Where Do All The Matsunosuke Koi Go?

[MikeM]

I checked out the jumbo tosai being auctioned by Matsunosuke, and it occurred to me that I hardly ever see koi from Sakai of Isawa or Yammamatsu listed by dealers in the U.S. A few years back, when Quality Koi was a retail dealer, there would be a few dozen nisai listed continuously and a few older ones in high price ranges. But, I've not noticed any of their fish lately on dealer sites I visit. So, I went surfing the net and found ...virtually nothing. The Sakai brothers must produce thousands of tosai and hundreds of nisai best suited for the "general market" every year. But, I cannot find where any dealers in the West carry much of anything. Where do all their koi go? Do they supply dealers with all their "not the very best" koi anonymously? Is their production largely taken in Asia, leaving nothing much to ship to the West?

[aquitori]

Alot of the West Coast dealers have yet to bring in Sakai Isawa or Yamamatsu koi..Why? Dunno...I know of only one dealer here in the Bay Area who has Sakai Isawa and that is PSKoi...But I do know in the last 3 years no one around here has been bring in his fish...There has been fish from Maruyama and Sakuma from the same area...

[dick benbow]

When I saw the title mike had on this thread I thought of a song by the kingston
Trio from a few years back "where have all the young girls, soldiers etc....Gone?
"when will they ever learn? when will they ever learn! "...

I learned a long time ago this man breeds Extraordinary koi and have certainly
had my share. I'd say dan and sharon in Spokane (washington state) have the nicest and most sizeable collection of his stuff, tho I went over to my koi kichi's to check the beni and fukerin on his kohaku from toshio ( It was the breeder's #4 fish, 4 years ago ) It's now 6 and really unbelieveable quality. Gene and phyllis in idaho are also wise to his prowess as a breeder!

The lady that owns the blueberry farm that i have done some serious koi breeding for brings his stuff in regularly. There's places out there...in fact Tony at oregon koi brought in My sanke that took reserve GC at puget Sound koi club's young fish show a few years back.....

[koiczar]

As Antonio mentioned, PSKoi has brought in some tosai, jumbo tosai and some nisai. he bought them while we were there for the all Japan show in January. After seeing the quality, Russ will be going back in October for a return visit. Anyone interested in high class nisai or sansai, feel free to contact Russell at: pskoi.com or you can send me a pm for further details.

Mike

[bekko]

One of our local dealers brought in 300-400 matsunosuke tosai late last spring because his usual supplier had not recovered from the earth quake. I bought my share and am very happy with them. They look a little different, behave a little different and have a super growth potential. The matsunosuke are half-again larger than my home-made koi of the same age.

-stevehops

[dick benbow]

one of the things you will notice about this bloodline is like teenagers they get long and thin in their growth spurts. once they hit their length for your pond then they seem to thicken up. I can remember many visits with friends to his place and conversations afterwards about how they didn't like the koi as they were all so long and skinny (LOL) BUT you should see them now!

[MikeM]

I think this is interesting.... There is one British dealer with a number of his fish stocked, but otherwise it seems rather haphazard. Could it be that the bulk go to hobbyists visiting his farm, so not many left for dealers to stock as inventory?

[Beadmaster]

I know of several dealers in Holland and Belgium that still stock koi from Sakai Isawa.
But for the past few years it seems that Sakai Hiroshima and Momotaro got the reputation of producing the best / fastest growing koi (one can easily understand why by only looking at the show results) . So at present many dealers focus more on these popular breeders then on the "old master".
You realy have to know the Matsunosuke lines to have the confidence to buy them when young (and price is still "affordable"). Everybody recognises their quality when 7 or 8 years old.......(and price has grown in accordance...)
Young koi (nisai / sansai) of SFF / Momotaro look much more impressive because of body volume / size so are more easy so sell to a wider public.
Grtz from Holland,
Hans (fan of Toshio's AND SFF koi)

[aquitori]

Quote: Originally Posted by MikeM I think this is interesting.... There is one British dealer with a number of his fish stocked, but otherwise it seems rather haphazard. Could it be that the bulk go to hobbyists visiting his farm, so not many left for dealers to stock as inventory?

In think in recent years it has been because of pricing and rumors of disease in the fish that has alot of dealers not buying alot of his fish. I am sure he is clear on the disease issues, but on the pricing that is another case.