Japanese hobbyists

Following my visit to Shimizu-san's facility last week, see;

http://www.niigata-nishikigoi.com/node/464

http://www.niigata-nishikigoi.com/node/466

http://www.niigata-nishikigoi.com/node/468

 I was asked about hobbyists in Japan and what was the 'norm'.

I've only visited a few hobbyists in Japan although from the Koi magazines it's clear that there are many levels of the hobby, much the same as in any country, undoubtedly Shimizu-san is the top end and the exception.

I have a few copies of English Nichirin magazine here in Japan which contain some articles which give a little insight into the Japanese hobby.

Each month there are generally 3 'features' including hobbyists ponds, one is the cover Koi, then there is the 'Glory Pond' and finally a feature called 'My Enjoyable Pond Life'.

The following are all example of content from 2007 Nichirin magazines.

The 1st one I picked up was July 2007, cover below.  Lo and behold, opening the cover I saw Shimizu-san's picture, this is one of his own Koi, produced from a then 95cm Dainichi female and a 70cm Murata male.  In the final sentence of his short accompanying text he states, 'I'm afraid to have been lavish in constructing the pond facilities.....'

In the same issue the 'My Enjoyable Pond Life' feature is also rather not the norm, as you'll see later. Shigeyuki Higashi's Koi house containing 13 ponds and 1300 gallons!  Click on any image to see a larger version on which you should be able to read the text with no problem.  As you'll see it states, 'no one can be a crazier Koi hobbyist than him.'!!

The following 2 examples are what I guess could be described as 'regular' Koi keepers.

This is the text which accompanies the 'Cover Koi' in the June 2007 issue.  I believe that hobbyists actually pay to have their Koi on the front cover of the magazine!

A couple more 'regular' Koi keepers.

Today I purchased the August Nishikigoi Monthly magazine which added a couple more interesting examples.

There is a 4 page article on this family and their Koi which they keep in this fibreglass tank, along with some other tanks.  The details of the article I'm afraid I have no idea.  What I do know however is that such tanks are very common in Japan. 

At last year's Shinsaku Kanshokai - http://yamakoshi.blogspot.com/2008/09/1st-shinsaku-kinshokai.html - I was given a book by Toshikatsu Ikarashi (Marusada Koi Farm) - http://yamakoshi.blogspot.com/2008/09/cracking-little-pocket-book.html - in that there were many breeders around Yamakoshi that I'd never heard of.  It transpired that many of these would have mud ponds and just a couple of 1 ton tanks in which they'd rear tosai over winter before selling them.

The other article in Nishikigoi Monthly features the gentleman pictured below.  I very much hope I'm not misinterpreting the article but, as I understand he is visually impaired.

I presume that the images below describe the Koi in braille.

I hope the above has provided some insight into the Koi hobby in Japan, something I hope I can do more of over coming months.

Nichirin is the magazine of the ZNA.  Details of how to get it can be found at http://www.zna.jp/english/profile/

Nishikigoi Monthly (Gekkan Nishikigoi) is published by Kinsai Publishing - http://www.kinsai.jp/contents.html