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Article
September/October 2003
Suzuki Koi Farm –Seijyuro
by Mamoru Kodama
When asked who is the established Showa
breeder in Niigata, the cradle of Koi, "Seijyuro" is one of the first
to be named. (Picture 1) "Seijyuro" now stands
for a brand name of Showa. But in fact, it is another
name for Mr. Seiji Suzuki who is producing Seijyuro Showa
. (Pictures 2 & 3.) Nobody in the neighborhood
calls him "Mr. Suzuki," they call him "Seijyuro."
"Firm name" used in a village became the brand
name of his koi. "Seijyuro" started 54 years ago,
or in 1948 when his father, Mr. Seiichi Suzuki, opened a
breeding business. As his son, Mr. Seiji Suzuki (Picture
3) has been involved with koi breeding since he was of a
young age. When he graduated from high school, he apprenticed
himself to Mr. Harumitsu Shimomura who had bred koi in Ryuko,
Horinouchi of Kitauonuma-gun (a famous place for Showa breeding).
He studied the basics of Nishikigoi for three years when
he was18 to 21 years old at the Shimomura Koi Farm.
Seijyuro still takes his teacher's words
as his motto. That is "A breeder can never be a breeder
if he does not have the technique to raise tosai."
This is an important lesson for those who intend to be koi
breeders. Every koi begins as a tosai. Even if a breeder
purchased an expensive parental koi, if he does not have
the skill to raise its offspring well, it would be a miser's
gold buried in the ground. Seijyuro learned from his teacher
that the raising of tosai is a more important skill than
anything else.
He studied (1) breeding, (2) the skill of raising fry, and
(3) culling techniques, very hard. At present, Seijyuro breeds
70,000 excellent tosai every year. He produces this large
quantity of excellent koi in as big an area as 5.2 acres.
You cannot learn how to breed 70,000 of excellent tosai overnight.
It is nothing but the result of numerous trials and errors
with Mr. Shimomura's lesson as its origin.
It was 35 years ago when the popular "Seijyuro Showa" actually
started. When he crossed a male of Kobayashi Showa with his
own breeding female Showa, splendid Showa were the result.
Showa out of this pair of parents have fascinated koi hobbyists
as well as koi dealers.
A hobbyist called Mr. Chogoro Shimizu
in Kyushu won Grand Champion at a Koi Show of the Kyushu
district. This championship
especially made Seijyuro Showa famous and gave the immovable
status. Since then, he has been working hard to improve his
Showa and established the brand of "Seijyuro” Showa.
Picture 4 shows his breeders at present. The center koi is
a female. The distinguished body over 80 cm (32?) has a bright
design of hi and sumi. It is an excellent koi (Picture 5).
And when they become more than 4 years old, they would be
beautiful ones like picture 6.
Naturally, winning awards at koi shows
has a high priority, and Seijyuro Showa are highly desired
by Japanese Koi hobbyists.
Look at picture 7. This is a male parent that Seijyuro cares
the most for now. This koi is a son of a famous Showa named "Tubaki
hime Princess Camellia." He uses this koi as the male
parent because the hi and sumi do not overlap each other
and because the sumi quality is supreme.
This koi is still five years old. Its
presence is very youthful. Now out of many female parents
with this male, Seijyuro produces
beautiful "Seijyuro Showa." Here I got some advice
on how to buy "Seijyuro Showa" from Seijyuro himself:
My koi receives a high evaluation for its good sumi quality.
My koi is good not only because the sumi quality is good
but also because it is "ato zumi." Because of the
character as ato zumi, hobbyists can enjoy the changing process
of Seijyuro Showa. (Ato zumi: sumi that emerges later with
the koi's growth. At one or two years old, koi has mostly
a hi pattern and very little sumi.)
When you buy my koi, take a close look at the hi pattern.
If the hi pattern is in good balance, the koi is OK. It is
not necessarily an ideal pattern. If the hi pattern is designed
in good balance over the whole body, that is good. And then,
you guess where the sumi emerges. For example, when the koi
in picture 6 was a tosai, there was no sumi, but only a hi
pattern. The pattern was designed over all, but the head
had only the small hi near the left eye. There was no such
sumi. It now runs from its mouth to the right shoulder and
on the trunk section.
The hi was weak, too. As the koi grew,
the hi pattern became bright red and the sumi pattern emerged
dynamically. It turned
out to be such a beautiful koi as shown in the picture. If
the hi pattern is good, the sumi pattern will come out later. "The
point of buying Seijyuro Showa is to look at the hi pattern."
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