Koi Bito Magazine and Koi Forum - The English koi magazine from Japan for the serious hobbyist!

Main Menu

Online Magazine

Forum

Magazine Issues

Current articles

The Trials of Summer

To better appreciate just what a breeder faces, we travelled to Niigata and paid a visit to Oya Yoshokujo located in Asahi, Koguriyama to get the story first-hand from a very well respected veteran member of the Niigata breeding community and former Shinkoukai chairman Mr. Tetsutaro Kataoka and his family.
“I’m not sure if we’ll be of very much use, but we’d certainly love to have you visit”...

...explained a very pleasant sounding Mrs. Kataoka over the telephone when we called asking for their cooperation with providing the information and experience for this article. Upon our next call to confirm the visiting date, that very same smiling voice assuredly told us that “papa is looking forward to your visit very much!” Yet another road trip to Niigata was about to be underway. When the idea for this article originally came to me, the name of a particular breeder had come into my mind almost instantaneously, that being Mr. Tetsutaro Kataoka.

Being a rather popular breeder of gosanke and some kawarimono varieties, I had been familiar with him for quite some time and had actually met him by pure coincidence. While driving down the road past Dainichi in Iwamagi and then passing through the Higashiyama tunnel, I had begun to notice some signs announcing a roadside ‘spot sale’ of nishikigoi. Surely enough, within moments after twisting around the bend one could clearly see that there was indeed a sale going on up the road facing directly opposite from a small liquor shop. It certainly looked interesting enough to warrant a stop, so I pulled the car over and walked on over to where the people were.

Seated under an awning was the figure of Mr. Kataoka, a face that was immediately familiar to me as being that of the former Shinkoukai chairman. After having a peruse of the ready-bagged koi, and a quick inspection of individual koi in the blue show tanks, I decided to walk over and ask a bit about this ‘spot sale’ to the man himself. “Are these spot sales held very often” I asked, upon which Mr. Kataoka replied without really looking up at me: “You’re Japanese, right...don’t you see these sales for other sorts of goods elsewhere?” A few older gentleman sitting next to him had a clear view of me since I had walked up seemed a but perplexed by his question, but listened intently as I pointed to my face and posed the question “do I look Japanese to you?” He was able to maintain a straight face just long enough to get out the words: “well...it’s hard to tell these days with all the dyed hair and color contacts and whatnot” before the peculiarity of the situation had come to a climax, appealing to the Japanese sense of humor and causing everyone within earshot to burst into laughter.

Any apprehensions that may have existed were cast aside in an instant, and soon we were all chatting as if I were just another regular face that frequented these parts, nothing special from any of the others that showed up one after another to have a poke around the vats or make a purchase to take immediately home. “After all, I’m really just a hobbyist from Yokohama!” I innocently tried to confess. Surely weren’t my license plates proof enough!

A blue bowl or tarai which was teeming with many small, blackish fish that obviously weren’t koi caught my eye, and even though I knew what they were I couldn’t help but to enquire of Mr. Kataoka about them. These were medaka...what we would call killifish in English, but I was at a bit of a loss as to what they were doing at this particular sale and in such large numbers at that. He explained that these were added to the mud ponds to achieve a balance, but that they reproduce so quickly and to such high numbers that he was giving away what he had managed to pull out to any and all willing takers. I asked a few more questions about them, and then we struck up a general conversation about the many hurdles that await the breeder when the summertime rolls around. As he made is case, the other breeders that were seated nearby joined in one after another offering their agreement to what Mr. Kataoka was saying. One could sense in their words the anticipation they had of the upcoming season, if not also with a bit of uncertainty as well.

