Hello Larry,
The marusome sumi is a "one-off". One of the things I have been working on is incorporating the Jinbei stability with the glossy tsuya sumi this Suda male possessed. Normally, early lacquer like sumi is surface sumi and breaks up in a few years. This Suda male had a patch of stable tsuya sumi on its shoulder and I wanted to work with it. This fish was an off-shoot of that pairing. I did not notice the marusome sumi at the time I passed it on for another year's growth. It just had stunning sumi is all that I remember, and I wanted to watch it. It may have been present. I assumed the sumi would begin to break up and not continue to consolidate as it has. I'll grow her another year and then evaluate. It's probably just academic, but there is an outside chance She could be useful.
The best part of running auctions, and it may be the only part, is that it forces me to photograph my fish. Another comment I want to make about this koi is it's scales. Did anyone else notice that they are finer than what you normally see on my fish. I have noticed this with Toshio's new sumi as well. I was wondering if he had crossed with a doitsu to come up with his new sumi. It may be that this particular genetic trait and scale type go hand in hand.