Masaki has beautiful Asagi and some Shiro Utsuri, although not as plentiful as previously - prices seemed pretty reasonable.  Shinoda was very busy with overseas customers but he had some stonking 3 year old Gin Rin Showa and very good Nisai Gin Rin Showa but we didnt get a chance to check out prices. He is harvesting his Nisai towards the end of the week so we will be back.

Aoki was well stocked with beautiful Nisai Goshiki, Doitsu Hariwake, Red Kujaku, Doitsu Goshiki and other more unusual varieties. He is harvesting more Nisai tomorrow so we are going back in the late morning and I can pretty much guarantee we will be buying as first indications are that his prices will be comparable with last year. We will confirm tomorrow. 

We will also be visiting a new breeder in the south of the area as we understand that he has good Doitsu Ochiba and Snow Asagi.  For those of you who dont know, the snow Asagi is a relatively new variety which is Gin Rin, almost with a bluey white back and red underbelly - they look simply beautiful, very bright and metallic and are still very rare.

Price guide £195

We visited seven farms today - first an hours drive south to visit a very small breeder whose two main ponds are actually in the ground floor of hi house!  He breeds Kin Showa, Doitsu Ochibe, Snow Asagi, Kumonryu and Gin Rin Showa.  Not a good year for him - he lost all of his three year old stocks when a mud pond collapsed after heavy rain in August. But he had some great Nisai, especially Snow Asagi. I bought a box of these - all superb examples of this rare beauty - and we will be going back later in the week as he has further harvesting to do.

Next we moved on to Takahashi, also in the south of the region.  However when we arrived, he just had empty ponds - he has not even begun to harvest his Koi yet - so we must go back to him too later in the trip.

Then we revisited Aoki and got there just as he was unloading more newly harvested Nisai (two year old) metallics.  We ended up buying two boxes from him, one all Goshiki - which are simply superb and the reds on them shine so much they look almost metallic, and then a further box made up of lemon Hariwake, Doitsu Kohaku, red Kujaku and Doitsu Hariwake.

Then we visited Otsuke, a specialist in Goshiki, Aka Matsuba, Ki Utsuri, Kigoi, Asagi and more unusual Koi such as Goshiki Showa. He had excellent Aka Matsuba as usual, so I purchased a box of Nisai (two year olds) + one mixed box of Aka Matsuba, Shusui and Tancho Gin Rin Goshiki Sansai (three year olds) which were both excellent quality and very reasonably priced.

Then on to Marusaka - good Koi again this year but missing Kin Ki Utsuri, which is why we normally buy from him. He still has much more harvesting to do so we did not buy this time, but will be revisting later in the trip.

We had made an appointment to see Yamezaki san next, but when we arrived there was already a large party of Germans in attendance, Yamezaki asked us to choose Koi by ourselves and asked us to wait for him, as he had a newly harvested batch of Koi for us to look through, but could not show us in front of the Germans as he had reserved the new stocks for us to see first - very good of him, but we waited over 1 hour and then another party turned up and still the Germans had not concluded their business - so we made our apologies and decided to come back later in the day.

We moved on to Oofuchi, one of the larger farms in Niigata and renowned for his fair pricing and top quality for Shusui, Kujaku, and many other varieties - however when we got there he only had Koi in one of his three main sales ponds!  He explained that a couple of days earlier, the entire contents of both of his other ponds had been sold to Asian buyers - greedy b******* !  Strangely, although this in itself is not so uncommon, he had not yet decided to harvest any new stocks to replace the ones sold - and all the dealers turning up to look at his "new" stocks were being disappointed.  We asked him to call us when the next harvest was to be completed to which he agreed, but could not confirm a date - so we dont actually even know at this stage whether we will get a chance to buy or not.

So we moved on to Hosokai, renowned for Goshiki, Ochibe, Shusui, Asagi + Go Sanke - unlike Oofuchi, Hosokai has been harvesting new stocks every day - so that his customers were almost forced to return time after time to ensure they got to see his newly harvested Koi - what a completely opposite attitude to Oofuchi!

