NND Koi Farm

NND stands for Nishikigoi Niigata Direct, a breeder-owned company in Takiya, Nagaoka, set up on 3 October 2005 so a small group of Niigata breeders could sell and export direct. The core members are Makoto Tanaka of Marusho Koi Farm, who is the company's representative director, Fujio Oomo of Oomo Koi Farm, and Tamikazu Kobayashi. The roots are Marusho's mud ponds in Yomogihira, Nagaoka, where the Tanaka family has bred koi for more than half a century.

Gosanke is the bulk of it. Tanaka has spent years reworking his Kohaku and Sanke parent sets and is proud of turning out numbers of fish over 80 cm. NND-bred Sanke and Kohaku took Grand Champion at the Nagaoka City Koi Show in consecutive years, both finished in the farm's concrete-pond house rather than in mud, an approach Tanaka adopted after bears, boar and downpours kept wrecking mountain ponds. Oomo's project is Shiro Utsuri, which he began in earnest in the mid-2010s and rebuilt around an 88 cm Omosako-bred female lent by a long-time British customer.

The production list is Kohaku, Sanke, Showa, Shiro Utsuri and Beni Kikokuryu. NND also raises Tamasaba, the round-bodied Niigata goldfish that lives happily in a koi pond, and ships it alongside the koi. Expect sound, well-framed Gosanke at sensible prices; this is not a one-variety specialist farm.

NND holds an annual autumn event where buyers pick tategoi to leave in Japan, and it supplies dealers in Europe, Asia and the US. ChampKoi imports koi from NND.