The conversation carried on for a bit before we bid our farewells and I was back in my car. Mr. Kataoka had given me a mountain vegetable known as sansai, which is quite prevalent in this area to home with me. So popular is it that you see signs dotting the landscape this time of year warning those that harvest it without permission of impending confiscation should they be unfortunate enough to get caught! I struck up the hill to check the surroundings and stopped at what was obviously a breeders’ premises, albeit noticeably absent any trade signs. As I approached the two busy young men working dutifully outside, they probably couldn’t help but wonder why someone was calling upon them at this time of the year. Most of their good koi are simply gone, or gone out to the mud pond. After curiously greeting me, they informed me that their best koi weren’t around anymore in an almost apologetic tone. I assured them that this was okay and I turn apologized that I wasn’t really koi hunting to begin with anyway. After the usual questions about the varieties they bred, how many sets of parents, where their customers from abroad come from, etc. I finally asked what their shop name was, to which they replied “Oya”. It was only then that I realized that I had stumbled on Mr. Kataoka’s premises and that these were two of his sons! I explained the situation to them which they found mildly amusing, and then they in turn began asking me the usual questions that I tend to attract such as how many years I’ve been here, and where did I learn Japanese, etc. You grow accustomed to these kinds of questions after a while, and eventually find yourself replying without even so much as batting an eyelid!

My wife and daughters were accompanying me on this trip and to be completely honest, we had not even planned on visiting Yamakoshi at all. Rather, we were on a long weekend holiday known as ‘Golden Week’ to a place known as Echigo Yuzawa, famous for skiing in the winter and hot springs year round. It just so happens to be situated right on one tail end of the koi-producing areas of Niigata, and we somehow just happened to end up heading towards Ojiya while out for a drive. That’s my explanation anyway! My eldest simply loves animals, and upon discovering that they had a rabbit, she naturally begged to see it. We then asked if we’d like to see their fighting bull as well. The answer was a resounding yes, and we were directed towards a sizable stable just down the road. There we introduced to “Oya”, their fighting bull which shares the same name as the family shop. As I enquired more to them about the sport known as togyu, it become fairly obvious that they took the sport very seriously, and that it was very much ingrained not only on the lives of this family, but on the community as a whole. I would get a much better glimpse into togyu at a later date. We thanked them for their hospitality and as we were leaving, I told the brothers that we would probably be seeing each other again soon...much sooner though than even I had imagined. With that, we were off the road headed back to what was our original intention for coming to Niigata in the first place. I owed my family a nice dinner for having put up with me hijacking the family holiday, and we had a wonderful four-course Italian meal that night at an apparently popular restaurant not too far away from our mountain lodge.

Heading back to Tokyo, I was awash with time to think about the conversations I had with Mr. Kataoka and his sons and colleagues. Four hours of night driving offers one ample opportunity to reflect on whatever thoughts may be at hand, and mine were pretty focused on these few conversations in particular. After being back for a week, the heat really began to set in around Tokyo and the thoughts of spawning, mud ponds and culling danced through my mind daily. Now more than ever was I inspired to go back to Niigata to get the full story. With nothing more than a phone call, the Kataoka family graciously extended their welcome to me again. It wouldn’t be long before I was back on the Kan-Etsu expressway, bound for Niigata yet once again.

Everyone was out front and busy preparing for the day ahead as I pulled up in front of the premises. There was no surprise this time around as they were expecting a guest on this day, and they all greeted me as I emerged from the car. After returning their greetings, Mr. Kataoka asked me to make my self comfortable in his office while he finished the remaining bits of his morning duties. Just before stepping inside, I was greeted by a warm, smiling face that was easily identifiable as the owner of the voice that had been so kind on the telephone. I had never met Mrs. Kataoka before, but we had barely stepped inside before striking up a conversation. The wall of the office had two magnificent and quite large maps, one of Japan and another of the world. I remarked that there must be a geography buff in the family, but she laughed and explained “no, we got these when the local primary school closed down!” Indeed the school had been closed down and consolidated into a new larger school that is shared among five neighboring villages. We chatted for a little while before Mr. Kataoka returned, offering me a very hearty thanks for making the long journey out from Tokyo to see them. We had a seat, and began asking each other questions over tea. It was still only early morning, but this day had already gotten off to a great start.

