Kyushu and back...
Kyushu Island is turning into a real koi hotspot for Koibito cusomters....find out why...
Although Kyushu is one of the least travelled areas for koi buyers in Japan, it holds some of the most interesting places to visit. A visit to Kyushu usually consists of dropping in on the "Big Kyushu 4" of Maruchiku, Muto, Okawa and Ueno, and this last trip didn't dissapoint!
Maruchiku, a small family farm run by a tight Husband and Wife team, produces beatiful Gosanke. Koibito has a HQ 3-sai Showa on Special Offer from Maruchiku now, featured in the main photo of this news article. Maruchiku usually breeds his Showa from Dainichi or Sakai female parent koi, with the males being Maruchiku breed Showa. He also had a pretty looking 3-sai Doitsu Ochiba, also on Special Offer right now.
Muto Koi Farm has been in business for 45 years now, and is very famous for it's monster size Jumbo Tosai regularly up to 45 cm, and for it's huge 2-sai koi, which can often be over 60 cm!!! Muto San is also the original creator of the Ochiba Shigure, and if you have time he will tell you all about how he made the first one over a cup of coffee!!! Our customer picked up a lovey 2-sai Kohaku there which was 57 cm. At the time of asking how long the koi was, Muto san said confidently, "It's 57.5 cm", we all had a laugh thinking he was joking around....when it was measured it was exactly 57.5 cm!!! A true master of his craft!!!
Okawa Koi Farm, run by the Tanaka family has been in the business of breeding koi for three generations now, and focus mainly on Gosanke, but also breed excellent Shiro Utsuri, Ochiba, GR Showa...etc. The Tanaka brothers, who run the farm, are always welcoming often taking Koibito customers out for dinner and drinks. A truely welcoming family of koi breeders.
Ueno Koi Farm is run by a father and son team. Mr. Ueno used to be Mandarin orange farmer many years ago and started breeding koi after being a serious hobbyist for many years. His son Hiroki trained at Sakai as an apprentice for some years, and both are really in the know when it comes to breeding Showa which is the farm's speciality. On a recent trip to Kyushu, we asked Hiroki to show us some of his cheaper small 2-sai fish, and was shown a pond of 40-45 cm fish...this I was assured is "Kyushu size" small 2-sai...needless to say, we picked wuite a few fish that day!!!
Finally, we have managed to add some Tosai from Okawa Koi Farm to our Stock page, there are three offers, Shiro Utsuri / Ochiba, Chagoi, Soragoi / Sanke, Showa, Kokaku, GR Showa available...feel free to check them out on the stock page...
As always, enjoy the photos...
