June, 2010

....that's Yamakoshi Mura Sdn Bhd, Penang, Malaysia as opposed to my usual haunt of Yamakoshi, Niigata.

I think I mentioned the other day that my visit to Malaysia was generously sponsored by Yamakoshi Mura Sdn Bhd, Malaysia's largest Koi dealer.  On Sunday evening we made the 4 hour drive from the Koi show in Kuala Lumpur to Penang, for most of which the conditions were awful, heavy traffic and even heavier rain, a truly torrential downpour in this Malaysia's rainy season, I was glad I was not driving, I was shattered from the weekend's activities.

Thankfully Monday afforded me a lie in before we headed off of the island of Penang to the mainland where Yamakoshi Mura's facility is located, well one of them anyway, they also have a 'showroom' which was located pretty much adjacent to my hotel, I'll add a further post about that later.

I need to sort out some more pictures of the facility, and I'll also be putting a video up upon my return to the UK.  The facility is very reminicent of a large Japanese style Koi facility although there is no need for a greenhouse in Malaysia, in fact I'm sure it would be unbearable in one with average minimum temps of 23c year round.  The facility was built in consultation with Kenji Tani of Tani Koi Farm who works closely with Yamakoshi Mura, indeed they were together the first time Soo and the other guys from the company in Ojiya - http://www.niigata-nishikigoi.com/node/589.

There are around 10 ponds of various sizes which contain both customers Koi that are left in the company's care and Koi that are for sale.  You'll be able to see more on the video later in the week.

Turning 180 degrees from where the above picture was taken you look out upon 2 mudponds.  These are used to primarily grow on tosai for later sale, either to hobbyists or other dealers.  The one in the foreground presently contains mainly Omosako Shiro Utsuri which will be harvested in September.

This larger pond has mainly tosai Chagoi, Karashigoi and Ochiba from Marudo Koi Farm.  I mentioned Marudo's jumbo Koi previously - http://www.niigata-nishikigoi.com/node/598.  I've also mentioned before that Karashigoi seem to be ever increasing in popularity and seemingly have displaced Chagoi.  On several occasions over the weekend people approached my with questions about Karashigoi.  Indeed several large examples, including a large Doitsu Karashigoi from Konishi Koi Farm were on display, the large Doitsu examples are particularly imposing - http://www.niigata-nishikigoi.com/node/675.

Once the Koi starting feeding in this pond, perhaps unsurprisingly, they didn't want to stop.

It's been a great time in Malaysia, many thanks to FP Soo and the guys at Yamakoshi Mura for sponsoring my trip, I hope to come back again in the not too distant future.

More pics and details of the show and facility to follow later, in the meantime be sure to check their website http://www.yamakoshi.biz and the newly launched http://www.koiforauction.biz.

Well that's it from Japan on Niigata-Nishikigoi.com for a while, although there are a few bits I'll be posting whilst back in the UK.

As detailed the other day - http://www.niigata-nishikigoi.com/node/815 - I'm heading off to Malaysia in the morning for the 9th Malaysia Koi Show.

After booking I learned that Hisashi Hirasawa (Marudo), Futoshi Mano (Dainichi), Toshiaki Sakai (Yamamatsu), Daisuke Maeda (Momotaro), Jyouji Konishi (Konishi Koi Farm), Yoshimichi Sakai (Sakai Fish Farm) and Kenji Tani (Tani Fish Farm) will all be in attendance.  So, what always promised to be a great weekend will no doubt be even better.

Be sure to check out coverage over the weekend, hopefully I'll have web access from the show facility this year.

Now to pack my bags and head off to the Water Kitchen for a little leaving drink.

Last year I made my first visit to an Asian country other than Japan when I visited the 8th Malaysia Koi Show, you can read more about my visit here http://www.niigata-nishikigoi.com/search/node/malaysia.

My schedule this month was to return to the UK on 22nd June before coming back to Japan early in August.  Earlier in the week I received an e-mail from FP Soo at Yamakoshi Mura Malaysia - http://www.yamakoshi.biz/ - inviting me to Malaysia for the 9th Malaysia Koi Show of which they are lead sponsor.  Despite the fact it cut my current time in Japan short I was happy to accept.

