Torazo's blog

I have done 3 spawnings so far this year which were trials, as you have read on Mark's blog, unfortunately the results were not very good.

Last night I spawned to sets of Sanke parents.  These pictures are of the oyagoi.

The female Sanke in the first picture won 80bu Kokugyo prize at the 2007 All Japan Koi Show.

Spawning was finished at 4am and both females produced many eggs.  Now I hope for good fry and, tonight, a good nights sleep.

Mark posted about some nisai being released to the mud ponds last week.

Today we released another 37 nisai, or ake-sansai (Koi that will become 3 years old), to the mud ponds.

Here are some pictures of the Koi.

Last night Izumiya-san invited me and my wife, and also Maruju-san and Miyatora-san and their wives, for a meal at Tochu Ryoutei.  Ryoutei means traditional Japanese restaurant.

This old traditional building has been here in Ojiya for around 150 years since the Edo period (1603-1867).

You can see lots more pictures of the very traditional building on their website http://www.touchu.co.jp/.  It is only in Japanese, just click on the links of the left.

Today I took photographs of some of our nisai Kohaku and Sanke. 

Some of these nisai can be seen in the photos below when the were tosai in May 2008 before they were put into our mudponds in Oguni which are about 15km from Ojiya.

Today I did culling of one of my tosai ponds, here are some pictures.

Inside tosai house

Netted tosai

Tosai now for sale, a Tancho/Gosanke mix

Selected tategoi Kohaku

Selected tategoi Sanke

A good tategoi tosai Sanke

Today's best tategoi tosai Sanke

Hello, I am Tsuyoshi Kawakami the owner of Urakawa Koi Farm. Welcome to my new blog on Niigata-Nishikigoi.com.

During the year I will provide regular updates about what we are doing on the farm.  Today I would like to tell you some of our history.

Urakawa Koi Farm was started by my great grandfather, Chuzo Kawakami, at the start of the 20th century, we believe it was 1917.  It was then carried on by my grandfather Torakichi Kawakami.  It was my great grandfather's Sanke that became a very famous bloodline known as Torazo Sanke, ever since we have been most famously known as 'Torazo'.

I am the 5th generation of the Kawakami family.  The name 'Torazo' comes from my great great grandfather, the 1st generation, who was called Torazo Kawakami.  It has always been our house name and then it became our business brand name.

My father, Hiroshi Kawakami, took over the running of the farm in the 1950's just as Nishikigoi were starting to become very popular enabling our business to grow.

I have been running Urakawa Koi Farm of over 10 years now and it is my responsibility to uphold and build on the traditions of the Torazo name.

In 2008 we spawned 9 sets of parents:

• 3 Sanke
• 4 Kohaku
• 1 Showa
• 1 Goshiki

We will soon be adding photos of some of our Koi to Niigata-Nishikigoi.com for you to see, I hope you like them.

I also hope that one day you will visit Niigata and visit Urakawa Koi Farm, you are always welcome.