Unfortunately he also had a party of Germans who had arrived there before us, along with some Japanese customers, so again we had to wait a while before we could net out any Koi. However, after only around 15 minutes we were bowling fish and I bought a very good mixed box with Kin Matsuba, Gin Rin Matsakawabake, a Tancho Kohaku and a very high grade Nisai Goshiki. He then invited us to join us for lunch with him and his staff - so we could not really be rude and say no.  It is important to socialise and it is a very important part of Japanese business culture - you dont rush off having concluded a business deal when invited to lunch as this is considered very rude, and frankly by this time, I only wanted to be rude to Germans not my Japanese hosts. Why cant they be content with second place as history dictates?

We then travelled back to Yamezaki - as by this time it was already after 2pm - and thankfully when we got there, we had an hour to ourselves going through his new Nisai and Sansai stocks uninterrupted by further (German) visitors!  He had kept undercover some of his newly harvested stocks, so I set about choosing 3 boxes of Koi. One box exclusively his Lemon Hariwake, for which he is so famous, then a mixed box of Gin Rin Purachina, Gin Rin Hi Utsuri and a beautiful Shiro Utsuri.

Lastly, we visited Seki, the oldest established Shiro Utsuri breeder in Niigata, who had just announced that he had decided to retire and close his farm. His over 75 years of age, and has no successor to take over his farm, so had decided to sell al his parent stocks this year - very sad. He has some amazing Shiro Utsuri - but guess what - when we arrived ha had a Phillipino buyer there ! Grrrrrrrr - so we have to go back tomorrow.

Then we moved on to a new breeder for us Tomasu who breeds very good Shusui, Kin Matsuba and Kohaku. He was busy with some customers - guess which country? So we did not stay for long.  We also briefly visited the auction house next door as they were setting up lots for a Koi Auction later that day. At 9.30am in the morning they already had 614 lots to sell!

Then we moved on to Takano -  a very good breeder of Goromo - he was not there but we checked out his stocks - very good, but after ringing him to establish prices, we left in a hurry as his prices appear to have doubled since last May. So this year we must find our Goromo elsewhere.

Then we visited Iwashita, he breeds Gin Rin Asagi, but also buys in many Tosai (baby Koi) to grow on so always has different varieties every time we visit. This time he had some very good Budo Goromo and Kin Ki Utsuri among other varieties so I purchased a mixed box at a very reasonable price. We had to take coffee with Iwashita as this is always part of the ritual with him after buying his Koi - so this delayed us for a further hour but then we moved on to Seki again to look at his very best Sansai Shiro Utsuri - truly beautiful Koi - but frankly outside my price range with the Yen as strong as it is. Next we moved on to Kase, who like Aoki is famous for metallics Doitsu and very unusual Koi.  This year I would say his quality had improved, and the metallic lustre of most of his Koi was as good as Aoki, his life long competitor. Prices very reasonable too so I bought a very good box of Doitsu Yamatonishiki with one Doitsu Ochibe. Then we studied his jumbo Nisai and Sansai. I fell in love with his Kikokuryu and Beni Kikokuryu so ended up buying a box of these too!  A little more expensive as jumbo Nisai but I think well worth the money.

Next we travelled on to Ikareshi Seki, very much like Kase, many unusual varieties. Having decided not to buy here only because I had already bought good examples of many of the types that he stocked, I was stopped dead in my tracks when I spotted a large 3 year old Beni Kumonryu. I asked for it to be bowled. It was 55cm, one of the biggest and best Beni Kumonryu I have ever seen. I hardly dared to ask the price, but I must have looked shocked when he told me because it was a lot less than I had anticipated - our agent laughed and photographed the fish before I could even respond as he knew I was going to buy it - and of course I did. We rarely ever see Beni Kumonryu more than 2 years old, and even when we do see 3 year olds they are either notoriously expensive or very small or both - but not this one!

Next we move on to Takahashi, 2nd visit again, as he has only just started harvesting his Nisai and Sansai. Unfortunately it would appear that he has lost most of his expensive Sansai when one of his mud ponds collapsed in very heavy rains experienced in August, so he only has a fraction of his normal 3 year old stocks. But is the Nisai that we have come to see, and we ended up buying three boxes - Yamabuki Ogon, Tancho Kohaku, Tancho Sanke, Tancho Showa, Kumonryu, Beni Kumonryu, Doitsu Ochibe and Kujaku - a real mixture but all good quality and all very reasonably priced.

