Today was to be a relatively quiet day as we drove to Toyama to visit Nagoshi Koi Farm. Visiting here brought back a lot of memories for us as we visited here on our first trip to Japan and selected wonderful Tosai that did very well. The next couple of years we were never really in the position to buy from here, some visits they didn’t have the right fish for us or we just didn’t have the time to get here.
We’re glad we got here this trip as the farm has transformed! Newly built ponds, renovated filter systems, and good fish in numbers! Being on the coast, it was very wet, windy and bitterly cold. Hoods up and hands in pockets we scanned the outdoor ponds first at Nagoshi to see what was of interest. It was busy around the undercover ponds for good reason! We braved the rain for a little longer and found a pond of Shiro Utsuri. Asking Nagoshi about these they are Omosako X Okawa bloodline. We could see the beautiful white skin and the sumi quality looked good on most of them. Fifty Shiro Utsuri, all female!
A haze of black and white, concentration was needed to single out particular Koi. With a handful in the bowl, we had a closer inspection. Discounting a couple, we were soon down to 5 Shiro’s. The crowd had cleared from the other ponds, so we started to look for anything else that caught the eye. Thinking I’d had enough of Shiro Utsuri for one day, one stuck out like a sore thumb… in a good way! Excellent body, good pattern, attractive head pattern, good body line, nice white skin and lovely looking sumi quality. In the bowl it went, unfortunately it was considerably more expensive than the fifty we chose from initially. Not to worry, it was very nice, and still reasonable for a female Shiro of that quality. In the bowl it went, I knew immediately we’d be coming away with it.
Turning our attention to another pond, Nagoshi-san mentioned the larger Sansai were all sold, and that there were three Koi show fish in the pond. Most of the koi in here ranged from 50cm up to 70cm or so. In the depths, I got the glimpse of a small Sanke. Around 30-35cm, the quality looked incredible. Sods law this was one of the Koi show fish, we bowled it and was blown away by the beni and sumi quality. Nagoshi, surprised us with the price and we snapped his arm off for it. Perfect for koi shows! 35cm, so it will be size 3 for next year.
The ponds were highly stocked!
[gallery ids="20895,20896" type="rectangular"]
A really positive visit to the farm, we’ll certainly be back next time!
It was already after lunch, so we took the 2 hour drive back to Ojiya. We got back into the mountains at around 3pm so time was against us to get anything done. Many breeders were at the Nogyosai Show helping to pack it down, we knew no one would be around so we made a couple of phone calls to see if we could get access to the koi houses. Calling Kanno, he said his Dad was at the house and that we could go have a look. He mentioned he had just harvested a Nisai pond that morning. Up the hill to Kanno’s main koi house, we’d never seen so many fish here before! Goshiki every direction you turned.
Filling up a bowl, I selected 15 Goshiki from the pond. Once in the bowl, a couple were rejected due to small niggling issues, we were then down to 8 Goshiki. A mixture of males and females in the bowl, the quality was fantastic. Having been quoted very high prices at Kanno before, we weren’t too confident that these would be sensible money. We sent a video to Kanno for him to consider our selections and make a price. He got back to us straight away and told us to place the koi in a floating net. In the morning he will bowl the Goshiki and price them accordingly. We await his message!
Finishing at Kanno, we popped to the opposite side the valley, had a quick coffee and chat with Daisuke at Yagenji. A relatively quiet day, but some great koi sourced, and potentially some stunning Goshiki to be had tomorrow! Providing we don’t have to sell a kidneys for them.
UPDATE: These range from £1,495.00 to £2,495.00. If you are interested In any, please email me/message me on facebook. We have to be quick as we won't be having them all!
(5 step is now sold)
