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Warning: All rights reserved. This article appeared in the issue of the National Finch and Softbill Society Bulletin. Vol. 16. No. 2. March/April. 1999. (p. 16-22). Anyone wishing to reproduce this article for another bulletin, newsletter, article, journal, CD, or any other public forum needs express written consent of the NFSS and of the author michael@exoticfinches.com

You are about to see how luck and determination have led to the importation of some of the nicest new society finches into the USA. In early spring of 1998, Garrie Landry received a request for society finches from a well-known roller canary breeder, Shimpei Tanaguchi. Shimpei wanted to know if he could buy some "Pearl" society finches that were featured in a Japanese bird magazine. Shimpei sent the picture to Garrie. Garrie sent the picture to me. Attached to the photo was a little note from Garrie that said, "What the heck are these... there ain't nothing like this around, not even in Europe"! Garrie was right!

As luck would have it, my wife Susan and I have a dear friend, Larry, who works in Japan in the area of international business. About a month before I heard of the "Pearls", Larry had called us inviting us to Japan where he could provide housing and show us around Tokyo and vicinity. Given the costs of staying in Tokyo, we started to consider this a one-time opportunity and made plans to go in August of 1998 to visit Larry and to tour Japan during our two week stay.

Since Garrie was experienced with importation (he has brought in European button quail and zebra finch mutations) I talked to him about my trip and discussed the possibility of importing finches from Japan. We all thought it important to acquire birds from a breeder of the superior "Pearls" pictured as champions in the magazine. Shimpei had read an article featuring the breeder of these top birds and was able to acquire his phone number. His name is Mr. Osamu Tamura and he lives just outside of Tokyo where he runs a business from his home. He does not speak English.

Shimpei and I started emailing each other. I discussed with him the possibility of visiting the breeder, Osamu. Over the next few months, Shimpei had many conversations with Osamu who agreed that it would be nice for me to visit him and see the birds in person. Osamu is a private type of person who works out of his house and had never had an American ask to visit his bird room. My intent was to establish a friendly relationship with Osamu and to see his great birds. I was thoroughly impressed with his reputation as one of the top breeders of societies in Japan (and there are said to be around 3,000 society finch breeders in Tokyo alone!). We set a date in August of 1998. As the date approached everyone, including Osamu, was a bit nervous about this meeting between people of very different cultures.

We had to make arrangements to solve the language problem during my visit. Fortunately for us, our friend Larry is a great resource and one of the most helpful loving friends. Larry arranged for some friends to come along and interpret. Their names are James and Hiromi. James is a transplanted American who, as an adult male, made the transition to speaking Japanese (an impressive feat given the dissimilarity of our languages). His wife is Japanese. This made for a great combination since James could understand every word I said (including things like "dominant mutation") whereas Hiromi could interpret Osamu's every word. In actuality, James had an impressive understanding of birds and their biology considering he has no deep-seated interest in either. He would be the dominant force of the translation team.

We met James and Hiromi near the train station near Larry's apartment. We boarded the train for our one-hour train ride, which would be followed, by a ride on a city bus. We got off in Osamu's town and starting looking for his house. I was so nervous when we knocked on the door. His house is on the corner. His wife has the entire outside covered with beautiful potted plants. I could see cages of society finches hanging on the outside walls, behind the house, in the alley- everywhere. In his tiny house there must have been 200 cages. Probably 2,000 beating hearts in one house with mine beating the fastest! The 100-degree plus temperatures did not help me keep my cool.

We socialized a bit over some tea and exchanged some gifts. I had found out that Osamu is a baseball coach of a championship team so I brought as a gift the official Boston Red Sox and University of Massachusetts baseball caps. My wife gave Osamu's wife some New England maple syrup which we were told they love on ice cream. Osamu gave me a great collection of photographs of his birds and birds of other breeders. I only wish I did not have to talk to him through a translator because it made it a bit less personal and I really liked Osamu, who went out of his way to answer every question I had. Once we got into "bird talk" we started communicated at a rapid pace wearing out James who had already broken into a sweat and was working hard trying to translate things like "clearwing fawn" and "back crossed until inbred". He was great. Together Osamu and I managed to exchange some Mendelian genetics on scraps of paper and I discovered that Punnett square diagrams are a universal language, albeit limited in scope.

