A day of tategoi tosai selection at Torazo

I arrived at Torazo at 8am this morning knowing that Tsuyoshi san was due to make the final selection of this year's tategoi tosai for release to the mud ponds.  We previously seen these tosai on Niigata-Nishikigoi.com a couple of times:

http://www.niigata-nishikigoi.com/node/523

http://www.niigata-nishikigoi.com/node/525

http://www.niigata-nishikigoi.com/node/524

http://www.niigata-nishikigoi.com/node/583

http://www.niigata-nishikigoi.com/node/604

You'll see some of the Koi below earlier in life at the links above.

Tsuyoshi san and his wife netting the first pond containing the highest grade tosai from the last time selection was done in May.  As Tsuyoshi san crept his way precariously along the back wall he stated, 'Mark you couldn't do this!'.  I replied that there was no way I would ever want to try!  One thing I hate about Koi houses is narrow walls, I live in fear of taking a plunge one day.

Each Koi was rechecked for to confirm it's sex.  Some had already been identified as males in May and photos taken for reference.  Today even some of those confirmed males showed no evidence of being so, no bumps on the pecs, no rough gill plate and no sperm.  A good job they'd been checked earlier in the year.

One of Tsuyoshi san's favourite Sanke.  All of these tosai average around 40cm.

I rather liked this one, it had lovely soft delicate skin.

Tsuyoshi san has just sent me a picture of this Kohaku when it was harvested in September, I'll update later to include the picture.

When this Kohaku below was placed in the bowl it's quality was obvious and I imediately lifted it out for a closer look.  As I did so Tsuyoshi san stated 'excellent colour'.  The beni was a lovely soft orange red.

If you refer to one of the links above you will find a pic of this Sanke when it was harvested in September, off the top of my head it was 29cm and just 4 months old.  At the time Tsuyoshi san suspected it to be male, it indeed turned out to be male.  Today it measured 46cm!

The ponds in Oguni where the Koi were released.  If you click the image to enlarge it and look closely you'll see all the tosai, 81 in total, circling in front of Tsuyoshi san.

Here they are closer up.  These were the 2nd grade tosai.

The picture below shows the top 74 tosai which were released into the back pond in the picture above.

If you refer to one of the links above you'll find this Maruten Yondan Kohaku, I think I described it as 'small but perfectly formed', or words to that effect.  It's still small but very beautiful.  The Koi has actually been purchased by one of Japan's foremost hobbyists just last week and left with Torazo to grow on.

This Koi came from the first pond to be netted, the one in the picture above.  When it was released into the bowl it looked very imposing, I picked it up from the cloudy and busy bowl to take a closer look.  Tsuyoshi san said, 'you like?'  I confirmed I did. The head is not as fully 'hooded' as it appear in the picture, the lips are perfectly white.  The red on the right of the head as we look cuts just under the eye so there is white on both sides of the face.  The bold cut across the shoulder is very imposing.  I was trying to visualise the Koi at twice the size it is now, i.e. 75cm+.  Tsuyoshi san then said, 'if you like this Koi then I will give it to you as a present.'  I of course very gratefully accepted the gift.  I'm not sure which mud pond it has gone to to be honest, not one of the 2 above, I need to check so I can go visit it during the summer.  I'll certainly look forward to it's harvest in October.

A very interesting day which went on until around 4.30pm when all of the tosai were sorted and released, several hundred of them in total.  A hundred or so tateshita remained which were duly snapped up by Rob from Ornafish.

Just sitting watching a breeder such as Tsuyoshi san sorting through tosai like this is such a fascinating learning experience, I can never get enough of it, trying to get inside the breeders head as to what they are selecting and why.

When the pond of 2nd grade tosai was netted today it was quite apparent how they differed from the first batch, they were not as refined however, in isolation they were of a very high grade, just not compared to the first lot.

A video will be available some time over the weekend showing more of the Koi from today, be sure to check back.