Growing the Hobby

[cppond]

Is expanding the hobby a desirable thing, and if so, what is the appropriate way to do it?

[JasPR]

what does 'growing the hobby' mean to you? And what hobby are you talking about?

JR

[The Pond Digger]

For goodness sakes! CPPOND must certainly be talking about the HOBBY of raising beautiful koi.

It is certainly appropriate to grow the hobby! The Kodama family has a saying in Japanese, at least in my translation, that serves as a motto . "Sharing beautiful koi with the world."

I am using the word "motto" in this context listed below. So please don't take it out of context and put it into a marketing spin!

2. a sentence, phrase, or word expressing the spirit or purpose of a person

CPPOND, share your passion with others and in doing so, spread the culture of koi to your family and friends. Make a personal card with your name and contact information with koi on it and give it to everyone you meet that shows interest in the hobby of raising koi.

Give the gift of Nishikigoi when ever and HOWEVER possible! Greeting cards, jewelry, apparel, artwork and on birthday cakes! Yeah birthday cakes, HOWEVER possible! Share your love for koi with your children. Share your hobby with your family and let your wife & kids, Mom or Dad pick out a koi for your pond, EVEN IF IT'S NOT TEXTBOOK and in doing so you will grow the hobby of raising koi. It will give them pride of ownership!

Be creative, have fun with it and the hobby will grow. Passion is contagious.

Respectfully,

The Pond Digger

[JasPR]

so it's a commercial thing then? Kodama is a koi dealer and it makes perfect sense to expose people to koi as it is good for business. Is that what you are saying? JR

[aquitori]

Quote: Originally Posted by JasPR so it's a commercial thing then? Kodama is a koi dealer and it makes perfect sense to expose people to koi as it is good for business. Is that what you are saying? JR

I dont know JR, but where I come from people seem to think the dealer and hobbyist go hand in hand in promoting the hobby.

Tony

[JasPR]

Tony, they do. In ZNA it was acknowledged a long time ago that a form of mutual exploitation is good for the hobby. We need business interests and business interests need us.
But do you need to 'buy something' to grow the hobby??? And do motives for growing the hobby count in terms of a healthy growth vs a not-so-healthy growth?

And finally, why must growth mean ' big numbers of people'? ZNA counts growth as personal growth and growth of the koi culture. Quality vs Quantity

JR

[HEADACHE6]

9 out 10 people think of a Water Garden when you say "Koi Pond" (If there not in the Hobby) . The Appropriate way is teaching them the difference in the beggining (Even if it scares 1/2 of them away) . Either that are don't give them your phone # , because you'll get to treat their Sick Fish . (I Know This First Hand)

[Sangreaal]

Back to the original question before it became a redirected spin

Quote: Originally Posted by cppond Is expanding the hobby a desirable thing, and if so, what is the appropriate way to do it?

Expanding the hobby is a natural growth process nurtured naturally by personally sharing our culture of koi and ponding experiences like Pond Digger suggests. It has little to do with commercialism, other than the fact that we have to buy the fish and the equipment to keep them with, and there has to be people to supply this need.

Koi don't know dick about commercial interests and could care less how much they cost or how much their ponds cost or who builds it or who sells it. The hobby is Koi and what they contribute to our lives that make them desirable to be in it. It is showing this to others that will expand the hobby and help it gain in public popularity.

The koi culture did start with the Japanese, and there is a lot to be said for this side of it, but this is not and should not be the only side. Koi are bred everywhere now and are revered by more than just those that enjoy the Asian viewpoint exclusively. People will design their ponding paradise around their personal preferences, and if their idea of what is beautiful and self-gratifying is continually scorned by the hard-nosed "this is the only way it can be" folks, they'll not want to share what it is that brings them personal satifaction and happiness in their special interestof koi. They'll not want to show their fish at shows that cater to only the Japanese heritage of the hobby and they'll not be involved in clubs or forums or any group of people that wish to "correct" what it is that they personally think is "right" for themselves and their fish and their ponds and their lifestyles...for doing this drives people away....

[JasPR]

That's VERY true. Because many garden ponders come from a consumer or commercial mentality, they see koi people as free workers. This is classic example of a clash of hobby culture with a consumer minded culture.
The early phase of this hobby involves a lot of consuming. And obsessive compulsive buying is very much part of the fun. But after than phase, there needs to be more. A large percentage of casual ponders never make it past the second year of water garden ponding as the thrill fades and the hassle is too great to continue. But out of this consumer fading comes some real koi people. And water gardening is usually not enough to hold most people's interest after a while.

I suspect that Carl, being Carl and having an assignment and agenda, thinks growing the hobby is something resembling an evangelist movement at this point. Political groups do not make the hobby grow. They political type A's organize the people under a banner. But organizing raw garden ponders is like 'herding cats'. The drop out rate and the personalities are challenging. It is wiser to start with the koi and not with platitudes like " it's all about the hobby". It begs the question-- what hobby are you referring to? The hobby as defined by the Japanese? Some quirky version of that to include goldfish, longfins and tropical fish? If you are referring to that kind of federation, that is a pure social club as the ONLY common factor are the personalities. Not a good beginning for a new beauracy as there is no focus. So how can that grow the actual koi hobby culture? And for what purpose?

Nope, the only real contribution is to strengthen the existing koi culture. This is unfortuantely no longer what the breeders and dealers what. That just requires too passive a role for the agressive dealer/breeder. In that sense, the koi culture is in the way to growing a consumer orientated garden/koi hobby. Thank God, for the tiny koi culture!
JR

[PapaBear]

I think the "which hobby" question does come into play, but it is a necessary evil that the two (WG and Koi Kichi) slop over onto each other, and I do use the word "slop" rather than overlap intentionally.

Porta-Potty water features are here to stay, and have absolutely nothing to do with the Koi Culture so many of us enjoy. Tateshita Koi living (and soon dying) in them is a reality, but in its own perverse way it supports our Koicentric hobby as well. If it wasn't for the WG crowd spending money on those poor tateshita the breeders would lose a sizable outlet for their bottom end fish, and the feed bill for our prized tategoi would be that much tougher to pay. That would drive the price of the good ones nowhere but up, and nice ones are pretty pricey as it is.

The Koi Culture also props up the Porta Potty marketplace, because the breeders are constantly producing better quality at ALL levels, which improves the fish that are affordable to the typical WG'er. They may kill 'em quick, but the "dead pet replacement market" having a higher turnover rate than their pumps does help the financial bottom line...

"Live and let Die" may not be the goal of the Koi Culture, but we aren't Koi Evangelists either, nor can we be... Obviously we succeed in making a few converts along the way, but that only happens if the WG'er falls in love with his fish and begins to appreciate them as more than a mere decoration but rather a work of living art.