- Family
- 3rd generation
- Run by
- Katsunori Miya
Miyatora Koi Farm in Kawaguchi, Nagaoka has been breeding koi for more than a century, and the thing to know is the bloodline: their Kohaku come from the Sensuke line. Katsunori Miya, the third generation, runs the farm with his son Takumi. ChampKoi imports koi from Miyatora.
The Sensuke story is worth a minute because it explains the fish. Around 1960 a small Kawaguchi breeder, Sakutaro Tsuna, who traded under the house name Sensuke, produced the Kohaku that took his name. He sold them only through the young Toraichi Miya of Miyatora, Katsunori's father, and Miyatora raised Sensuke offspring in its own mud ponds. That is how the line spread out of Kawaguchi, and it is why Sensuke-type Kohaku, thick through the body with snow-white skin, are still the backbone of this farm.
Miya's stated aim is koi that grow big, live long and stay beautiful, and the farm is set up for it: about 40 mud ponds worked from roughly 100 parent koi. Gosanke are the core. Around them Miyatora breeds Shusui, Kujaku, Beni Kikokuryu, Mukashi Ogon and Platinum Ogon, and has recently added Doitsu Showa.
Buy Miyatora for body. The selling point is a Kohaku that is already thick at the shoulder as nisai and keeps its white as it grows, which is exactly what Sensuke Kohaku were prized for sixty years ago. The farm's claim to fame is Sensuke, and that is enough.
History
Toraichi Miya, second generation, takes over at 14 after Shichizo dies at 48; he later produces an Ogon line and, with Shoichi Iitsuka of Matsue Nishikigoi Center, carries Sensuke Kohaku out of Niigata.
- Late 1800s Shichizo Miya, a Kawaguchi farmer, begins raising coloured carp.
- c. 1980 Katsunori Miya, third generation, begins taking over.
- 1990 The farm switches from koi brokerage to production only.
- 2004 The Chuetsu earthquake destroys the female parent pond; the Miyatora Shusui line starts from fry gifted by a Gifu breeder.
- Present Katsunori runs the farm with his son Takumi, fourth generation.
Want a Miyatora koi we don't have listed?
Tell Tom the variety, size and budget. He buys at the farm in Japan at harvest and will look for one on the next trip.