Tokyo / Isawa Bound PSKoi!

[dcny]

Quote: Originally Posted by dinh You two are good.... Here is what I have read on KoiUSA mag: "....Finally, my very special thanks go to Joe Devera and Dan Cheng, the talented cameramen who captured featured photo of my Kohaku..." BTW, Ann will help you out Dan if need;-)) The picture of T. Sakai on the Matsunosuke Event Banner Ads was taken by Ann... --Dinh

Ahh, very nice. Say hi to Ann for me.

I gotta get me a copy of that issue next time I'm down in San Jose.

[Russell Peters]

Today started out in the large green house looking at Koi. There never seems to be enough time to look.

[Russell Peters]

After looking for a while Toshi asks a question that I will never get tired of answering. "Would you like to see some Koi?"

There can only be one answer to this question. Yes! It is a powerful word, Isn't it?

Toshio and Toshi began choosing Koi.

[Russell Peters]

The topic of our lesson today was the new sumi that Toshio has been working on for the last twenty years.

What is it? What makes it different?How do you recognize it?

I think what sums it up best it to compare the characteristics and qualities of the new sumi to how you would look at beni.

By that I mean, what do you look for in high quality beni? You look for the depth of insertion - Sashi, you look for luster or sheen and you look for definition or Kiwa.

Toshio Sakai has developed sumi with maruzome kiwa.

To explain more of what this means, I need to talk a little about his beni. I have replied on another thread before that quality beni does not have to have a sharp kiwa, that Toshio has said that a blurred kiwa is not necessarily an indicator of bad beni. If the quality of the beni on a young koi is excellant, but the kiwa is uneven or blurred it means that the beni is more elastic and as it develops and builds more layers of beni it will shrink, tighten up and form maruzome kiwa. It will always develop from the bottom of the koi to the top.

On the other hand, young Koi with high quality beni with sharp kiwa will also continue to get better but the beni will be harder and less flexible.

So, if you have a koi with lesser quality beni that has sharp or maruzome kiwa at a young age. It will tend to break up as it gets older. The important thing to learn as you look at beni is whether or not it is high quality. (Good seminar topic, hint, hint).

Toshio Sakia has developed a sumi that has all of these qualities. If you look at this picture you can see the depth of insertion, the sashi, of the sumi and you can see it developing maruzome kiwa.

[Russell Peters]

Here is another picture of the sumi from a different angle.

[Russell Peters]

Something we all do, when looking for our dream koi, is to try and find that koi finished, or as close to finished, now. We talked with Toshio a lot about finding Koi and he, time and time again, brought up examples of what many of the GC's from AJKS were like when they were young. Most of them were passed upon and no one thought they were worth buying.

Toshio used this years grand champion as an example. As a young koi it showed no promise at all. It had no pattern. As a young showa all it had was its hi pattern. Take a look at the kohaku pattern on the Dianichi showa and try to imagine a young Koi with that pattern. What would you think? Not much right? Well, that is the response it got from almost everyone. What it had going for it was quality. Even though it was essentially patternless it was of the highest quality and being a showa some new that it would develop sumi. The sumi that finally developed is what gave it balance.

Toshio pulled out a showa from his pond this morning that had nothing as a pattern, in fact his comment was "bad pattern". He also told us to look at the beni and tell him what we saw. Take a look at the beni on this showa and see what you think.

[Russell Peters]

This showa is only two years old, but look at how even and thick the beni is. Look at the lustre, this is very high quality beni. You will also notice that there isn't much sumi but what there is very deep and is also very high quality.

Take a look at the shiroji as well. It is not the greatest picture, but you can see the quality.

[Russell Peters]

How would you judge this showa? Would you purchase it? Most would not. Most people would not buy this showa because it has no pattern. This showa has very high quality but no pattern - now.

[Russell Peters]

All good things have to come to an end. Here are a few shots from the bus of the ride through the hills from Isawa and of our drive through Tokyo.

[Russell Peters]

Not much of a view, but we saw Disney from the bus.