We appear to have had a bit of a demand for some of the Shinoda Koi -  so I decided to go back to Shinoda today to by some more!  He was delighted to see us - again, and even more delighted when I purchased a further box of mixed Doitsu Showa, Gin Rin Showa and Doitsu Kohaku. Same fantastic quality as yesterday - and I also got a bit carried away and bought a three year old Doitsu Showa as well - bang goes another budget! So hopefully we will have sated the appetite for Doitsu Showa - if not he is harvesting more on 25th so I will go back again if necessary!

Then we visited Marusaka again, no purchases, on to Oofuchi - who had rung as promised to tell us that he had at last harvested some new Koi - including many Nisai - so we drove down and selected two boxes of mixed Nisai including three more Kumonryu and a very metallic red Kin Matsuba Ogon, and two stunning Kujaku, one a Tancho.  Kujaku are one of Oofuchis specialities and these are very good examples. The picture quality is not good however as there is always too much reflection at his place. Oofuchi is now one of the largest farms in Niigata and does not normally begin harvesting his Nisai until the end of November or early December - but again this year he has already sold so many three year olds, mainly to Malaysian and Chinese customers, that he has begun to harvest his Nisai early - good news for us!

Tomorrow we are going back to Shinoda yet again as he will have more Nisai Doitsu Showa for us to see and back to Takehashi in the south as he also has harvested many more Nisai and then back to Yamezaki so I am sure we will be buying again tomorrow.

This was our 4th visit to Shinoda and he was very pleased to see us again (and I am guessing so was his bank manager!) We had come for more new Doitsu Showa but when we looked in the ponds we could not see anything that really caught the eye. Shinoda san laughed when he saw the obvious disappointment on my face, then disappeared into the 'staff only' area at the back of his fish house and came out with a bag laden with Doitsu Showa which he had out to one side to keep them from prying eyes. These were stunning quality, the best so far, so I bought the best four and I picked one very good Doitsu Kohaku to make up the box. Fantastic!

Next on to Yamezaki where I chose a box of three Sansai, an excellent female Beni Kumonryu, female Gin Rin Ochibe and a male four step Goshiki.

Then lastly the long drive down to Takehashi, where we were please to see that he had harvested many new Nisai, including his Showa. I bought a box with 4 of these, plus a Shusui, Beni Kumonryu and Yamabuki Ogon.

We had planned to visit Hamamatsu in Shizuoka prefecture today as well to visit a further breeder but unfortunately we ran out of time so had to catch the Nozumi - faster bullet train  - down to Kyoto where we will visit more farms tomorrow.

Well our last day in Japan was spent in the Kyoto area. This is in my view Japans most beautiful area and we are lucky that there are s coupe of Koi farms here that we can visit - normally we would combine business with pleasure and do some sightseeing as well as Koi buying - but again this year there was no time. After a 45 minute local train journey through beautiful wooded valleys holding rushing rivers we arrived at our destination where we were picked up by the farm owner. This Koi breeder actually buys in most of his stocks as Tosai and grows them on. Most of his stocks come from a breeder called Tomoura, who has a long established and very famous blood line for Go Sanke.

Its a very small facility, but with some great Koi - and the temptation here is that being a small farm, way off the beaten track, his prices are lower than the main Koi buying areas. So I ended up buying a magnificent 4 year old female Showa, 66cm and a 3 year old female Kindai Showa at 63cm. Then also a pair of female jumbo two year old Kohaku around 45cm each.

Very nice thank you! We then moved on to the second farm in the area, a further 40 minutes drive away, but this time did not buy as the quality and choice was not so good, other than some splendid Tosai Tancho Showas which I was sorely tempted by, but they were just too expensive - so I passed. Then it was an hours drive and train ride back to Kyoto to catch the bullet train back to Tokyo, so we spent the rest of the day on trains again to get to our hotel in Narita, near to the air port for our journey home tomorrow.

We hope you have enjoyed our blog this Autumn and look forward to welcoming you to a viewing of all our new Koi for 2011 in the coming weeks - we will post exact arrival dates for this shipment as soon as we know it - but we hope to have all the new Koi on display for Saturday 5th November but please check our web pages for exact details.

All our new Koi are free from quarantine and can now be collected /  delivered

See you soon !