is an overall designation for

gamefowl Cockfighting is a blood sport involving domesticated roosters as the combatants. The first documented use of the word gamecock, denoting use of the cock as to a "game", a sport, pastime or entertainment, was recorded in 1634, after the term "c ...

in Japan. There are seven recognised

breeds A breed is a specific group of breedable domestic animals having homogeneous appearance (phenotype), homogeneous behavior, and/or other characteristics that distinguish it from other organisms of the same species. In literature, there exist seve ...

of Shamo

chicken The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domesticated subspecies of the red junglefowl (''Gallus gallus''), originally native to Southeast Asia. It was first domesticated around 8,000 years ago and is now one of the most common and w ...

in Japan, all of which are designated

Natural Monuments of Japan Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the laws, elements and phenomena of the physical world, including life. Although humans are part ...

. The Shamo breeds are thought to derive from fighting chickens of Malay type brought from Thailand in the early part of the seventeenth century.

History

The Shamo breeds are thought to derive from fighting chickens of Malay type brought from Thailand in the early part of the seventeenth century or early

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

(1603–1867). The Japanese word ''Shamo'' derives from ''Siam'', the former name of

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

. The birds have been selectively bred for several hundred years for their fighting ability. Some were imported to Western countries in the 1970s; in the twenty-first century, the birds are reported from four countries outside Japan: Australia, Ireland, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Breeds

The seven recognised Shamo breeds designated as

are: * Ehigo-Nankin-Shamo, a slightly taller and more slender variant of the Nankin-Shamo from Niigata * O-Shamo ("large Shamo", ) * Kinpa * Ko-Shamo ("small Shamo", ) * Nankin-Shamo ( Nankin Shamo, ) *

Yakido The Yakido () is a Japanese list of chicken breeds, breed of cockfight, fighting chicken. It belongs to the Shamo chickens, Shamo group of breeds. It was bred in the Kansai region in southern Honshu in the mid-nineteenth century. It was made a N ...

or Ygido () * Yamato-Shamo or

Yamato Gunkei was originally the area around today's Sakurai City in Nara Prefecture of Japan, which became Yamato Province and by extension a name for the whole of Japan. Yamato is also the dynastic name of the ruling Imperial House of Japan. Japanese ...

Other Shamo variants are the Chu-Shamo ("medium Shamo", ) and the Chibi Shamo, the bantam of the Yamato Gunkei.

In the West

In Western countries, the breed name ''Shamo'' includes both the O-Shamo and the Chu-Shamo. In the United Kingdom, different weight ranges are given in the ''

British Poultry Standards ''British Poultry Standards'' is a compilation of the breed standards for poultry in the United Kingdom, approved and published by the Poultry Club of Great Britain. The standards themselves are usually drawn up by the individual specialist ...

'' for the two types within the Shamo breed; the Ko-Shamo, Nankin Shamo, Yakido and Yamato Gunkei are recognised as distinct breeds. The

Entente Européenne Entente, meaning a diplomatic "understanding", may refer to a number of agreements: History * Entente (alliance), a type of treaty or military alliance where the signatories promise to consult each other or to cooperate with each other in case o ...

recognises the Shamo, Ko-Shamo, Yakido and Yamato Gunkei, and lists the Chu-Shamo and Nankin Shamo as unrecognised. The ''Australian Poultry Standards'' list only one form of Shamo, which has a minimum weight of . The

American Poultry Association The American Poultry Association (APA) is the oldest poultry organization in North America. It was founded in 1873, and incorporated in Indiana in 1932. The first American poultry show was held in 1849, and the APA was later formed in respons ...

recognises the Shamo as a breed, both full-sized and bantam.

References

Chicken breeds Chicken breeds originating in Thailand Chicken breeds originating in Japan {{bots, deny=Citation bot