Doitsu Hi-Showa at Koshiji Koi Farm (Kase)
We visited Kase (Koshiji Koi Farm) a few days ago, and found something rather interesting swimming in one of his ponds...
Kase-san entered the koi world as a breeder at the age of 25, after a brief career as a sushi chef. Koi breeding and sushi seem to be complete opposites, one involves tenderly loving for fish, the other chopping them up...but when you look closely they are similar. Anyone entering these trades must train for many years to become a master of their chosen art; both require deep knowledge, natural talent and skill; and both require the practitioner to be a perfectionist, willing to push themselves every day to improve in their chosen field.
Koshiji Koi Farm is well known for producing metallic and hikarimono varieites in abundance. The owner of the farm, Kase-san who is also the current Chairman of the Nagaoka Breeder's Association, is well know for trying to create new and interesting varieities, and also for trying to make more difficult breeds of metallic/doitsu/hikarimono koi stable.
On visiting his farm this week, we were happily greeted as usual, and chatted for a few minutes about the summer breeding season, and took at look at some of the tosai that he has been breeding over the summer. Suddenly, in mid-conversation, Kase-san said to us, "Do you want to see something really interesting?"...of course we said, "Yes".
We went into his other house, passing the large still unfilled ponds usually reserved for larger 3 yr old koi, and there we indeed saw something really interesting as promised, Doitsu Hi-Showa.
Kase-san explained that the fish we could see in the pond were the result of 4 years of hard work. However, the original goal had not been to breed Doitsu Hi-Showa, but acutually Doitsu Hi-Utsuri. Why try for so long to breed a fish for a niche market...you may ask. Kase-san put it very simply, he was not satisfied with Beni Kumonryu. As you know, some Beni Kumonryu can be pretty when young, and turn into "black monsters" in a few years. Some of course can be ugly as tosai, and really blossom into beautiful koi, but this huge swing in development was not good enough for Kase-san. He wanted to combine what he calls the "striking contrast" present in Beni Kumonryu, but have sumi "that you can trust"!
During the first year of breeding the Doitsu Hi-Utsuri, he found that the tosai developed unsightly, spotty and as Kase-san himself described it, "rubbery" sumi. These koi did not meet his initial goal, so he felt that another approach was needed. From here Kase-san's Doitsu Hi-Showa project was born. Some will look at the photos below, and say they are Doitsu Hi-Utsuri, but as Kase kindly noted, a Hi-Utsuri with a white belly is a Hi-Showa.
He has now decided to put these high contrast koi on sale, and has assured Koibito Japan that the sumi on these koi is going nowhere!!! Unlike Bemi Kumonryu, what you see is pretty much what you get...
(see Special Offers section for sample photos and videos)
