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AREA of ORIGIN:  Japanese, Chinese and German

CATEGORY:  Hard feather

EGG COLOUR: Tinted (Sitters)

There are two strains of large Phoenix fowl, namely:

(a) The Onagadori, which literary means O = tail, naga = long, dori = fowl  (longtail fowl).

(b)The Shokoku.

The large Phoenix – Onagadori originated more than one thousand years ago and is the product of both Japanese and Chinese breeders. The origin of the Phoenix – Shokoku also goes back to ancient Chinese and Japanese breeders during the Heian dynasty (794 – 1186 AD).

The phoenix – Onagadori is protected by very strict laws enforced by the Japanese Governments’ Department for Nature Conservation and it is not allowed to be exported from Japan. The Phoenix – Shokoku however, is the strain of the large Phoenix seen on the show benches worldwide, and is described in this Standard.

The first Phoenix – Shokoku fowls were imported into Germany in 1873 and later some specimens arrived in England where they received the name of Yokohama. The Yokohama is only related to the Phoenix in as far as it also belongs to the so-called long-tail class of poultry.

The most outstanding characteristic of the Phoenix is its long flowing tail. The tail of the Onagadori can reach lengths of 6 metre and even longer, and it never moults. The tail of the Shokoku reach lengths of between 1,5 and two metres in older cocks. So far scientists have been unable to isolate the gene responsible for the abnormal tail growth, but it is believed that there is a direct connection between the tail growth and the sexual hormones. In order to obtain the maximum length of tail, cocks should be confined in rather small cages and should never be exposed to hens.

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