Let's breakdown these Gosanke for what they are presently:
By the way the Sanke is on this months cover of Bito, so this should have struck you guys off the bat.
Here is my opinion on the Sanke. This is very nice it has a nice blocky head/bone structure. The body is full and thick at the tail joint. The pattern is elegant and not so over powering. Sashi is clean as well as the kiwa. The sumi that is up is nice and thick. The beni is clean and thick too. Sanke of this caliber are hard to find, so the rarity factor comes into play. This fish is my pick for Best.
Showa, I am not a very big fan of Showa. But here is my 2 cents, if there was one thing that this Showa has is a Kohaku pattern that is perfect...If we elimated the sumi you would have a very nice Kohaku. There is no motoguro, which is okay considering the tone of the sumi is goin more for accenting the beni. The down side to this Showa is the body conformation. The head in conjunction to the body will look smaler and smaller as the fish grows bigger, but for now it prefect. This fish is my pick for Better.
Kohaku. I love the simple pattern of the Kohaku on a clean white ground. The only problem is the conformation. Simple pattern needs the body to frame it in much better. If the body was up on this fish they would go from okay to whatever...to wow look at that fish...so for now it is good.