Would you buy this showa as tosai for $2,000?

[Ronin-Koi]

Quote: Originally Posted by RayJordan Wayne, You are correct the photo is not an orginal of the showa as tosai... I did the "poor" photoshop version just to emphasize a point not to trick anyone.... My post was trying to teach a different way to look at showas when you purchase them as babies. It was not intended to be a accurate historical photo.

Hi Ray. Ok, sorry, I did not think that you edited the photo, but had assumed that you got the image off of the web somewhere as a younger version of the GC. I did not mean to diss your photoshop skills. I've read enough of your posts (and learned from them) to know that your intention is to teach.

- Wayne, has seem a photo of the GC from the prior year (it looked outstanding then too), but not as a baby.

[koiczar]

Wayne

Last year, when we were at Maruyama's farm, he had pictures (posters) from the previous 3 years plus the AJKS GC year. He also told us that Futoshi had mistakenly taken this fish with some others to the auction when it was tosai. When his father found out, he was not too happy about it. But at least they got to grow it in their mud ponds for several years before entrusting it to the deft hands of Nogami-san for the finishing touches. He is now using it as a parent koi. There were 6 nisai on display at the AJKS with the GC picture showing who the oyagoi was. When we were there this year, he showed us many of the jumbo tosai offspring from this last year's hatch. They weren't even interested in selling them. At least not for the usual cost of their top jumbo tosai kohaku. When they seined the pond for us to select from, all the showas were culled and put back before we began selecting. They were already very expensive fish. I'd hate to know what the prices were on the nisai we saw at the show. They were absolutely stunning fish though.

Mike