A new addition to the culling armoury - Budo Goromo

I caught up with Saito-san this afternoon hoping he'd have some info about events at this weekend's Nagaoka Matsuri.  Unfortunately all he had was the programme for the firework display.  Following a quick chat and chance to eat some of Hiromi-san's home grown corn on the cob - delicious - I decided to head down to Nagaoka Civic Office in the hope of finding a clear timetable of events.  Alas I had little joy, hopefully I'll be able to decipher some more info from the website, www.nagaokamatsuri.com.

Today was dry, warm and bright, in contrast to the last few days.  As such I headed back up to Yamakoshi and popped into Maruju.

The fry awaiting culling are always held in a 3m show vat.  It was teaming with what looked like Goshiki, although different in appearance to those of last week - http://www.niigata-nishikigoi.com/node/459.  'Goshiki?', I enquired.  'Budo Goromo', Yasu replied.

I wrote about Maruju's Budo Goromo last year, something which caused a little controversy in some quarters - http://yamakoshi.blogspot.com/2008/10/maruju-budo-goromo.html

I took a look over Shigeo-san's shoulder, immediately he said 'dozou', as he had yesterday, pointing this time at Shigeyoshi's empty seat.  'Wakaranai', I protested, meaning I don't understand.  'Daijoubu, Kohaku onaji!', he stated, meaning no problem, it's just like Kohaku.  As you'll see from the pics below, there is an element of truth about that but it's certainly not that simple!  'Mo chotto', I said, suggesting I wanted to watch a little longer.  He sorted through a couple more net fulls at which point I scooped some out of the bowl containing the keepers.  As ever, there are some that are completely obvious as 'keepers', there are obvious rejects, it's the ones in the middle that are hardest to understand.  'Wakatta?', Shigeo-san asked, meaning 'now you understand?', and pointed again at the empty seat.  This episode had lasted just 3 or 4 minutes and he wanted me to help, I suggested he was crazy, again, 'Daijoubu' he stated.

The first few shots below show random selections from the keepers.  I think you'll understand why they could, at this stage, be mistaken for Goshiki.

These pics below show a few that I picked out.  I think you'll understand what I mean by the fact they are obvious 'keepers'.

We barely scratched the surface of these fry, the show vat was still bulging and Shigeyoshi advised that an equal amount are still in a holding net in the mud pond.