Breeder info Feb 08 - Peter Waddington
(copyright Peter Waddington/Tategoi-koi Feb 2008)
THIS TEXT WAS WRITTEN BY PETER WADDINGTON AT THE REQUEST OF DAISUKE AND TOSHINORI ISHIHARA AND HAS BEEN CHECKED FOR ACCURACY AS BEING CORRECT AND IS WRITTEN ON BEHALF OF YAGENJI IN THEIR NAMES.
Yagenji Koi Farm was started by Yaiichi Ishihara in 1962. A few years ago (2002) our father Yaiichi handed over the day-to-day running of the company to us, his two sons, Daisuke and Toshinori, at the time of writing Yaichi is 65 years old.
The small entrance which is signposted in English to Yagenji Koi Farm is actually on the main road which enters Mushigame Village from Nigorisawacho heading towards Katsuraya and Takezawa villages. It is a sharp left turn taking one steeply upwards and then a tight 90 degree upward turn to one’s right leads us to the indoor Koi houses. (Before the earthquake our family home was also here but now a new and much more modern family home has been built lower down in the village near to Igarashi Kazuto, our neighbour.)
At Yagenji we strive to produce a very wide range of varieties of Nishikigoi namely:
Kohaku
Sanke
Showa
Kikusui
Shiro Utsuri
Gin Rin Kohaku
Gin Rin Showa
Chagio
Doitsu Chagoi
Cha-Utsuri
Doitsu Ochibashigure
Kumonryu
Beni Kumonryu
Doitsu Kohaku
Midorigoi
Benigoi
Soragoi
Goshiki
Our parent stocks come mainly from Niigata breeders but our Go-Sanke parents are as follows:
Female Sanke from Momotaro
Male Sanke from Mastsunosuke
Female Showa from Takeda
Male Showa from Yagenji
Female Kohaku from Yagenji
Male Kohaku from Yagenji
Daisuke and Toshinori have both learned so much about the skills of Koi breeding from our father but have also learned much from the period of our apprenticeships. When Toshinori was 18 years old he trained with Hiroji Sakai in Hiroshima and when Daisuke was 22 years old he trained for 18 months at the Momotaro Koi Farm in Okayama.
Like so many other breeders in the area the 2004 Chuetsu earthquake devastated the Yagenji Koi Farm and losses were high – namely:-
10,000 tosai – all lost
300 missai – all lost
10 sansai – all lost
4 Female parents – all lost
Thankfully we managed to save all Yonsai and those in larger sizes but since then have strived to get back into full production with a full complement of parent stocks, it has taken us some time to locate new parents and start the breeding cycle again but fortunately, at last, now we are back in full production.
We work hard to make the water conditions in our indoor ponds as clean and as good as possible so that our customers can easily view our stocks, it is important to us that we manage our systems as best we can, the use of many sacks of Oyster Shell can be seen in our filtration chambers to help buffer the pH of the water. Like all other outlets in the area October/November is harvest time of our mud ponds and this is the best time to find and purchase stocks from Yagenji at Nissai and larges sizes whilst April is the best time to find and buy Tosai – we hope to meet you some day and show you our own Nishikigoi stocks. In October and November you can find a wide range of qualtities in our production ranging from very cheap right through to very special Koi which are priced accordingly – many of our Nishikigoi have taken major awards in Koi shows all around the world.
For several years now the vast majority of our production goes to export markets and we carefully pack and oxygenate our Koi for shipment here at our farm ourselves and then deliver them in cartons to the collection truck for transportation to the appropriate airport. Today, Yagenji Koi are shipped to England; Holland; America; Germany; Belgium; Thailand; South Africa; Korea; Hong Kong; Singapore and China.
After the recent fears of KHV, we at Yagenji have our stocks checked regularly by the Inland Fisheries Research Center. To date all results have been negative and we have certificates that anyone can inspect to confirm this – our Koi have never been exposed to KHV so you can purchase healthy Koi from Yagenji with confidence.
We have to have many mud ponds in the mountainsides in which we can grow our stocks during the summer months. Our ponds which were damaged by the earthquake have now been fully repaired and we have also bought new mud ponds to house our increased production. We are now breeding more Nishikigoi than we were before the earthquake. If you plan to visit Niigata we sincerely hope you will find time to visit Yagenji Koi Farm and inspect out Nishikigoi – we guarantee you a warm welcome – and we can now even speak a few words in English!
| 
