Not every cow raised in Saga can be sold under the name. The rules are specific. The animal must be Japanese Black, fattened by a farmer within the prefectural agricultural cooperative's territory, and the carcass must grade five, or grade four with a marbling score of seven or above. Anything that falls short is sold as Saga wagyu instead, which is a different name and a different price.

The brand itself dates to 1984, when the first labeled boxes went out through the meat market in Osaka. That is recent enough that people who set it up are still around. What was being sold was not a new animal but a new boundary drawn around existing ones.

The official description of the place talks about a mild climate, good water, clear air. The official description of the product talks about grade five and marbling score seven. Both sentences appear on the same page, and I find the pairing quietly funny: one half is poetry about a valley, the other half is a number from a grading chart.

In 2008 the cooperative added the phrase tsuyasashi, glossy marbling, to its logo. Locally the beef turns up grilled over a net or simmered as sukiyaki, and the specialist restaurants cluster in central Saga city, close enough together that choosing one is the hard part.