Having visited the Dainichi pre auction party the night before we were certainly in for a treat today. Dozens of dealers from around the world in attendance, as well as Japanese breeders showing their support.
An all day event we arrived at Dainichi for 8am. Here we spent 90 minutes or so viewing Koi in the vats, making note of which ones we wanted to bid on. It really is important to check on the koi at this stage as when they roll down the red carpet in the bowl you only have a split second to check it’s ok. With so many koi to look at, its firstly important to check for any deformities, misshapen fins, dented heads, flat sides, mouths etc etc the list goes on. After discounting a few Koi due to issues. The shortlist was made.
At 10am the first bowl was wheeled down the red carpet. One after another, everyone leans over the bowl to get a closer look, then the bidding begins. Off to a good start we managed to grab a handful of Koi before lunch including a few bowls of Tosai.
With a lot of the big hitters from Asia at the auction as soon as you start to see them bid then you know the koi will probably be out of reach. To see them have a bidding war against each other makes for entertaining viewing.
The first major Koi that was auctioned was Special 01 a 92cm Kohaku. This Koi was certainly shortlisted for many people, many of which were breeders themselves. Ryuki Narita eventually scared off the competition and placed a successful bid.
After lunch the fierce bidding continued. Making a good start we secured a serious Sandan Kohaku, and then immediately after a beautiful Maruten Kohaku, fantastic body shape and certainly a good future ahead. During the auction we managed to purchase 53 Tosai too, these are only 4-5 months old and are 15-25cm, some great little future prospects in there.
Our major purchase came quite late in the day, a very beautiful and striking Showa. Oozing quality, we just had to have her. It caught a number of bidders attention, to begin with we were not confident it would be within reach. Bidders slowly started dropping off and the bids were slowing down. Just before the hammer was struck, we had one more bid. A few seconds later, that was it. The hammer went down and we had won it !
The last Koi of the day was Special 02, a picture perfect 70cm Showa. An absolutely amazing Koi to see in the flesh. The Koi house was now jammed full of people, with everyone on their feet. The atmosphere was electric. A handful of people that were competing for the Koi moved towards the auctioneer and congregated together. The volume of the music was increased. A classic Western shootout, who was going to fire first. Each looking at each other as the Koi remained at the starting price. Then out of nowhere the bid jumped to 10 million Yen. The atmosphere then went onto another level, most people started to film what was happening, pushing and shoving to get a better view. Shortly after the first bid, everyone dropped out except two. Now head to head the price had soon doubled. Now it was serious, the laughing and joking between the two bidders had worn off, they both tried to predict the next move. Each bid taking longer to come in.
The hammer went down and that was that. I won’t disclosed the price here on the Blog but you’ll no doubt see the price paid on Facebook etc.
Here are the fish we managed to secure from the auction. Hopefully in a few days we'll visit Dainichi to take photos and videos of the Koi purchased.
