Day 4 in Japan: Selecting Tosai And Nisai & A Game-Changing Breeding Decision

Day 4 in Japan was another exciting chapter in my koi-buying journey. After the successes at Marudo and Hosokai, I was eager to continue my search for high quality koi this time at Marujyu Koi Farm, a breeder with an outstanding reputation for Showa. Selecting through tosai has always been my comfort zone, and finding opportunities to hand-pick from the breeder’s stock was a key goal of my trip.

Marujyu Koi Farm is renowned for producing an exceptional female Tancho Showa that won big at the All Japan Koi Show. See footage of her - Marujyu Tancho Showa 

Since then, she has become a cornerstone of their breeding programme. More recently, her quality as a brood female caught the attention of Dainichi, leading to a collaboration that resulted in a new Showa line—the ‘Pandora’ line.

Two years after the first Pandora spawning, Marujyu now has a strong range of stock. Eager to see what they had produced, I selected several Nisai Showa for our koi shop. But what made the visit even more special was the opportunity to acquire two particularly impressive Showa that Shigeyoshi personally recommended for breeding—one female and one male.

The female may need another year before she produces eggs, while I’m hoping the male will yield results this season. Opportunities like this do not come around often, and Showa is a key variety in our breeding strategy—particularly following Craig Caldwell’s show-winning success with a Showa from our MGS line.

If you'd like improve your understanding of Showa Koi, you might be interested in my in depth analysis of this variety : Koi Variety Spotlight: Showa

Tosai Selection & Unexpected Finds

Marujyu’s reputation for Tancho Showa is well known, so I made sure to select two promising examples. However, alongside their renowned Go-Sanke, I was also impressed by their Budo Goromo. Unexpectedly, I also came across some very high-quality Yamato Nishiki, which I couldn’t resist selecting to bring back to Byer Koi Farm.

My tancho showa selections :

And , all the koi I selected :

Earlier in the week, Shigeyoshi and I had an in-depth discussion about breeding lines. He explained the development of their new Pandora line, and I shared our work on bottom-up patterns in Doitsu Ochiba. It was a fascinating conversation, full of shared ideas, and he offered insights that helped me better understand certain trends we see in our spawnings.

A Difficult Decision

After the tosai selections, I wanted to see if there were any Showa suitable for breeding. I asked Shigeyoshi if he had a female he would recommend, and he pulled out three koi from very select ponds.

In Japan, breeders have different ponds at various price points, just as we do at Byer Koi Farm. Marujyu had an individually priced pond, where koi are valued on a case-by-case basis, as well as another pond housing koi that were not for sale.

Shigeyoshi first pulled out a few koi from the individually priced pond, followed by a female from the not-for-sale pond.

Frustratingly , I didn’t take good footage of the new brood fish !  I have this of Shigeyoshi cataloging my new female showa plus two other koi I selected from his top priced Nisai pond for our koi

Fukurin on the new brood female is outstanding , particularly for a Nisai:

As I weighed up my options, he threw in a curveball—a Nisai male Showa from the same not-for-sale pond. He explained that this was a koi he had originally intended to use himself, but he was willing to offer it to me at the same price as the

Honestly, I was stumped. Investing in high-value brood stock is always a gamble. The female was already a significant commitment, but now I had the chance to take a male that Shigeyoshi himself had selected for his breeding programme. It was an unexpected twist, and I had to quickly evaluate the risks and potential rewards.

Ultimately, I decided to bend my investment rules and take both.

The Reality of Brood Stock Investment

Investing in breeding stock is never straightforward, especially when it involves koi of this calibre. There are no guarantees of success.

Think back to my last trip and the special Kanno female Goshiki. She is taking time to develop as a breeding koi, and most of the eggs she produces are too small. The issue appears to be reducing year by year, and the tosai we produced from her last cycle are the most promising yet. But in terms of overall production volume, she has yet to deliver the value we expected. We’re still working to refine her use in our programme and find the right male pairing.

Oakly, another major investment, has delivered. Opaline has also proven successful, but it took three years before we found the right male combination for her. Others haven’t worked at all.

So, when Shigeyoshi placed that special male Showa into the bowl, I knew I had a tough decision to make. But I also knew, instinctively, that I had to take it.

Now, the real work begins—raising and pairing these koi to see if they live up to their incredible potential.