April, 2010

You may recall that last year, as part of the 20th anniversary celebrations for Nishikigoi no Sato, an exhibition and sales event was held there - http://www.niigata-nishikigoi.com/node/362.

Today a similar event was held again in the car park for Nishikigoi no Sato and Sun Plaza.

As you can see from the picture below the weather was truly glorious, this being perhaps the only thing about this year's event that was superior to last year.

This year there were fewer vats and, to be honest, the standard of Koi on display was not as high as last year.  Despite the glorious weather, and the fact that there have been posters all over Ojiya advertising the event, visitor numbers seemed incredibly low as were sales.

Below a member of Dainichi staff bagging one of their tosai that had been sold.

The pictures below some examples of Koi that were on offer, plenty of non-Gosanke available.

The Goshiki below are from Kanno Koi Farm, somewhere I must get around to visiting soon, I've not visited since October 2007 when I stumbled upon them harvesting a mud pond near the breakfast spot.

With the sun shining today and a clear blue sky the Sakura (cherry blossom) in Ojiya finally made an appearance, somewhat later than normal.  The pictures below were taken at the Sanyo factory adjacent to the Shinano River.

This afternoon I had an appointment in Niigata City to get myself a Japanese driving licence - a requirement when you've been here as long as I have, with the snow clearing and the mountains opening up I'm desperate to get out exploring again, just need to get some new wheels, the Kei truck that has served me admirably for 2 years now considered uneconomical to keep on the road.

Before that I joined up with Rob and Alex of Ornafish - http://www.ornafish.com - for an appointment at Hiroi Koi Farm, not the usual Koguriyama facility, but their 'special' Koi houses situated in the town of Katakai.  I learned of their existence last year as they are located near Torazo's fry/tosai ponds you can see being harvested here - http://www.niigata-nishikigoi.com/node/523 - but this was my first look inside.

The steamy Koi house below contains mainly tosai, the primary reason for our visit.  In addition to the tosai there are 2 ponds containing some very very special Koi, amongst them the 2010 All Japan Show best in variety Goshiki - http://www.niigata-nishikigoi.com/node/680.  As I stood looking in the pond Kazu came over and pointed her out, I assured him that I couldn't forget her!

As mentioned, the primary reason for our visit was to see 2 tosai that Rob had managed to secure on behalf of Jeroen Van Keulen - http://www.koicentrum.com/.  These were not ordinary tosai, not tateshita, these were genuine tategoi from Hiroi Koi Farm.  Kazuyoshi, along with Taro Kataoka of Oya Koi Farm, is due to visit the Koi2000 show in Holland at the beginning of May, thereafter they will visit Jeroen's shop.  I don't know what is planned specifically, get in touch with Jeroen for more details.

Anyway, first up was this Doitsu Showa, circa 30cm female.  It's elder sister was in the same pond as the best in variety Goshiki and measured 55cm at nisai.  The Koi is from the Aka Daruma bloodline, according to my dictionary that means red prostitute but I'm sure that must be the wrong translation!

Having photographed and videoed the Doitsu Showa (i'll try and get some video online tomorrow), Kazu and his twin brother Nobu netted and bowled the Goshiki below.  As soon as I saw it the Koi struck a chord with me.  Just yesterday afternoon I'd been browsing through the latest Rinko magazine which had a feature on Goshiki.  Amongst the photographs was the Hiroi Goshiki which won the Shinsaku Kanshokai last September - http://www.niigata-nishikigoi.com/node/514.  It wasn't just the pattern but the whole style and feel of the Koi.  Sure enough Kazu confirmed that this Goshiki is from the same oyagoi as that which one the Shinsaku Kanshokai Grand Champion prize.

Both of the tosai above will remain in Japan for the summer in one of Hiroi's mud ponds.  For sure we'll catch up with both of them in the autumn when they are harvested.

Across the road is another quite large Koi house containing 4 ponds.  This Koi house is incredibly neat, tidy and clean.  The 4 ponds primarily contain Hiroi's oyagoi, customer Koi and their own larger tategoi.

The maruten Goshiki below is the female parent of the tosai above.  She is named Oji Sakura.

There is no question that Hiroi Koi Farm produce some truly awesome Koi!

I hooked up with Rob and Alex of Ornafish - www.ornafish.com - again today, following our visit to Yamamatsu last week - http://www.niigata-nishikigoi.com/node/755 - to source some more Koi for Gatwick Koi - www.gatwickkoi.com.

First stop of the day was Satoshi Tanaka out in Koide, somewhere I've mentioned on the blog a number of times, you can find more links using this search - http://www.niigata-nishikigoi.com/search/node/satoshi.  In conversation it transpired that Satoshi san is a regular visitor to Niigata-Nishikigoi.com, one of a growing band of breeders that watch the site.

I really do like the Koi here, some of the Showa and Ginrin Showa are particularly nice but most now sold.  However, the reason for visiting was primarily to get some non Gosanke for Gary.

The box of Koi below were selected.

Satoshi san stated that the Shusui below was of show grade.  Interestingly it bears a  resemblance to the one that took best in variety at the 2010 Wakagoi Show - http://www.niigata-nishikigoi.com/node/747.

From Sataoshi Tanaka we continued down Route 17 towards Minamiuonuma to visit Sekiguchi.  It's always a pleasure visiting Sekiguchi, they are incredibly friendly people.  You can find details of some previous visits using this search link - http://www.niigata-nishikigoi.com/search/node/sekiguchi.

Sitting outside, even with the snow still covering the mountains around us, it was a lovely spring day.  Rob detailed what Gary was after, the brothers Takamitsu and Masayuki knowing him from previous visits, and they set about bowling some examples.

Having agreed a price from the initial sample the whole pond was netted and we set about sorting through them.

The pond was systematically sorted through, in batches all Koi went to one bowl and were sorted first to possibles and rejects.  The the possibles were resorted into keepers and rejects.  Having gone through around 150 tosai we were left with around 40 that again needed to be whittled down to the desired number.  The bowl below showing a small sample of the final selection that will be heading for Gatwick Koi.

A really enjoyable day with some very nice Koi secured for Gary from a couple of really nice breeders in Satoshi Tanaka and Sekiguchi.