| Grant was generous enough to sit through my presentation on koi history last weekend and offer some great pearls of his own to help me improve my data. One of the neatest stories he told me was about visiting Tomiji Kobayashi when Kobayashi was at his height of popularity producing truly awesome showa that won major show after show in their day. It has been reported that Kobayashi produced his new modern showa by crossing a kohaku with a Shiro Utsuri. Like much of the information about koi history and genealogy this is sort of a half way version. The parent koi used by Kobayashi were mixed breed koi. The female was a cross between a Shiro Utsuri and a Tomion Kohaku the male was a cross between a orginal style showa and a Yagazon Kohaku.
Grant told me about asking Kobayashi to see the parent koi that produced his famous showas. Grant said he was surprised to see how unsual the parent koi looked. One had a large red marking on it's head kind and a single large patch of sumi on one side. The other was just sort of messy looking. It was a special treat to be able to hear Grant describe his experiences in Japan from over 30 years ago. The N. Cal clubs are very fortunate to have Grant's expertise to learn from. |