Marudo Koi Farm

Marudo is Dainichi blood run through a different pair of hands. Hisashi Hirasawa joined Dainichi Koi Farm straight out of junior high as its third employee, spent 18 years living under Minoru Mano's roof, then went out on his own (1970, by his own account) and took over the family farm, Marudo. The Showa are the reason to buy. His female parents are Dainichi Showa picked for frame, the males come down from the Showa his father left him, and he has said plainly that his goal is a Showa that wins the All Japan Grand Champion the way his teacher's did in 1991.

He is ruthless about selection. In a 2002 interview he described hatching about 1.5 million Showa fry and keeping 5,000, roughly one in 300. The farm works something over 100,000 square metres of ponds around Nagaoka and turns out Gosanke first, then Kujaku, Chagoi, Karashigoi, Asagi, Shiro Utsuri and Ogon. Marudo Kohaku and Sanke are regular prize-winners at the All Japan shows, and the farm's own results page lists a Jumbo-division championship at the 47th ZNA All Japan Nishikigoi Show and a Sogyo-division championship at the 48th.

Body comes first with Hirasawa, then hi. He says the two things Dainichi drilled into him were an unforced body line and red that is thick and even, and his own test of a real koi is that it is both big and beautiful. His eldest son Toshihiro has worked the farm with him since 1974 and his daughter Keiko since 2000, and Hirasawa has served as Niigata regional director of the All Japan Nishikigoi Promotion Association.

Buy Marudo for Showa, and for Kohaku and Sanke that carry a Dainichi-type frame. The Chagoi and Karashigoi are worth a look too. ChampKoi imports koi from Marudo Koi Farm.