Omosako Shiro Utsuri
It is very rare that one Koi farm dominates one particular variety at the All Japan Koi Show, but once again this year the Shiro Utsuri category was all about Omosako.
Omosako Koi Farm based near Hiroshima in southern Japan is undoubtedly the current number one producer of Shiro Utsuri and will probably regarded historically as the farm that caused the Shiro Utsuri variety to be regarded as the fourth member of the go-Sanke variety. To understand why Omosako Koi Farm has been so successful in breeding just one variety you must go back to the beginning and find out about the man who started this phenomenon.
Omosako San quite simply has a passion for black and white koi. It all started over three decades ago when he decided to move away from the family business and into Koi breeding. At first he managed to breed Shiro Utsuri just like any other available at the time but for Omosako San these so called average koi were not part of his plan. He wanted to produce not only the finest Shiro Utsuri but also the largest. To do this was going to take many years of dedication and like all koi breeding many years of frustration.
There is an old saying in England that ‘the harder I work the luckier I get’, I’m not sure if this saying is also used in Japan but it was Omosako Sans determination with a little help from lady luck that in 1984 helped him to combine two parent fish that started the lineage that is known at the Omosako Shiro Utsuri. The luck came in the way of a single Shiro Utsuri purchased from a hobbyist that was known to Omosako San. The Koi in question was in a way quite remarkable, the hobbyist was the fish’s third owner and he had absolutely no knowledge of the Koi’s age or origins, it was just a really stunning Shiro Utsuri. This Koi was to be the start of a new chapter in the history of not only Omosako Koi Farm, but also the Shiro Utsuri variety.
Originally all the best Shiro Utsuri came from the combination of this new Koi and one of Omosako's own parent stock, but as with any breeder it would have been foolish, no matter how sucessful to rely on just two Koi. So in the years that followed the breakthrough in the pairing of broodstock, Omosako San was constantly experimenting with different pairings. Using not only Koi that he had now produced himself but also occasionally Koi from outside of his farm.
As more broodstock were paired more Koi were obviously produced and this therefore the farm needs to expand. The demand over this period for Omosako Shiro Utsuri just continued to escalate and more greenhouses were constructed and more land and mud ponds were purchased.
One acquisition that really showed the farms determination to produce Jumbo Shiro’s was the purchase of an absolutely huge mud pond. When you think of a mud pond it usually conjures up a picture of a small terraced pond in the mountains of Niigata, but in the South of Japan things are done differently. Not only are Southern Japanese Koi reaching Jumbo sizes far more often than their Northern counterparts but the southern mud ponds can only be really described as lakes!
This monster growing pond is solely reserved for the jumbo stocks; when I first saw this pond I could not believe this was used for Koi growing, it covers around eight thousand square metres and is stocked with just 100 Koi each season. It is this low stocking rate combined with the immense size potential that had been carefully bred into Omosako Shiro Utsuri that can enable a koi of 65cm to reach an amazing 78 cm in just one summer. Compare this to growth rates of Koi in Niigata were a 65cm koi would be hard pushed to attain 78cm ever let alone in one summer!
By the end of the nineties Omosako Koi farm was breeding Shiro Utsuri from a total of five breeding pairs. The farm had now built five heated green houses, each holding between 20 and 40,000 gallons and was using a total of six mud ponds and five fry ponds. This huge amount of water was an absolute necessity as they were hatching over five million fry, from which 40,000 to 50,000 Koi were being produced and the farm was still growing!
The real test of how special a Koi farm has become is how the Koi it produces fare at Japanese Koi shows. Since Omosako Koi farm began breeding its first Koi back in the sixties its success had steadily increased at the many shows around Japan. As the farm had spent every year striving for perfection its Koi had improved with every season. Infact their success had by the 2002 All Japan Koi Show become total domination.
At the 29th All Japan Koi Show of 2002 amazingly over 60% of the Shiro Utsuri’s entered were from Omosako and from these 60% came away 85% of the prizes! These types of figures and results are now the norm at Koi shows around Japan and this year was no exception. The top prize Shiro Utsuri at the All Japan Show held this February in Tokyo, was a stunning 86cm specimen named ‘Musashi’.
Over the years since the first Koi show took place no other variety has ever been dominated to such an extent by just one farm. Omosako Koi Farms dominance is such that any person wishing to purchase a high quality Shiro Utsuri in 2007 automatically looks to buy one bred by Omosako.