When traveling through Okinawa, you’ll see the words “Agu Pork” everywhere — on restaurant menus, in souvenir shops, on airport posters. It’s widely known as Okinawa’s signature brand pork. So how does “Kibimaru Pork,” which we serve at our shop, differ from Agu? Let us answer that question honestly.
■ What Is Agu?
Agu is a native black pig breed that came to Okinawa from China roughly 600 years ago. Small, fatty, and slow to mature — it’s not an efficient breed to raise. But its meat has a remarkably deep flavor.
Agu contains about three times the glutamic acid (umami compound) of regular pork, while its cholesterol level is only one-quarter. Despite its generous fat, it feels light, with a natural sweetness and almost no gamey odor — a taste shaped by centuries of adaptation to Okinawa’s climate.
However, the story changes depending on whether the Agu is purebred or crossbred.
The hiragana “agu” (あぐー) you commonly see in supermarkets and restaurants is a registered trademark of JA Okinawa, referring to a crossbreed between purebred Agu boars and Western sows. The katakana “Agu” (アグー) — the purebred native breed — numbers only about 1,000 head across the entire prefecture. A truly rare pig, with prices to match.
■ Why Is Kibimaru Pork a White Pig?
Kibimaru Pork carries no Agu bloodline. It’s a white pig — an LWD three-way cross of Landrace, Large White, and Duroc breeds.
“Why not Agu?” — it’s a fair question.
In Okinawa, pork means Agu. There’s real cultural weight behind that. But what Fukumaru Farm spent over six years pursuing wasn’t the revival of a native breed. It was “the highest achievement of white pig culture that took root in postwar Okinawa.”
Even within Okinawan pork, the destinations are different. That is the most fundamental difference between Agu and Kibimaru.
■ So How Does the Meat Differ?
Agu meat is rich, with sweet fat and deep umami. It has less lean meat and an overall hearty character. You might call it “the taste at the origin of Okinawa’s food culture.”
Kibimaru Pork features fine marbling reminiscent of wagyu beef, with a tenderness that requires roughly half the chewing force of regular pork. It’s also rich in free amino acids and oleic acid — but to keep things simple: “The first bite is different.”
There’s one number that explains this most simply.
It’s the temperature at which the fat melts — the fat melting point. We’ll tell you about that in the next article.
— Also Read —
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