| Mojo: Young Showa are so difficult to evaluate through photos. I assume the one you posted is nisai heading into its third growing season. The Hi has the sort of sparkle seen in some photos of the Hi of very young fish, decent kiwa and overly wide sashi. It looks on the thin side. Altogether, I'm just not sure what you are getting in the Hi. The Shiroji is not clean. I would need to know a lot about the development of the breeder's Showa before considering this fish.
Attached is a 10" tosai heading into her second season. This one has too much red, rather than too little. But look at the depth of the red pigment and the purity of the white. The Sumi that shows looks pretty good for so young a fish. With Showa, the wisdom of the ages is "buy the red and bet on the black". This is nice Beni. The cost is less than half the price of the Showa you posted. For me, this is the better buy, albeit not an awesome pattern by a long shot. There is no perfect koi. |