A big showa judging exercise...pick the GC?!?!

[Brutuscz]

So, Assume Bill Gates gets into the koi hobby. He imports 5 koi to compete in the USA...for several million dollars. You are the head judge..and look in his blue bowls. These are the 5 showa you see. The rest of the fish in the show are now extraneous. They all measure 90cm...and assume you have never seen them before. Pick your order...1 through 5. I really want to know how people look at and judge showa. I would definitely like to learn something here with some commentary. Enjoy!!!

ps...I lifted the pics here and there off the internet. I do not know any of the photographers...this is simply for koi-education.

[RookieKoiGuy]

12534

RookieKoiGuy Grow out Form

[Brutuscz]

Some individual pictures.

[mybirds85]

13452 or 31452

[chinadna]

I like NO.3

31254

[chinadna]

Bill Gates gets into the koi hobby

you sure?

[CarolinaGirl]

The first picture looks like a "glamor shot" that has already been photoshopped to make the fish much whiter than she really is. The rest of the pictures look natural, so it's sort of an unfair compairison. I do like the body on #1 the best, but I like the pattern on fish 4. I wish we had a natural picture of #1 to compare to the others.

[mstrseed]

I have seen some of those before...........
Bill Gates would buy #4 as its deformed and figured he was giving it a good home..........

[PapaBear]

1,2,3,5,4.
I completely ignored color/finish qualities because of the different photo finishes. Not fair to measure beauty shots vs. un-retouched tub shots.

I looked exclusively at body and pattern balance.

[MikeM]

Hmmmm..... can't make by brain stick to the assumptions. They are not all 90cm koi, and if they were, the body proportions on some would be really weird in person. #1 is No. 1. One of the best Showa ever. Just look at the finish of the beni every where on the body and quality of sumi. I've never cared for the pattern at all... takes away from the atmosphere of Showa. Never been a perfect koi.