A large event on the calender while in Japan was Narita's Jumbo Tosai Event, breeders would bring their koi to Narita's expansive shop premises, the vats laid out in rows with 5 - 6 koi per vat, on them were certificates detailing information about the koi and more importantly the set price !
Underneath the certificate, a plastic wallet was used for people to enter their slip of paper, on the paper, their name.
A good system ensured the event ran smoothly and was legitimate in it's operations.
Buyers would place their name in the plastic wallet, then at a particular time, all of the wallets were collected, the slips thrown into a box with a small hole at the top. A name would then be drawn from the box. The name picked out of the hat would then buy that individual koi.
This was quite amusing, as to increase your chances of winning fish throughout the day, you would place your name in many plastic wallets as the chances of winning even a single koi was slim, some wallets there were 10, 20 maybe even 30 slips. One Asian customer managed to win 5 or 6 koi within the first 10 minutes of the draw. His wallet must have stung !
On viewing the koi in the vats, there were a number of koi that we wanted. Some far too expensive, ones that would never even see the UK, and ones that were too good not to have !
Again, it was really good to see the relationship between breeders, dealers, hobbyists and everyone in the room ! Everyone really respects each other which is good to see, especially when there is such a vast amount of money within the Asian Koi market.
We secured two fantastic koi, both Matsue Kohakus. Simply stunning. These are really high quality. No words are needed !
Here are a few photos from the day. Koi that got away, and ones that were just out of reach !
