Some more Koi heading for Gatwick Koi
Posted 20 Apr 2010 - 16:57 by Mark Gardner
I hooked up with Rob and Alex of Ornafish - www.ornafish.com - again today, following our visit to Yamamatsu last week - http://www.niigata-nishikigoi.com/node/755 - to source some more Koi for Gatwick Koi - www.gatwickkoi.com.
First stop of the day was Satoshi Tanaka out in Koide, somewhere I've mentioned on the blog a number of times, you can find more links using this search - http://www.niigata-nishikigoi.com/search/node/satoshi. In conversation it transpired that Satoshi san is a regular visitor to Niigata-Nishikigoi.com, one of a growing band of breeders that watch the site.
I really do like the Koi here, some of the Showa and Ginrin Showa are particularly nice but most now sold. However, the reason for visiting was primarily to get some non Gosanke for Gary.
The box of Koi below were selected.
Satoshi san stated that the Shusui below was of show grade. Interestingly it bears a resemblance to the one that took best in variety at the 2010 Wakagoi Show - http://www.niigata-nishikigoi.com/node/747.
From Sataoshi Tanaka we continued down Route 17 towards Minamiuonuma to visit Sekiguchi. It's always a pleasure visiting Sekiguchi, they are incredibly friendly people. You can find details of some previous visits using this search link - http://www.niigata-nishikigoi.com/search/node/sekiguchi.
Sitting outside, even with the snow still covering the mountains around us, it was a lovely spring day. Rob detailed what Gary was after, the brothers Takamitsu and Masayuki knowing him from previous visits, and they set about bowling some examples.
Having agreed a price from the initial sample the whole pond was netted and we set about sorting through them.
The pond was systematically sorted through, in batches all Koi went to one bowl and were sorted first to possibles and rejects. The the possibles were resorted into keepers and rejects. Having gone through around 150 tosai we were left with around 40 that again needed to be whittled down to the desired number. The bowl below showing a small sample of the final selection that will be heading for Gatwick Koi.
A really enjoyable day with some very nice Koi secured for Gary from a couple of really nice breeders in Satoshi Tanaka and Sekiguchi.
