[Russell Peters]

Something we all do, when looking for our dream koi, is to try and find that koi finished, or as close to finished, now. We talked with Toshio a lot about finding Koi and he, time and time again, brought up examples of what many of the GC's from AJKS were like when they were young. Most of them were passed upon and no one thought they were worth buying.

Toshio used this years grand champion as an example. As a young koi it showed no promise at all. It had no pattern. As a young showa all it had was its hi pattern. Take a look at the kohaku pattern on the Dianichi showa and try to imagine a young Koi with that pattern. What would you think? Not much right? Well, that is the response it got from almost everyone. What it had going for it was quality. Even though it was essentially patternless it was of the highest quality and being a showa some new that it would develop sumi. The sumi that finally developed is what gave it balance.

Toshio pulled out a showa from his pond this morning that had nothing as a pattern, in fact his comment was "bad pattern". He also told us to look at the beni and tell him what we saw. Take a look at the beni on this showa and see what you think.