Dan, you have a very good memory. Yes, this one looks very similar in color to the Ogon I got in 1978 as a very small tosai. We named it Silver. He became a beautiful, even yellow gold with no brassiness. We had him a long time. It was not until I was looking for a replacement that I realized how lucky I had been to get such a nice Yamabuki. The Ogon group tends to darken/deepen with age. It makes the selection of young fish a bit of a challenge. The color seen today will likely differ in the months and years ahead. Any with blackish dark areas should be avoided, as they will decline to mutt status. This is an old genetic problem that has largely been bred out of the better lines, but still shows in a lot of the domestics that glut the market and give Ogons a bad name. The most desired Yamabuki Ogons are hidden in the master's private holding tanks in Niigata. They are pale until they reach 3 or 5 years old, which is when the yellow comes into bloom, the same yellow as the Japanese mountainside flower known as the Yamabuki.
When selecting a light colored Ogon in hope that it will deepen into yellow, it is important to differentiate between those that are pale from lack of light, proper diet etc (the Wal*Mart Ogon ), and those that are robust and come out of the mud a pale yellow tone with no brassy/brown tones.
Yamabuki are the most beautiful koi. Everyone who sees one for the first time says so. Their beauty does not require an educated eye. It is only the connoiseur of rarity who sees the Gosanke as more beautiful. They have educated themselves not to appreciate the Yamabuki too much.
06-07-2006
It seems that they really lighten up when stressed, I see the same thing in darker non-gosanke koi. Should get nice and yellow once its happy out in the pond.
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