Our last stop of the day for us was Nogami. Last Autumn we purchased 3 Nisai Kohaku. We left these koi with Nogami-san for the summer as Azukari. Earlier this year we also purchased a Sansai Kohaku from the All Japan Koi Show Dream exhibition.
The following photos are the Nisai purchased this time last year. The 3rd photo, on the right. Nogami-san suspected this was male when we purchased it. We had our suspicions too. These 3 were around 50cm.
These 3 koi are now Sansai and have significantly improved. Plus, the 3rd Kohaku has actually turned out female! Very very impressed with the results. Nogami expressed his delight too, "customer happy, I'm happy".
From left to right. 63cm, 62cm, 64cm.
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One koi that featured in my first blog post of the trip was our Yonsai Kohaku. As seen on Mark Gardner's blog. Today we saw her in the bowl and close up. Such an inspiring koi this one and Nogami-san is hoping the koi keeps improving to attend koi shows in a year or two. "Pattern very good for show!" he exclaimed. Breeders in Japan put a lot of emphasise on pattern when it comes to koi. Of course koi need the other attributes to excel, but a good pattern is the icing on the cake, especially with a pattern like this one. It will look exceptional is in to the bigger size classes.
Left photo shows the koi this year in April, the right photo shows her as of today 6 months on. Now 68cm, she is certainly looking in good stead to do well. Being harvested only last week, she will continue to improve in condition over the winter period. She was a little bit agitated in the bowl so we didn't want to keep her in there too long.
One word, Beautiful.
