Koi Selection Febuary 2010

We now returned from our recent trip to Japan that saw us visitng from the 29th of January and purchasing stocks for the comming season (see updated fish stocks on the koi for sale pages) Stephen was also in Japan to judge at the 41st All Japan Koi Show. The show this year was held in the Toki messe international exibition hall in Niigata city instead of Tokyo.

It was held here to comemorate the rebuilding of the areas koi industry 5 years after the Chuetsu earthquake devestated the reigon.

Stephen was the only English judge from the 10 international judges invited making upto a total of 83 judges. He was selected to judge size 12 for the largest fish, the group from which the most prestigeous prize winners normally are chosen.Together with the six Japanese judges in his group he also judged best Jumbo size division winner for male koi between 75cm and 90cm and best super jumbo division for female koi over 85cm. Two other special catagories were also judged the Yoshida Hiroshi prize for the longest koi which went to a Karasugoi bred by Izumiya koi farm which was in excess of 110cm and the Miya Hideo prize which went to the heaviest koi which was a Karashi also well over 1m long.

All 83 judges voted for the overall grand champion a Kohaku bred by Dainichi received over 50 percent of the votes in the first ballot making it grand chapion. This fish was second last year but this year was presented in much better condition and was a worthy winner.

This years show attracted over 1600 entries contained in over 500 show vats.

Click on the photo below to see others from the show arena that will give you some idea of the scale of the event.