[Brutuscz]

Quote: Originally Posted by l113892 I don't buy into the "hi finishing with time" theory. This is just a picture of a fish, not a live koi in front of us so I can't say anything about the quality of the beni. But my experience has been, on the subject of hi, that you either have quality beni from the beginning or that you don't. I've never seen beni "improve" with time. I have seen beni go south and I have seen quality beni "hold". Of course, sumi is a totally different subject.

Here is an example of hi finishing with time. On the left, the kohaku was about 4-5inches...and you can see all the scales are showing and the hi is lacking depth. In the middle and right picture (about 9 inches)...the scales are not as visible and the difference is very noticeable. In the book kokugyu 2...Mr. Kodama gives many fine examples of this.
In the second photo(I lifted off a website somewhere..a while ago) You can see the same thing...in the pic on the right..the scales are not visible and the hi is much deeper.