“Everyone that comes thinks that since this is where nishikigoi were born that the water here must be very pure” Mr. Kataoka amusingly explained, “but the water quality and topography of the land here are very harsh indeed.” No doubt, many of you will find that statement to be a little surprising to say the very least. He further added that “Nishikigoi were born out of the deep devotion of the people of these surrounding villages. Our ancestors left behind an artistic cultural heritage that is unique throughout the whole world, born out of the harsh existence of the villagers and created by their hands. We have to ensure the succession of their legacy and have a very heavy duty to fulfill.” When I asked Mr. Kataoka about his comments, he was all too ready to explain them in greater detail for me. “I think that nishikigoi were developed because they provided solace to the hearts of many people from these parts” he told me, adding “If you’ve ever been around here in the middle of winter, I’m sure that you can understand why.” While it may be widely thought that koi were kept as a supplement to the winter diet, it seems that they played a different almost supportive role to the farmers by helping to lift their spirits and make their livelihoods just a bit more enjoyable. Given this, there certainly is a very big possibility nishikigoi may never have come about if the conditions that they were indeed first born under didn’t exist at this place, and at this time. Bullfighting while not having it’s birthplace here, no doubt served a similar role for the people living in these villages as did koi.

We had moved outside to his concrete ponds, some of which are housed inside and the others out. I had noticed an overhang net in one of the ponds full of kawaebi or freshwater shrimp of which Mr. Kataoka netted for my inspection. Upon asking whether these would be eaten as food, he replied that while the older koi would eat them without hesitation, that these served the same purpose as the medaka that were seen at the roadside sale I had visited only about a month earlier. These were added to achieve a “balance” within the mud pond environment. Within nature you find many complimentary relationships between both flora and fauna, and this was simply one that was being deployed at the hands of man. It’s no more so than this time of year that you will find very little koi on a breeders premises, save for parents or fry that have been brought back for culling. One final lot of nisai was being kept in the neighboring pond awaiting shipment to a domestic dealer.

This time of the year is the rainy season in Japan, writings going back hundreds and hundreds of years refer to this phenomenon which arrives in the late spring and ends more or less with passing of July. While it may pose only a mild nuisance to some, it definitely poses much more than this to the professional breeder. In the very worst of cases, flooding can occur and cause mud ponds to overflow, carrying valuable koi down gullies, into streams, and out of the breeders pocketbook. This of course isn’t really a regular occurrence, but does happen from time to time and can cause serious financial damage for that year. More likely however, is the damage that the heavy rains bring with regards to the temperature and pH of the water. During this time, weather reports are closely monitored for warnings of heavy downpour. If a large enough volume of rain is introduced into the pond, it can cause the pH to fall quite low and result in a damaging crash. The breeder will protect against this by spreading either crushed or powdered oyster shells in the ponds that they know don’t have sufficient buffering capability. This is also the time of the year that the dreaded fushusho or edema attacks fry, and if not caught and treated soon enough can be responsible for total annihilation of a pond. This disease is believed to be passed on from the parent to the young fry, and is most dangerous in ponds in which the environment has yet to stabilize. Among breeders, the word gets around that it’s affected this village or that village especially bad and they use the word rosoku or candle as a nickname for the disease, referring to the skinny body that is the end result that keenly resembles a candle. Caught early enough, the breeder can fight it and nurse the fry back to health but if not caught in time, they may end up with a total loss and have to perform a second spawning from reserve parents to make up for the loss. (See page 59 for full details about this illness)

After explaining the woes that this disease can cause, Mr. Kataoka and the family wanted to take me out for lunch. Somewhere along the line, I seem to have lost track of the time, but we had been chatting away for over 3 hours! When asked what type of food I wanted to try, I promptly replied “hegi soba” which brought about unanimous but pleasant laughter from all. “How did you know about that,you really know about Niigata quite well, don’t you?” Mrs. Kataoka remarked. Truth be known, I’m a big fan of regional Japanese food and try to make a point of remembering the famous dishes from around the country.
With that we were off to a soba restaurant in Ojiya which Mr. Kataoka had described as being the “second-most delicious” in town. I can’t personally vouch for where it ranks in among its peers within city limits, but it certainly was remarkable and the view from our tatami room overlooking a green sea of young rice was inspiring to say the least. I really began to feel at ease with the family and the beers that accompanying beers had their usual effect at also helping me to let my hair down as well. It was a very good time indeed.

