Breeder info Feb 08 - Peter Waddington
(copyright Peter Waddington/Tategoi-koi Feb 2008)
Izumiya is the ‘boss’ of the Yamakoshi mountains, a real force in koi past and present. The effort that he puts into the industry is incredible, he is the Shinkokai President, which stages the biggest and best koi show in the world, The All Japan Koi Show, held in Jan/Feb in Tokyo each year.
His facility in Yamakoshi is said to be the first ever retail outlet in the Yamakoshi area, a true professional in the koi world. He breeds the very best Yamabuki Ogon in the entire world, they are truly wonderful, available to buy from 2 years old up to all ages and all sizes, you will see many koi at the facility well approaching 1m.
IZUMIYA KOI FARM, IWAMAGI VILLAGE
This is probably the most well-known Koi farm in the whole of Yamakoshi today, and it certainly is the oldest. It is also very traditional and ‘old-fashioned’ in its dealings. Izumiya breeds true JUMBO Koi from Yamabuki, Jinbei bloodline Sanke and Kohaku to Ai-Goromo. Some of his jumbo Yamabuki are amazing to behold – they almost reach one metre long. For many, many years now, Izumiya has been known world-wide for Jumbo Koi.
The business is run and owned today by Seniichi Mano after the sad passing of his very elderly father some years ago.
He employs also the famous owner of ‘Yagozen’ in Koguriyama to assist him in his day-to-day business.
In the very early years of me visiting the company, Izumiya was a large, wooden building with long front side wide open to the elements but, for the past five years the wood has all been stripped away and the entire building has since been completely insulated by glass and steel – 100% better!
A few years back, I noticed a wonderful Shiro Bekko in one of his ponds – it was absolutely superb – especially as no-one breeds this variety of Koi any more. So I asked Mr Mano to net it and show me the Koi close up. The Koi was absolutely wonderful but the price was far too steep for a Shiro Bekko so we returned it to the pond.
The next time I visited Japan I stopped off at Izumiya and Seniichi Mano advised me that Masao Kato had bought and paid for the Shiro Bekko which has since won more awards in it’s class than you can ever believe! He also told me I had missed out on a true bargin – (the story of my life!).
There was one more instance of Izumiya where I saw, in one of his ponds, a truly, wonderful Kohaku around 65cms long. I asked Seniichi to catch her for me and show her to me in a bowl. He did so, and I fell in love with her instantly. I enquired as to the price and Seniichi ran back to his house and returned with genuine certificates denoting that the Kohaku had won more awards in the All-Japan show than you could possibly imagine.
Whilst we were looking at the Koi close up in a bowl, Seniichi asked if it was OK to GIVE it to me for no money at all – and the Koi looked totally perfect. AND THE KOI WAS TOTALLY GORGEOUS – it could have EASILY have won Grand Champion at ANY Koi show held in the UK – In short, if I was a dishonest man – I could have made a fortune from it!
He then told me that the Kohaku had ‘Choman Disease’ which was impossible to cure but maybe would help me in my experience of keeping Koi – this is a cancer in the stomach – but, at the time, it was early days. So I accepted his free offer and accepted the Koi with very much gratitude.
The Kohaku finally landed at Heathrow and eventually was placed in our ponds at Infiltration. We were due, shortly, to having an afternoon of Koi judging with members of the Northern Koi Society headed by Tony Mc.Cann a few days later. So, in the morning of the judging, we cleared one pond and filled the empty pond with our very best samples of jumbo Kohaku, Sanke and Showa that we had in stock – there must have been 25 of them – all jumbo- the pond looked amazing!
Hilary had already printed out judging forms to be filled in and the Koi were all identified by individual digital photographs which were clearly displayed next to the pond.
The judging competition was a TOTAL success as it took seven rounds to finally get to the Supreme Champion, in the end, the Izumiya Kohaku took, by far, the most votes and then I announced the results to all the Koi keepers who were there.
Next, I told them all that Izumiya had GIVEN me the Kohaku free from all charge as she was very ill internally. It cost me £400.00 to get the Koi from Japan back to England even though I had paid actually nothing for her and she still looked totally beautiful and perfect. On the same day of the judging competition, a close friend and a VERY good customer of mine named Peter Chester from Preston asked me how much I needed for him to buy the Koi from me. Please bear in mind that this Koi, in perfect health could be valued at around £25,000! Instead, all I asked Peter for was the refund of my freight, handling and VAT charges of £400.00. Peter paid me and we duly delivered the Kohaku to his pond after I had explained, very clearly, that she would soon die because or the internal problems she was suffering from.
The Izumiya Kohaku lasted for a further two years in Peter’s before he rang me and asked me to put her finally to sleep as her stomach had become so enormously deformed, soon afterwards Dennis went round to Peter’s pond and, reluctantly, did just that.
If you ever make a visit to Japan to buy Koi I recommend you to visit Izumiya, this breeder is steeped in traditions!
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