The next few days are destined to be pretty hectic before I leave Japan for Malaysia on 10th June, the show taking place on 11th and 12th, thereafter I'll be heading to Yamakoshi Mura Malaysia's facility for a couple of days before returning to the UK.

I'll then be back in Japan on 14th July and shortly after hope to be able to bring some exciting news so, be sure to keep checking back.

I arrived at Torazo at 8am this morning knowing that Tsuyoshi san was due to make the final selection of this year's tategoi tosai for release to the mud ponds.  We previously seen these tosai on Niigata-Nishikigoi.com a couple of times:

http://www.niigata-nishikigoi.com/node/523

http://www.niigata-nishikigoi.com/node/525

http://www.niigata-nishikigoi.com/node/524

http://www.niigata-nishikigoi.com/node/583

http://www.niigata-nishikigoi.com/node/604

You'll see some of the Koi below earlier in life at the links above.

Tsuyoshi san and his wife netting the first pond containing the highest grade tosai from the last time selection was done in May.  As Tsuyoshi san crept his way precariously along the back wall he stated, 'Mark you couldn't do this!'.  I replied that there was no way I would ever want to try!  One thing I hate about Koi houses is narrow walls, I live in fear of taking a plunge one day.

Each Koi was rechecked for to confirm it's sex.  Some had already been identified as males in May and photos taken for reference.  Today even some of those confirmed males showed no evidence of being so, no bumps on the pecs, no rough gill plate and no sperm.  A good job they'd been checked earlier in the year.

One of Tsuyoshi san's favourite Sanke.  All of these tosai average around 40cm.

I rather liked this one, it had lovely soft delicate skin.

Tsuyoshi san has just sent me a picture of this Kohaku when it was harvested in September, I'll update later to include the picture.

When this Kohaku below was placed in the bowl it's quality was obvious and I imediately lifted it out for a closer look.  As I did so Tsuyoshi san stated 'excellent colour'.  The beni was a lovely soft orange red.

If you refer to one of the links above you will find a pic of this Sanke when it was harvested in September, off the top of my head it was 29cm and just 4 months old.  At the time Tsuyoshi san suspected it to be male, it indeed turned out to be male.  Today it measured 46cm!

The ponds in Oguni where the Koi were released.  If you click the image to enlarge it and look closely you'll see all the tosai, 81 in total, circling in front of Tsuyoshi san.

Here they are closer up.  These were the 2nd grade tosai.

The picture below shows the top 74 tosai which were released into the back pond in the picture above.

If you refer to one of the links above you'll find this Maruten Yondan Kohaku, I think I described it as 'small but perfectly formed', or words to that effect.  It's still small but very beautiful.  The Koi has actually been purchased by one of Japan's foremost hobbyists just last week and left with Torazo to grow on.

This Koi came from the first pond to be netted, the one in the picture above.  When it was released into the bowl it looked very imposing, I picked it up from the cloudy and busy bowl to take a closer look.  Tsuyoshi san said, 'you like?'  I confirmed I did. The head is not as fully 'hooded' as it appear in the picture, the lips are perfectly white.  The red on the right of the head as we look cuts just under the eye so there is white on both sides of the face.  The bold cut across the shoulder is very imposing.  I was trying to visualise the Koi at twice the size it is now, i.e. 75cm+.  Tsuyoshi san then said, 'if you like this Koi then I will give it to you as a present.'  I of course very gratefully accepted the gift.  I'm not sure which mud pond it has gone to to be honest, not one of the 2 above, I need to check so I can go visit it during the summer.  I'll certainly look forward to it's harvest in October.

A very interesting day which went on until around 4.30pm when all of the tosai were sorted and released, several hundred of them in total.  A hundred or so tateshita remained which were duly snapped up by Rob from Ornafish.

Just sitting watching a breeder such as Tsuyoshi san sorting through tosai like this is such a fascinating learning experience, I can never get enough of it, trying to get inside the breeders head as to what they are selecting and why.

When the pond of 2nd grade tosai was netted today it was quite apparent how they differed from the first batch, they were not as refined however, in isolation they were of a very high grade, just not compared to the first lot.

A video will be available some time over the weekend showing more of the Koi from today, be sure to check back.