We had talked for quite some time over lunch, about various topics related to koi and the area, but now Mr. Kataoka began to talk about the differences between the past and present. “I can’t remember koi being weak or getting sick and dying as a child” he said, his comment catching me quite off guard. He then went on by explaining “When I become a full-fledged breeder back in 1962, about the only ‘medicines’ that we had was really limited to a single anti-parasitic agent trichlorfon. Before this, if we had an outbreak of fish lice, we’d simply put cut grass into the pond and the lye produced as a result would be enough to do the job.” I had to stop and let what he was telling me sink in for just a moment. The lack of medicines I could surely understand, but I had always assumed that illness was as old as the sun and had been around whether people knew how to deal with it or not. The real shocker was about to be revealed, which would have a profound effect on how I would think about things from thereafter. “Shortly after I began breeding, pelleted mixtures had become available from the agricultural cooperative. They highly recommended it, and we thought that it was simply the greatest thing that could have happened to us. Koi could eat lots of it, and this greatly enhanced their ability to grow...we didn’t have to worry about silk worm pupae going bad any more or causing segoke.” Mr. Kataoka then gave me the darker side of what came along with the pelleted food saying that “anchor worm started appearing at the very same time, almost to the point that you would think that they were actually in the food. This time around when I used trichlorfon as an anti parasitic, the tosai began to break out with mouth and fin rot, and there was nothing that could be done except to cease feeding and wait for them to die.” He then went on to explain that he remembered that there had been much success in using sulfa to fight bacterial disease in chickens, so he mixed some in with the feed and fed it to the koi. Much to his surprise, it worked marvelously and the illness was stopped in it’s tracks. “This made me think that I was really on to something big. I became hooked on using medicines, and the shape of the koi progressively became in bad shape. We found parasites, bacterial pathogens were announced along with a host of medicines and antibiotics to combat them. We had fallen into a cycle of disease and chemicals without even realizing it” said Mr. Kataoka. It seems that during that time, people stopped thinking of koi as a living organism in regards to disease. They simply began to ask the names of diseases and what dosage to use with what medicine when koi got sick. It had really come down to an issue of nothing being able to be solved without a radical change in the way people acted. Mr. Kataoka decided 20 years ago to stop treating his ponds against anchor worm and argulus. The kawaebi that were mentioned early can’t stand even the slightest trace of these chemicals without dying, were one thing that he did add. The first year was rather miserable, and the koi that were harvested in autumn were skinny and covered in parasites, but none had died. Within 3 years, the number of koi that had parasites had gone way down and only particular koi seemed to be taking them on. From 5 to 10 years after, he had no more worries with parasites or sick koi altogether.

Lunch was over and we continued to talk on the way back to their house. I had some time to reflect on what he had told me, and while it all made sense, it did take a while to sink in. We arrived back and began preparations for the second and last feeding round of the day. Taro had already gone off to one of the mud ponds to continue with culling, and Mr. Kataoka and I hopped into his truck and started up the winding mountain road. Before long we arrived at a location where he had one tosai and two nisai ponds all within close proximity of one another. He filled a bowl with food and walked to the edge of the one that we had parked next to, making sure to draw my attention before starting to feed. This was a pond of nisai that was stocked relatively low, and the koi began to feed almost the instant that the pellets hit the water. “See that maruten kohaku there,” asked Mr. Kataoka “that’s a hybrid that was born from an aka-muji from magoi spawning”. He had shown me a photograph earlier of an aka-muji that had appeared as a mutation out of a spawning with a magoi, and the story behind it was quite a popular one in Japan indeed. This and one other kohaku were being grown on and watched as an experiment to improve the offspring of this aka-muji into good quality kohaku. They may in turn be bred as well to make further improvements as well.

We walked to the other side of the dirt road to find Taro busily culling the fry from a sanke spawning. Ones that had made it through the cull were returned back to the pond immediately, but there was a hand net containing extremely large fry known as tobi. I asked what they planned to do with these to which the both answered that these would be moved to a special tobi pond in which they could maximize their growth. Mr. Kataoka explained that out of the smaller ones that were returned back to the original pond, some of these themselves would in turn also become tobi and that they would then be moved to the other pond as well. Taro had the distinction of being the last pupil of Ichiro Mano, whom many of you would know from Izumiya, and who had trained many who are now great breeders in their own right. He certainly learned his trade well and is a wealth of knowledge about koi. Observing him cull for a little over 30 minutes, I followed Mr. Kataoka over to the big pond behind this one, containing again a relatively low number of nisai. As we prepared to leave to go to yet another location, he pulled a tomato from a small garden that they maintained nearby and offered it to me...I never eat badly when I go to Niigata!

