Breeder info Feb 08 - Peter Waddington
(copyright Peter Waddington/Tategoi-koi Feb 2008)
Mitsuo and his wife are such a wonderful couple, they produce superb Kohaku from Manzo and Tomoin bloodlines at their tiny Koi farm in Ojiya. I was first introduced to Mr. Hasegawa in 1982 by Mr. Kawakami, owner of the Torazo Koi farm, (Urakawa) in Uragara village.
 Mr. Hasegawa is a very honest man and very fair to deal with, he does not drink or smoke – he even has no membership with any Koi societies in Japan whatsoever. Instead he looks after his Koi and his amazing collection of potted plants around his house. He has one son and one daughter, his daughter now lives in Tokyo.
His daughter, Yuko, came to stay with us in the UK some years ago supposedly to learn English but instead spent most of her time in Harrods of London buying a whole wardrobe of new clothes!
Since 1982, in all my years of returning again, and again, and again to Japan, I have never missed buying Koi from Mr. Hasegawa because he is always fair and gives me fair prices. He also states to all that his new, luxury home, which was erected a few years ago after the old family home was demolished, has been bought and paid for by ‘Mr Peter’!
Mitsuo has another theory in not passing his Koi pond water through filters – instead he has no filters at all. He only has three ponds in his indoor house which he keeps to a salinity of 0.5% salt without any filters (OR ANY FOOD) from October to May!
Quite a few years ago, Mitsuo stated that one of his parent Koi had a bad damage on her side and he did not know what to do about it. Dennis suggested an antibiotic injection but Mitsuo had no anaesthetic or injections available – he had no idea how to use them!
So Dennis and I drove to Miyakoya and bought anaesthetic, antibiotics and syringes and returned to Mitsuo’s home. Dennis carefully anaesthetised the Jumbo Koi and Mr. Hasegawa panicked – thinking the Koi was dead!
Dennis and I just said ‘Dai Jobu’ – (No problems!) and then Dennis proceeded to inject the Koi and disinfect the wound. Mitsuo was still very apprehensive as he seriously believed his very valuable parent Koi was dead!
After Dennis had completed the injection and placed the Koi into new water, Mitsuo just stared at his prize Koi and, within two minutes, she had righted herself to the upright position and had returned to normal – Mitsuo was absolutely amazed! – the Koi healed totally within a few days. Ever since then, Mitsuo names Dennis as ‘Doctor Dennis’!
Since 1982, there has never been one trip to Japan when we have never bought Koi from Hasegawa and several have gone on to take Supreme Champion awards at Koi shows around the world.
Furthermore, he does not advertise and he is not a member of any Koi breeder’s association – he just concentrates on breeding his Koi!
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