In March of 1999, Millie and I joined the Pehlke and the Thomas families in attending a seminar hosted by Joe Zuritsky, owner of Quality Koi in Philadelphia. The featured speakers were Sakai-san of Matsunosuke fame and England's Peter Waddington and Nigel Caddock. Many months later I received a phone call from Jim Reilly, the ZNA rep for the MAKC and fellow seminar attendee, who asked me if I'd be interested in attending the All Japan Show with a small group of twelve people being led by Mr. Zuritsky. As it turned out, the trip was to include a visit to Isawa, which is both home and winter headquarters for Matsunosuke, and the base of operations for two other breeders, Maryama and Sakuma. Needless to say, I jumped at the opportunity. Some of the other participants included Joan and Bob Finnegan, Gene and Viola Ewy and Mark Bodycott, the then manager of Quality Koi. Mark has since changed jobs and now manages Millstone Koi in New Jersey. Mark and I ended up sharing the same United flight from O'Hare to Tokyo, which left at noon Thursday and arrived late Friday evening. Strong head winds extended the usual 13-hour flight by almost an hour. Although I've flown to Asia on three other occasions, I was fortunate to have earned enough air miles to fly business class for the first time in my life. Wow, what a pleasant experience! Multiple movies, large recliners, quiet, attentive service, great food and all the comforts of home made for a relaxing journey even though sleep eluded me for the most part. When we arrived at Narita Airport, we changed money and purchased $32 tickets for the hotel bus that took us on a 90 minute ride to the Takanawa Prince Hotel, which was home base for many of the show's participants and the Shinkokai banquet. If you ever decide to attend the show, this hotel is adequate, but not overly fancy. Having seen better days, the room rate was $150 per night including a buffet breakfast. After registering and changing clothes, Mark and I joined Jim Reilly and Ron Goforth for a late dinner in a smoke filled restaurant. Even though the Japanese are cutting down on cigarette consumption, the vast majority of adults still smoke profusely and restaurants can be difficult places due to a lack of smoke-free areas. That insidious companion, jet lag, woke me up at 3:30 a.m. Saturday morning, and rather than fight it, I took a long bath, watched CNN and went for a walk in the hotel's Japanese garden. The grounds included a koi pond, a miniature stroll garden and a pagoda surrounded by antique stone lanterns. All in all, it was a lovely retreat hidden away from one of the world's most congested cities. The restaurant opened at 7:00a.m., and I joined the Finnegans for breakfast. Interestingly enough, the Japanese enjoy eating garden salads for breakfast, complete with dressing and western style rolls. Because of the international clientele, there was a nice blend of both western and Japanese selections. Then, with camera and mini-DV video recorder in hand, it was off to the local train station and the Ryutsu Center, site of the All Japan Show. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the koi show structure in Japan, two different organizations sponsor competitions. One of these groups is of course ZNA (Zen Nippon Arinkai), the world's oldest koi hobby club. ZNA is run exclusively for hobbyists, by hobbyists, and only hobbyists can compete in their koi shows. The All Japan ZNA show is held in late November. The other organization that sponsors shows is Shinkokai. This group is made up of professional breeders and dealers of koi, and if a hobbyist wishes to enter his/her fish in one of their shows, they have to request that the seller of the koi enter it on their behalf. Sometimes a fee is charged for this depending on the arrangements made between owner and dealer. This show, held every January, is the one that a Tokyo monorail commuter train took our group to. The train's route paralleled Tokyo Bay and deposited us in an area that would best be described as industrial. I should probably mention at this point that Joe Zuritsky and Mr. Sakai have a business relationship and that we were the "guests" of Matsunosuke. This meant that tickets to the show were provided for us. Before you jump to the obvious conclusion here, it should be noted that in the koi hobby, it is standard procedure for a dealer to entertain and provide for a potential client; there is also reciprocity when the situation is reversed. This is one Japanese custom that more American dealers might do well to emulate. It should also be mentioned that being wined and dined doesn't necessarily obligate one to make a purchase, and it is important to remember that the Japanese are probably the most polite people in the world. To mistreat a guest is cause for great loss of face, and I've yet to meet a Japanese who would willingly do this. The show space itself was roughly the size of an American football field, and was filled with circular blue vats ranging in size from 5 to 10 feet in diameter. Many of the larger fish were placed in rectangular tanks that were roughly 10 by 20 feet with a netted divider dissecting them in the middle. Most of the larger vats had their own filters, and all of them were aerated by a minimum of one air stone and an aquarium style bubble wand. Interestingly, none of the fish showed any signs of the type of nose damage incurred when fish bang into filters, etc. Those vats not having filters each had a large metal disk with a central hole positioned in the middle of the vat. The lip of the disk was held slightly off the bottom by a layer of white nylon mesh filter material. An airstone positioned in the disk's central opening created the lift necessary to draw water in through the sides, thus filtering out feces and constantly circulating the tank's water. The perimeter of the show area was ringed on three sides by vendors selling various pond-related supplies, equipment and medications. Needless to say, the fish were incredibly awesome and ranged in size from a few inches to over 90 bu. Bu is the Japanese word for "size;" in this case it's a reference to centimeters. Ergo, a 90bu fish is the equivalent of 90 centimeters, or roughly 36 inches in length. If we're fortunate enough to see a fish that large here in America, it's usually an ogon; however, there were numerous gosanke in this size range and the grand champion, a Hiroshima Sakai taisho sanke, was itself a 90 bu female. She was displayed in her own vat, which was located just in front of the stage area used for the Sunday awards presentation. Considering her age and size, her hi was wonderfully thick and even, and her sumi was true urushi-sumi, the type that glistens like wet black lacquer. Her white was also excellent. Her usutsu, or tail tube, was incredibly thick and it powered her through the water with a stately grace and dignity. As an aficionado of koi, it was truly inspiring to see the best of the world's best.
After viewing the grand champion and the other four fish that were in contention (there are no "reserve" champions), it was time to peruse the rest of the show and to look at the other 3400 entries. All of the "best of" fish were in vats located near the stage where the hundreds of trophies were on display, and they were divided into two halves, male on one side, females on the other. The overwhelming majority of fish were either gosanke or shiru utsuri, and there were very, very few kawarimono. I had hoped to see some unique examples of rare varieties but this was not to be. There were some exquisitely beautiful ochiba-shigures and some fine examples of gin rin, but again there were not large numbers of them in the show. Kujakus were very well represented and all of the winners were of the old style, not the new ones with the redder moyo (pattern). I was told that this was because the newer style fish don't have as good a metallic sheen (teri) as their predecessors. Rounding off the other non-gosanke, there were a few non-white utsuris, but they were not particularly special. The All Japan Koi Show – Part II Midwest
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