A Koi full day - part 1 - the morning

For a number of weeks now Rob de Vos and Chris Edwards from Ornafish have been inviting me to join them for a day out with the customers.  Unfortunately the work on Mondo has prevented me doing so, despite having made tentative plans on a couple of occasions.

Today I finally managed to take a trip out.  I'd met Rob's customers for this week, from A&C Koi in the Netherlands the other day in Yagenji.  We rendezvoused at New Plaza Business Hotel at 8.15am before heading out.

Before we did we met someone who had a 20 year old copy of the breeder guide book.  In those days it was only in Japanese, the book was particularly funny for the photos of the breeders 20 years ago!

First stop of the day was one of Dainichi's tosai houses.

Three ponds of tosai in this house were for sale, one was clearly the best of them.  It was duly netted, the result a writhing mass of red, white and black.

Jos Aben, the boss of A & C, set about selecting tosai.

The bowl below shows the final pick of 25, Showa, Kohaku, Tancho Kohaku and a lone Shiro Utsuri.  Shigeru Mano made a point of stating it was a very good selection from the pond.

Jos asked him to pick out his number 1 Showa from the bowl.  Having mulled it over for a while Shigeru-san stated it was very difficult to choose between 3 or 4 of the Showa as to which was best.  He settled on the one below.

Unfortunately the small light blue bowl it was in has given the picture a really blue colour cast.  The picture above more clearly shows the colours.

Certainly a very interesting Koi, excellent shiroji, potentional for sumi to come, with quality sumi already present, interesting pattern and good beni.

From Dainichi we made our way to Marusei, also known as Hirasawa and Seitaro.

This facility is huge, in terms of volume apparently the largest breeder in Niigata.  This building, I believe, was once a sports hall/gymnasium.  All of the ponds are built about 6ft out of the ground.  On the DVD that accompanies Peter Waddington Koi2Kichi he details that Hirasawa-san basically set out claiming that he would eventually be able to supply all varieties in every grade withing 20 years.  Whether that claim is fufilled I wouldn't like to say.  They can however certainly compete at a high level at Koi shows, apparently they too 11 major prizes at the 2009 All Japan Show, they also have lots of lower grade examples in all sorts of sizes.  It's also home to many jumbo Koi, particularly Mukashi Ogon and Chagoi.  I'm also told that they have so many Koi, in so many mudponds, that they harvest 12 months of the year to meet demand.

Having purchased some pre-arranged Yamabuki and Chagoi tosai the guys again set about picking a selection of other varieties.  Having visited earlier in the week they'd outlined what they were looking for.  Upon visiting today a number of Koi had been set out for them to sort through.  Interestingly, as Jos sorted through, Hirasawa-san would bring a few more examples that matched what Jos was looking for.  You can see him in the black jacket in the background behind Rob who has the blue jumper.

The Koi in the bowl are relatively small nisai, apparently Hirasawa-san doesn't believe in pushing growth too fast.

We then went to a polytunnel next to the main building where some other Koi were bowled.  The first was this very attractive Gin Rin Shiro Utsuri which they'd seen earlier in the week.

Having photographed that a couple more Koi were bowled.  These Koi were not for sale, I think Hirasawa-san junior was just showing off!

First up was this Showa.  The midday sun was blazing through the polytunnel making conditions as bad as could be for decent pictures.  Apparently we can expect to see this Koi at the Nogyosai.  Watch this space.

That aside this Koi has an intriguing history.  It's grandmother is actually a long fin Hi Utsuri!

Another woeful picture, this of a very beautiful Sanke from Sadazo bloodline.  The pattern is quite unorthodox but it balances beautifully. Another Koi to keep an eye out for in the future.

Part 2 - the afternoon - to follow.