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Sakai Kohaku Part I |
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Page 3 of 5
The lineage has still been considered important due to the fact that even when the second generation was not found remarkable, the other families that were interested in obtaining the offspring of the first generation would raise them as the parents and produce koi that often go beyond the quality of the original family.
This kind of continuation or periodic succession has been inherited as the lineage, and it is seen as the bloodline today.
This phenomenon is often raised as the problem when the family line is traced to examine the lineage from the past because it has become difficult to make a linear line due to many familes involved in the process of keeping the bloodline.
As in the case of Sakai Kohaku, it is quite rare to have a family tree concisely written.
It is unknown why many families were unable to continue on breeding beyond generations - it could be that the ability to select the parents of the next generation was not in place, or inbreeding by crossing the brothers took its toll on itself.
Sakai Kohaku, which inherited its quality from the children to the grandchildren, tells us that the good genes are certainly inherited and the trace of improvement can be observed as long as the choice of the paretns are correct. This evidence sparkles in the history of nishikigoi.
The Lineage Evolved around Sensuke
One of the foundation of Sakai Kohaku is the lineage based on Sensuke Kohaku. It has been derived from the two female koi "Donguri" and "Sakura". These two parents form the core of Sakai Kohaku.
 The start with Donguri:
"Donguri" was used for breeding for 7 years stemming from 1982 to 1988. "Donguri" was the nickname for the female parent. It was one of the Morita Sensuke produced by Kazumasa Morita in Shin-nan-yo City, Yamaguchi. This koi was purchased by Sakai Yogyojo via Matsue Nishikigoi Center.
The pictures shown as the "breeding set" (a) was taken in the spring of 1987. The top on the right is "Donguri" and two on the left are Dainichi Kohaku as the male parents.
This setup was not fixed from the beginning. Yoshimichi Sakai says, "With any mother, we would keep switching the partner until we get the right result."
For "Donguri", the first breeding was with Sensuke Kohaku. It was the brother crossing. Hiroji Sakai remarked before, "It just did not work well." He went on, "Next, we chose a different male, which helped produce one with good 'date'. After that, we changed male parents from time to time, but we found some with good 'date'" This was how the process went to finally choose the two Dainichi Kohaku males as the fathers. Following the male Sensuke was Dainichi Kohaku. It was said to be the "well-framed, light colored" male, which already demonstrated Sakai Yogyojo's emphasis on good frame.
"Donguri" was Sensuke Kohaku, and its quality of hi is "kakippi (persimmon cardinal)". The first Dainichi Kohaku was light-colored, which gave the impression that this crossing "might not be so good in color". Darker-colored Dainichi Kohaku was selected as the male parents from the next crossings.
 "Beret(ii)", "Ajisai(g)", and "Benibana(b)" came around as parents of the second generation since the crossings of the picture A. There are no pictures of "Ajisai" and "Benibana" taken individually, thus picture shown is the set picture mentioned in the following chapter. "Benibana" is the large koi with the ippon-hi on the left in the picture B. It has grown over 85cm as of now. These came as the result of the crossing between Sensuke and Dainichi. The female parent "Donguri" was well-volumed, with excellent shoulder curve and body height. The offsprings were relatively slender and had narrower body widths compared to the female parent, such as the case of "Benibana" although they had the tendency to grow longer. Of course there were some with good volume, but the parent "Donguri" was better in body height and other aspects.
 "Donguri line" produced koi with these characteristics. The beni became darker than the original Sensuke due to the addition of Dainichi Kohaku, and the improvement of Kohaku made progress.
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Featured Article |
| Sakai Kohaku Part I |
 In recent years, Sakai Fish Farm of Hiroshima has produced scores of superb kohaku that have proved extremely competitive at koi shows the world over. Establing a quality keito from the ground up is never an easy task...it takes years of hard work, perserverance, and wise choices to get the needed results. Although a bit dated, the following article offers a superb insight into the foundations of the Sakai kohaku lines. |
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