Finally, the cage by cage bird tour!! There were birds in the living area, upstairs, outside in the alley, everywhere. Bengalese are hardy outdoors in Tokyo if sheltered a bit. Osamu had clear plastic that he could roll down and an awning over them to keep them dry. He used mostly canary seed and millet, some egg food and eggshell, but as far as I could understand no fancy products that Americans are convinced are necessary if you read any commercial bird magazine. His nest boxes were curious open bowls made of rice stems and held to the cage with green rubber bands. Most cages were made from thin bamboo and were quite small.

We started going through the birds one mutant at a time. I tried to look professional but I know my mouth was hanging open as I tried to figure out the combinations of mutations he had. These were not pet shop varieties. They are considered collector's items only owned by serious society finch breeders. The Japanese have a wide selection of "Frills" that range from moderately fluffed to those that had hardly a feather in place. Osamu told me that the genetics of Frills is complex and no one had the whole thing figured out. He warned that mating Frills of the same type together often resulted in birds with weak legs and suggested Frills be paired with normals or Frills of a different type. There are show standards for each type of frill and Osamu was setting the standards. He had them in every color and all birds were selfs. He likes light birds so the majority of his birds were gray fawn, dilutes, and the like. Lots of nice selfs. He has Frills in fawn, dilute fawn, gray fawn, gray, albino, and chestnut. We spent several hours looking through his collection. Talk about experience! While we were talking, he looked down to see a hen, which appeared to be egg bound. Without stopping the conversation, he picked her up and began what can best be described as two-fingered Swedish massage. Within two minutes out came the egg, unbroken. The hen took a few seconds to recover and starting looking much better. I was impressed. Even more impressive was his record keeping. Largely assisted by his wife, Osamu has maintained extensive pedigrees that go back well beyond the grandparents. He knows the genetic makeup of each bird in his huge collection. I would hazard a guess that nobody in the US has maintained such accurate records over such a long period of time.

After my visit, Shimpei kept communicating by phone with Osamu. Osamu was convinced that we were serious finch breeders and had the skill and desire to maintain high standards of breeding. Then one day Shimpei called to inform me that we would be able to purchase some birds from Osamu. It was one of the most exciting days of my life. We were delighted to know that we would be getting Pearls since there are many of people in Japan on a waiting list. Osamu moved us to the top of the list and was nice enough to offer us 6 Pearls each! I was thrilled with the number thinking 2 each would be the likely offer. Knowing it was cheapest (all things being relative) to import 50 birds, we talked for the next month about what other types we would need to get all of the new Japanese types of societies and all the color mutations to make this adventure a one-time proposition. We decided to get different mutations and share them later. Shimpei wanted to concentrate on many of the more elaborate Frills, like the dainagon, and Garrie wanted many European colors, like inos and grays. I liked the chiyoda the best, with its lovely chest frill. We rounded off the order with albinos, and some combinations of nice colors (e.g. dilute fawn) that were also frilled. I even got an albino chiyoda bonten and Shimpei a dark-eyed white dainagon!

I then began the least fun part of the adventure - obtaining the necessary paperwork. I got the permit for quarantine from the USDA and reserved the space at the NY Station. Then there is the Import license from Fisheries and Wildlife, hiring a commercial broker to handle the shipment and bring it to quarantine in a special van, and lots of other things to arrange. Before long, I was on a first name basis with the manger at the Quarantine Station, my broker, the inspectors at Fisheries and Wildlife, and the cargo managers for the airline. Papers and cash were flying out of my house as if I left the cage door open. I had to keep saying "You are doing this because you will get great birds, you are doing this because you will get great birds.…" So, I put in the time and got the paperwork together. In the next issue of the NFSS Bulletin you will see part 2 of this story. It will explain the procedure and cost involved in an importation from abroad.

Just prior to the shipment, Shimpei decided he would spend some time in Tokyo to see Osamu and take care of some personal business. We needed to obtain a Health Certificate from a Japanese veterinarian and Shimpei did this with Osamu. Shimpei could ask Osamu more detailed questions than I did since his first language is Japanese. He got some tips on telling which babies would be good Pearls even though they were still in the nest. Pearls can be quite variable so obtaining good ones was important. Osamu rates them A for best and D for worst. We would get a few A birds and many B birds so we were happy. We all got more than we expected, with many birds split for another important mutation. Osamu gave Shimpei complete pedigrees and made suggestions on which birds would be good to pair.

