Just a question here...

[karipeters]

Lots of heat going on here in this last week or so...I'm trying to step back and think about the whole thing.

My question:

Should I judge someone I don't know because of what I've heard about them?

I don't want to do that or be that kind of person.

JamesP, I don't know you, but I formed an opinion about you. Now you have apologized for your joke gone awry - and it changed my opinion. Lesson learned by me...I don't know you and shouldn't be so judgemental.

PS - I am as Koi Kichi as hobbyists, and not all dealers are out to be devisive or derisive or demented or defamatory or delusional...

[koiczar]

Kari

It was all about stereo-typing. If you're affiliated, by definition, in any way with someone who had/has less scruples than you, you're still automatically guilty as charged!! What a world we live in!!!

Mike

[James P]

Thanks so much for the consideration Kari, most people WANT to believe the worst about other person given a choice. You must be a very fair minded individual?

Not all dealers are bad of course, that is why I said what I did in the other post. But since the saying your first grade teacher IS true- one bad apple does spoil the bunch, the rules get set up to protect members and the purity of the hobby from the one in ten problem dealers.

I highly recommended the tape that Kaz Takeda put together a few years ago for a couple of reasons. First it is a series of interviews with old Japanese dealers/breeders that were THERE in the day. And even as very old men you can hear excitement in their voices ast hey talk about the beginning of koi mania in their small villages. Very cool

But you can also gleam a hint of what the roots of the amateur, breeder, dealer, fish monger days were like. If you fast forward from villagers ' playing at it' and making a few extra yen and some fun-- to then exporting down to Hiroshima, you begin to get the evolution from simple past time to a viable business . Fast forward to the days of Kuroki, when wealthy Japanese gentleman supported an actual business, and the koi show made it's appearance, you then come to understand that the salesman who came to buy the carp food stock were now branching out into the ornamental trade and becoming a distribution arm for the mountain people. Somewhere in here the hikuu I referenced was written- it is not very flattering but it does characterize the personalities that are drawn to easy money and innocent people who only want to pursue beauty in nature and the peace of a tranquil pond setting. Its almost a hanging offense that there are those that would take advantage of otherwise very wise people, when their ‘shields are down’ because they want to believe in this hobby and its mystique. As I said, we all need to fight the good fight. Best, JR

[karipeters]

I have Kaz's tape and also have had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Kuroki several times (and have his book, too)!! Very good references... I need to go back with fresh eyes to view the tape - it's been a while and I was even more naive.