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The Kurokashiwa is considered a part of the long-tailed
ornamental fowl and even though many have lengthy crows, it is not officially
a part of the Japanese "singers" categories.
This rooster comes from a line developed in North Central
Japan and shows the particularly beautiful form and fullness of tail feathers
of this exceptionally beautiful line. There are usually
two to four predominately long feathers, the two to four upper main sickels,
which reach a length of up to 1 meter in length.
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In their second year, the secondary sickels reach the
ground and grow nearly the length of the main upper sickles.
The sattle feathers are very full but not expressly long.
This rooster's crow is long and deep, without undulation and sounds very
un-chicken-like. Some sources say that the Gashiwa isn't a long-crower and
shouldn't be classified as such, but all the birds extent in Europe have
exceptionally long crows. The first crows of our rooster caused me to run
out outside to see what manner of beast had come into the garden.
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The faces of the hens are completely black, the roosters'
are black-red with much black pigmentation at the base of the single combs.
The soles of their feet are dark olive and the legs are black with olive
hints. The nails on their toes should be dark ivory-grey. A large bird,
the hens have an excellent brooding nature and are excellent mothers. If
regularly handled, this breed can be very tame and make exceptional pets.
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My breeding stock and that of Knut Roeder in Osnabrück,
Germany were the only known birds todate of this race outside of Japan.
In the last century no birds of this breed were allowed
out of the country. This shot on the left is courtesy of www.onagadori.de (Knut Roeder) and shows two birds
of excceptional beauty and refinement. Knut told me, however, that this
stock is lost. What happened to them he wouldn't say.
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A group of Kuro's. Please note the distinctively long
sickles in the tail but the "normally short" saddle feathers.
This is an important difference between the TOMARU and the KUROKASHIWA.
The KURO is a longtail fowl breed of antiquity, the TOMARU
is a country chicken type with a beautiful, long crow and the pitch-black
pigmentation of the KUROKASHIWA but not the up to 1 meter long main sickles
as seen in the birds above.
Another distinguishing factor, at least in the birds that
I have studied, is the horizontally carried tail and back in the KURO. The
TOMARU has a tail that is carried higher and is longer-legged than the KURO.
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This shot on the left is from Mr Tatematsu of Japan and
shows the distinquishing factors I mentioned above: well-set body, medium-length
leg, horizontal carriage, full tail (here with a nice addition of mutant
sickles and coverts) that touch and drag the ground. The saddles are full
but not long. Combs should be medium to medium small in size and the points
should be no less than four. Europeans prefer 5 - 6 as an average, but as
yet I have not seen a Kurokashiwa with more than 5 points on the comb.
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The hen on the left, also by Mr Tatematsu (used here with
permission), shows the extra pigmentation in the face of the hens. My hens
were pitch-black in the face.
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This shot was the only image that we in the west had of
the Kurokashiwa for many years, and it did not give the impression of a
longtail breed. It shows the horizontal carriage and the dark pigmentation.
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This last shot is from www.onagadori.de, from Knut Roeder, and is a breath-taking
example of this breed. I have not seen this high of quality of Kurkashiwa
even in films from Japan. And yet Knut says that these are lost. What a
terrible shame! It looks like mine are the only left in Europe.
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