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Mike, if we wanted to get truly picky, we can trace back rock n roll to blues to the slaves in the cotton fields. Or country music to the Scots and Irish Scots living in the Ozarks! So stopping at one point and saying THIS is IT is a point of nostalgia or vanity. Understandable, but not enlightened. ( by the way, I'm listening to a 'British Invasion' home made CD as I'm typing! True! )
I think Waddington ( also a great musician and collector of guitars!) knows more about koi than any dealer in the world and most western breeders. I say this because I have picked his brain since 1987 and have been entertained and amazed by the depth of knowledge. The interesting thing is, it is the stories he tells while traveling in the car or over a beer that really are loaded with 'golden nuggets'. Why is he so knowledgeable? He has been observing the breeding programs and taking to the producers themselves since 1978. And like a lot of things including music, if you're in early, on the 'ground floor', you get a perspective on things that is priceless.
That is why I was so shocked and almost violent when he and Nigel suggested it was time to do away with asagi class and roll it into Kawari mono as a relic of the past!! I mean I was horrified. Because asagi was such a foundation fish for so many varieties and because a koi show is first and foremost about teaching about the varieties of koi, I wasn’t having it! Their argument was that asagi was no longer popular and was no longer being bred by the main breeders and was losing popularity. They felt that the koi show was a reflection of consumer demand and at the same time fueled by what was popular among both breeders and buyers. And therefore the varieties needed to be updated to reflect current times. To a point that is true and the reason why for a while we were seeing yamato nishiki at every show in every size and in other years tons of kumonryu and ochiba. But that was not justification for rolling BACK a variety, especially such an important foundation variety.
The reason I told that long story was to point out that evolution passes varieties by. Some get improved or re-invented and some become down right out of vogue. But their history is real and never changes. Today the ochiba is a kohaku cross and no longer an ogon type. The kujaku ogon, is now a kujaku, and kohaku is used to improve size, color and pattern. Today the shiro utsuri wins 90% of the time over hi and ki utsuri as they simply outclass the hi utsuri and the very weak ki utsuri thanks to modern gosanke blood. This is progress. In fact if you do your homework, you will see that the original formulas for creating certain breeds is not done the same way today in probably a full 60% of the varieties.
Budding US breeders NEED to learn the origins of black based and white based varieties to understand the genetics and to orientate themselves among the 100 plus variations out there. So do koi judges that rely on their gut feeling to judge rather than the genetic identity of a fish. But unlike judges, breeders then need to IMPROVE the stock. That is the goal of any breeder! Improving the line and the individual fish is the purpose of the effort. I mentioned the concept of innovator and imitator. We need both in the koi breeding programs. One is a traditionalist and the other is the dreamer. We need both. JR
Here is a 'good show winning shiro' from 1969. Then a modern shiro winning in 2003. You tell me.
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