On December 16, 1998 the box with 50 finches was picked up at Osamu's house at about 4 AM by the Japanese freight forwarders. The plane left at around 10 AM from Narita Airport for its direct flight of 14 or so hours to NYC. I had to keep myself busy all day knowing I could not control the weather or turbulence not to mention the work ethic of the airline employees, broker, quarantine employees, etc. I called the airline and found out that the flight would be 30 minutes early, arriving at about 10A.M. Yes, with the time difference between NY and Tokyo, the plane gets there the same time it left. Unfortunately, the birds still have the 14 hours in the air. The temperature was a balmy 45F, warm for December, so I did not fear any deaths on the trip from the runway to the cargo hold in a covered cage.

I called the quarantine station in Newburgh NY at 4 PM to see if the birds had been taken there yet. No birds had arrived. I called the broker who told me not to worry (wishful thinking) because they were on their way. I finally got someone on the phone at 8 PM at the Quarantine Station. It was a security guard. He told me the overtime employee just left after unpacking a box of finches from Japan. I knew they were ours. Yet, I'd have to sleep one more night not knowing if all 50 made the trip safely. The next morning I called the Quarantine Station. They had been very busy the night before dealing with imported horses. I was told they would call me back in a few hours to let me know the status of our shipment. I got the call at 3 PM and the news was great. Fifty chirping birds that made it through the first step in their ordeal. But the next day we got a call to tell us one bird was dead. It was a male pearl split for gray. Our first loss, and a big loss. But you take chances when you import, especially from the other side of the world!

On January 14, 30 days after the birds had arrived, Shimpei and I were scheduled to rendezvous at the Quarantine Station in Newburgh to get them. This would avoid another shipment. We would sort them out and bring them home. I would keep Garrie's birds for a few weeks and then put them on a direct flight from my airport near Hartford to Garrie's in New Orleans. That morning it began snowing on my drive to NY. What was suppose to be a 3-hour trip turned into 5 hours. When I got there Shimpei and a friend were waiting for me. We met the USDA workers and they went out to get our birds. Now comes a really bad moment. When they brought them in they said "...right after we caught this one he did not look good and he died". It was a Pearl of course and one of mine. I assume it got roughed up in the catching since I've never had a young society finch die of stress from being properly caught. There was so many mixed emotions. We just got the birds that took a trip around the world and a 30-day hotel visit and now another one was dead. I took a deep breath and put my birds in my car to drive home. The weather worsened and an icy storm began. On the way home I could hear the males courting and lots of chirping. If one could understand "Bengalese" I am sure they were all thinking that poetic justice was being served. They had endured the trip from Japan and it was my turn to suffer a 5-hour drive in pelting ice at 35 miles and hour. When I got home I was absolutely exhausted. The birds were all put in their flights and given every amenity they could ever desire. The next morning I sat down and said to myself , "This was all worth it". Although our initial goal was to obtain new mutations for our breeding programs, we now realize that what we did was quite important to the finch breeders of America. The most important part of this adventure was that we would be the first Americans to introduce Osamu's very special birds to US breeders. A piece of Japanese aviculture was being brought to America. And for Osamu, his great breeding achievements would be rightly recognized outside of Japan. The US now had Pearls and Frills!

Life is funny. Who would ever believe that this importation could fall into place the way it did? It was hard hard work but luck was on our side. Shimpei wrote Garrie, Garrie wrote me, I was going to Japan and my friend Larry arranged interpreters. The three of us agreed to work together and we accomplished what we consider a minor miracle. To our knowledge this is the first importation of society finches into America from Japan, a country that has bred these birds for centuries. All other importation, including the first society finches to come to the US, came in from Europe.

The saga of importation is over. Now comes the fun part - breeding the birds and trying to improve them generation by generation. We don't even have to worry about getting babies. With society finches this is a sure bet. It is quality for which we must strive and the Pearls and Frills will be a challenge.

If you'd like to learn more about Japanese society finches and see pictures of Pearls and Frills, visit my home page at http://www.exoticfinches.com or email me at michael@exoticfinches.com

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