Teradomari Koi Farm

Teradomari Koi Farm is the home of the Teradomari Ginrin, and Ginrin Kohaku are the reason to buy here. Kiichi Hoshino breeds them in Teradomari on the Nagaoka coast, on about 30,000 square metres of ponds, and Ginrin fish make up roughly 70 percent of what he produces.

Hoshino came to koi sideways. In the early 1960s he worked weekdays in a steel plant and weekends at Miyakoya in Ojiya, paid in koi fry. He then ran the mud ponds at Hoshikin, married into the Hoshino family in 1967 and took over Hoshikin's ponds in Teradomari. He went independent in 1979 and put up the Teradomari Koi Farm sign in 1990, breeding Hoshikin-line Kohaku.

The Ginrin came almost by accident. From a Hoshikin Kohaku female and a Suda-line Ginrin male he bred a handful of Ginrin Kohaku in 1992, and one of them won its variety at the All Japan Young Koi Show in 1995. He switched the farm to Diamond Ginrin. In 1998 a Teradomari Ginrin Kohaku won Best in Variety at the 30th All Japan Nishikigoi Show, and the name stuck. What makes them different: the gin does not fade as the fish passes 70 cm, which is where ordinary Diamond Ginrin goes dull, and the scale alignment improves with age.

Ginrin skin is more delicate than plain Kohaku skin, so give these fish clean water and time. ChampKoi imports koi from Teradomari. Buy one for shine that will still be there at 80 cm.