Friday spent with Ma Koi and Waterland

Still playing catch up from last week!

On Friday I spent the day with 2 more Dutch dealers, Ma Koi - http://www.makoi.nl/, and Waterland - http://www.koi-waterland.nl/.  I have to say, when my alarm went at 7.30am I could have quite happily rolled over and gone back to sleep, I had been out the previous evening with first these guys and then afterwards Dirk and Floor who'd I'd been with earlier in the week - http://www.niigata-nishikigoi.com/node/717.

On arrival back at the hotel on Thursday evening a story was unfolding about a Tancho Showa purchased at Kaneko Koi Farm by Ma Koi.  A deal had been done with the father, Komei Kaneko, to purchase the Koi.  A call was received from Yasuaki Kaneko advising a mistake had been made and the Koi was already sold last year and is an 'azukari' Koi, meaning that it's left under the breeders care.  Such an error is incredibly rare, an appointment was made to return to Kaneko first thing in the morning to hopefully resolve the situation.

On arrival at the farm some boxes were made up ready for a shipment, the Koi on the side one I instantly recognised, I'd been looking at it just the day before.  This Showa is owned by Julie Steele in the UK and took Grand Champion at the 1st East Midlands Koi Club winter show the weekend before - http://www.koichat.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=614.

Yasuaki san arrived minutes after us clutching a certificate featuring a picture of another Tancho Showa, a Tancho Showa that had been exhibited in the 'Dream Koi' part of the 2010 All Japan Show.  This was not a Koi that had been for sale however as Yasuaki san felt so bad about the error that they'd made he offered it as a 'replacement' and requested we follow him to the Nishikigoi Niigata Direct facility situated on the flat lands by Route 17 in Takiya.

This impressive 200 ton pond is in one of the Koi houses, I think it was in 2008 that this Koi house was completed.

This is the Tancho Showa that was offered as replacement, a replacement that was keenly accepted by the guys from Ma Koi.

I've written previously that it is not too often that I see a Koi that really really excites me.  However, swimming in the same pond as the Tancho Showa above was a simply stunning Sanke bred by Marusho Koi Farm.  Makoto Tanaka stated that the 3 year old 70cm+ Koi would make it's show debut, god willing, next year.  I have one very under exposed picture of the Koi in the pond but I'm sure I'll recognise her the minute I see her again.

Next we went to an adjacent Koi house containing other Koi for sale.

Several Showa were bowled which everyone assumed were sansai - remember the same story with the Shiro Utsuri at Kaneko a week or so ago - http://www.niigata-nishikigoi.com/node/707?  Again these were nisai, the largest in excess of 60cm.

In another greenhouse Oomo san showed us the farm's jumbo tosai, the largest they have already 43cm!

From the NND facility we headed for Oomo's original facility where a pond of tosai was netted for the Ma Koi guys to select some.

One Koi was spotted to have some damage on it's side.  On hand was a bottle of Io-Sal, a product marketed by my friends Jonathan and Michelle from Allendale Practice in the UK.  Having treated the wound Oomo san placed the Koi in isolation in a floating basket stating that in a week it would be fine however, if left in the pond with the other tosai they would constantly pick at the wound preventing healing.

With business concluded at Oomo Koi Farm we headed to Koguriyama to visit Masaki, somewhere that's becoming very familiar.  The 2 Shusui were bowled and duly purchased by Ma Koi.

By Friday afternoon everyone was pretty much done with Koi buying but there were still a couple of stops to be made on the off chance of finding something special.

The first of these was at the old facility of Miyatora - http://www.niigata-nishikigoi.com/node/536.

A couple of Kin Ki Utsuri were bowled but neither purchased.

These Matsuba were also bowled but again not purchased.

From Miyatora it was back through the Utogi tunnel to visit Maruhide, the farm name of Hide Hirasawa - http://www.niigata-nishikigoi.com/node/554. Nothing was purchased on this occasion, by no means a reflection of what Hide has available.

With the afternoon ticking on and all members of the party needing to catch trains to Narita for early morning flights home another interesting week drew to a close.