japan, already served

Export

Markets served: United States / Malaysia / Australia
Halal: Halal handling is available. Requirements differ by destination — please ask.
Volume: About 1,200 head are shipped a year in total. Tell us the volume and timing you need.

Halal available Shipping to US · Malaysia · Australia

Contact

Restaurants, retailers, importers — or simply a small question.
We will listen at the source and propose in keeping with the Iga way.

Guida LLCGuida LLC, Tokyo / Weekdays 9:00 – 17:00 JST (UTC+9)
info@guida.jp