Central Florida Koi Show 2007: Walking Around

[MikeM]

Too bad that Kohaku had secondary Hi on the peduncle. Otherwise, a really nice piece of art.


The next tank where I took many photos was this one. The Asagi was an aggressive swimmer. At first I thought she was stressed, but it was pure enjoyment of life. The complexity of Asagi plays with the eyes... do you focus on the alignment of scales on the plain blue-gray ground? or is it the balance between the fire belly and the icy back? or, is it the soft ivory head contrasting with the dark? With this one, the powerful, muscular movements gave life to all of the parts.

[MikeM]

Before breaking for the night, one more: The Asagi with no Hi.

Dick: Isn't there a special name for this sort?

This quiet beauty is owned by David and Karen Hardcastle, koikeepers extraordinaire and mainstays of shows in Florida. Harder workers are not to be found. Every pond of Gosanke needs a simple fish for contrast... a Chagoi or Soragoi or Kigoi/Midorigoi usually fills the bill. This Asagi-type fills the bill uniquely.

BTW, the Hardcastles can accomplish this in Florida's hard water because they do what it takes to soften their water.

[MikeM]

...Her head is perfectly clean! That's some debris in the water that looks like speckles!!

More walkin' tomorrow.

[cppond]

Quote: Originally Posted by MikeM Dizzy: Nice blues! ...And then there was another crowd pleaser.

Hey, I have one like that. I swear it's because my kids liked it!

[dick benbow]

Mike. I'm sure there probably is a japanese name for asagi with no hi, but not that i was familar with or anything i could find in my reference books and magazines. I did spend some time looking.....they are different with their own quiet beauty like a simple bekko....simple yet elegant.

Enjoying your walk around!

[MikeM]

Well, let's take a vendor break. Under the tent at one end were 11 vendors in 16 spaces. One was KoiStuff, whose booths were filled solely with tanks of young koi from Sing Chang Koi Farm, one of the leading koi farms in Taiwan. They moved a lot of metallic tosai. Also Kimmy Koi Art... Ed Champigney (Sp!!). I don't know how how many of his paintings were sold, but he sure sold a bunch of shirts imprinted with various of his works. By sunday, I was seeing his shirts every where I looked. No koi sales for Ed. He was selling goldfish in every deformed shape imaginable. And, of course, Ray Abell's Nishikigoi of Niigata was there.

[MikeM]

And Genki was there... Kevin sold out by Sunday morning, but hung around until folks began breaking down. He received a lot of congratulations on supplying the wonderful GC Sanke.

My will power caved, however, at the Far East Statuary booth. I took home a granite snow lantern. In the next couple of weeks I'll figure out a place to put it!

[MikeM]

Now that the eyes are cleared, back to the fish....


More Sanke, anyone? This was a grand one, even if not quite in the league of the GC.

[MikeM]

Folks who follow this board know how taken I am by Showa... maybe not to the extent Dick loves his blues, but there is hardly ever a Showa I don't like. Well, these gals kept coming up to me and sticking their heads out of the water. I suspect they are regularly hand fed. But, I prefer to think they knew I wanted to pet them as if they were dogs. (I didn't!) The "art of sumi" creates such expressiveness on their faces.


(And another set of batteries got used up trying to get a non-blurred shot of them out of water, but no luck. This was the best I could get.)

[MikeM]

Nearby was this grand lady... HenryC's Gin Rin Showa, which took the MAKC Friendship Award (I think it was).

Isn't that a face to love?