The account begins in 1609, when Shimazu Iehisa is said to have brought pigs back from the Ryukyus. In the Meiji period the local black pig was crossed with Berkshire stock imported from England, and the breed as it is now took shape.

Then it nearly ended. After the war, demand moved toward large lean breeds, and by the 1970s there was a real argument here over whether to switch to white pigs or hold on to the black ones. The prefecture came down on the side of keeping them. In 1999 a trademark registration fixed the definition: kagoshima kurobuta is pure Berkshire.

The feeding is also specified. In the later stage of raising, the pigs get feed with ten to twenty percent sweet potato in it for more than sixty days. Sweet potato is what grows reliably in a place hit by typhoons, so this is the local crop feeding the local animal.

That diet raises the melting point of the fat, which is a laboratory detail with an immediate consequence at the table. Sliced thin and swirled through hot stock, the fat comes clear rather than clouding, and it floats on top of the broth. A place that once had to decide whether to keep this animal at all now eats it a slice at a time.