Ojiya/Tokyo/Hiroshima/Isawa bound PSKoi Winter 2018

[Russell Peters]

There were some very nice Nisai in one of the tanks there so I pulled a few to look at them. I decided on these two.

[Russell Peters]

We were not that far from Sekiguchi so he was our next stop. You can see how much snow he was getting.

[Russell Peters]

Our first stop was in the greenhouse with the highest quality, larger Koi as Sekiguchi had installed a couple of Bakki Showers. He says the Koi are eating more, growing better and the water is cleaner. I was impressed as we were here two months ago and I could see a difference in the Koi.

[Russell Peters]

When I usually come by to pick Tosai Sekiguchi would have some already sorted and in a net. This time he had to seine the entire pond and I was surprised that this is what he had to do each time to get the net around the pond. I asked naoko to ask him if has ever fallen in. As she was asking him he said something, with a slightly embarrassed look on his face, and they both began laughing. I think he has.

[Russell Peters]

[Russell Peters]

After about an hour this is what I chose. He had several Tancho Showa in the pond but they just were not that great. I did get one anyway. The quality was good on all of them but the Tancho spots were not. I did get to see his #1 Tosai Tancho Showa in the other greenhouse. It is set aside for the next auction. It was stunning. Sekiguchi thinks it has the best Sumi he has ever produced on it.

[Russell Peters]

This group of Tosai are quite stunning over all considering the price. Here are a few of them.

[Russell Peters]

Our next, and last stop, for the evening was Kobayashi. I really like Kobayashi as he is a very young, small breeder that like to share his time, knowledge and his best Tosai. It has always amazed me how he will seine ponds with his best Tosai in them, we spend hours going through them, I take a lot of the best ones and he just smiles and says, "that was fun". It is really fun, he is right, but sometimes I feel guilty, so I will pass on some of the nicer ones but he stops me and always asks, "don't you want that one?'. He is so small that his whole business is his Tosai and I think he should keep some for Nisai and grow that part of his business. While we were standing there talking about this, mostly with Naoko translating, I noticed his face was getting really focused on something and then he pointed and said, "there is a really rare Koi". When I looked I saw a GR Tancho Showa that was about 6". He is right though, when do you ever see a GR Tancho Showa? This one was gorgeous and, no, I did not take it as he wants to show it a the up coming Young Koi Show. I did take some pictures if it swimming around so, hopefully, you can see it.

[KurtG]

Love my 3 Kobayashi koi though the first year they were slow to get going as opposed to some others. Patience almost got the best of me.

[Russell Peters]

I picked up some interesting varieties that include GR Shiro Utsuri, GR Hi Utsuri, GR Showa, Showa, Shiro Utsuri, Kumonryu, Beni Kumonryu and Dotisu Ochiba.