I recently heard something interesting and new to me regaring sumi development. I heard that sumi develops from the back-end/tail section of koi and develops forward to the head section/front of the fish.
Therefore, when we look at unfinished koi to assess it's sumi quality we should evaluate the strength/quality of sumi on the front section of the koi because it is the weakest point for sumi. So if the sumi quality is good upfront, then so will the rest of the sumi on the koi; whether sumi is already showing or not.
Does this only apply to gosanke? At the time we were only looking at sankes and showas.
True or false? Maybe I heard my facts wrong. But I'd like to open it up to the board members to shed some light on this
"dark" subject
.