As we were arriving at the next location, I couldn’t help but notice a small stone monument off to the rear left of the pond and went to investigate. The inscription read “Taro-ike”, and it was obvious to me that the pond had been named after Mr. Kataoka’s eldest son. “I put that in when Taro was born” he told me with a big smile. Some things seem to never change even with the passing of time and 25 years after the fact, I could almost still sense the joy that he must have felt on the day that this was erected. There were no visible signs of aging or weathering of the stone, so it was almost like stepping back in time if only for a brief moment. Some of his very best sansai went into this pond, and the stocking numbers were yet again very low. We still had four more ponds to make on this circuit, so we climbed back into the truck and made down the dirt road yet once again. Mr. Kataoka then remembered noticing a problem yesterday and told me that he would show me another nuisance that the breeder had to deal with in summer. He grabbed a bag from the back of the truck and called me over to see what it was he was about to take care of. “That clump over there I noticed yesterday and I need to get rid of them today.” He was referring to an absolutely massive patch of eggs which had been deposited in the pond by a frog that had originally been introduced from America after the war to ease the burden on food supplies. Using a net to scoop them out, he then spread hydrated lime around the edges where the eggs had been, which would disintegrate any that had been missed. If these were to hatch in numbers they would create more problems down the line, so they needed to be dealt with now. There really did seem to be a number of things waiting to cause the breeder grief during this time of year.

Having evicted the eggs from his pond, we made our way down a very narrow dirt path to his final two ponds just as the rain started to come down. Along the way I noticed considerable lengths of somewhat flexible black pipe running down the side of the trail. “Remember when I told you that we weren’t as blessed with water as everyone thought?” asked Mr. Kataoka, “well, that’s exactly what I mean as we have to take water from one pond to fill another in some cases. The second to last pond was holding his famous aka-muji parent, and I finally got a chance to see her up close. This was the pond where all the big koi were kept, all above 70cm and looking quite good. Feeding was completed for the day, and it was time to head back. The rain was really coming down now and the timing couldn’t have been better. On the drive back, we talked about things that I had seen in the afternoon, but I couldn’t resist asking if he had any encounters with the infamous mamushi. Almost bitten once, but that was as close as it got for him. He explained that it wasn’t too much of a worry...after all, they had antidotes for the venom and nobody died from them anymore. I had come face to face with one while trying my hand at rice farming at a friend’s place back when I was in college. It definitely worried me and had my undivided attention at the time!

As an unexpected surprise, I received a bottle of shochu another popular distilled spirit in Japan that had a perfectly preserved mamushi inside! We chatted again for a while in his office, all three of his sons joining in this time. It was now early evening and I felt that I should excuse myself so that they could get on for the night. Mr. Kataoka asked me if I had any plans for dinner, which I didn’t, so he invited me to join them but warned me that it would be “nothing special”. He certainly was being modest as I was yet again treated to another wonderful Niigata meal. We must have talked for five hours that night with the family furthering their ideas about breeding koi and the care required during the summer. Mr. Kataoka told me the story about a koi that lived to be 30 years old nicknamed “mammoth” that was raised next door to him by Yazaemon. It attained 75cm back in the early 70’s, which indeed was a feat worthy of it’s name given the time. He explained that this koi embodied his thoughts of how koi can fulfill their natural potential and maintain their quality as this one did for over 30 years without going downhill. All the while, I also had the unique pleasure of seeing a special family album that was a step back through time with this family, their koi, and their beloved fighting bull. Watching the brothers as young boys and their sister on old videos certainly warmed the heart and communicated a lot about them to me that words might never be able to. This was a memorable visit, and the Kataoka family demonstrated what their summer held most beautifully and appropriately. I’m very much looking forward to paying them a visit again at harvest time to see the fruits of their labor during these hot, muggy summer months.

Next >

[ Back ]

Featured Koi Auctions