Yamazaki Koi farm
Written by Tim Waddington on Tuesday, October 22, 2013 in Breeders.
Yamazaki is not a ‘house hold’ name in the Koi world but Yamasan Koi farm have probably produced a few fish you have in your pond. In Niigata he produces many Koi for the wholesale market and his fish get distributed all over the world.
Situated in Kawaguchi town, Yamazaki Koi farm as it is known today started 67years ago. By Seiici and his father Kokichi Yamazaki.
They have always produced mainly metallic varieties and now also produce some very good Go-Sanke. The family also own a mushroom business which is situated on the same property. This is also a very big concern, producing some of the best shiitake in the area.
Anybody visiting Japan on a regular basis will know of this farm. They will also know the fantastic Character who is Manabu Yamazaki. He now pretty much runs the Koi farm and is one of the nicest guys you will ever come across in Japan. Nothing is too much for this guy to do for you. The farm is now one of the biggest facilities in the area and produces many Koi. Yamazaki Koi farm now breed with 30 sets of parent Koi...yes...30sets!! From these sets the farm will keep 2000 Koi from each spawing. Do the maths, its a lot of fish.
So out of the 30 sets of parents we have 60,000 Koi. From this 60,000 Yamazaki Koi Farm will keep 4000 as their Tategoi. After 1 year this number is down to 400 Nisai. Then the following year 70 Sansai. So from the original 60,000 Koi, only 70 three year old Koi will be left. It’s quite amazing when you really think about it. Thats why it is one of the hardest jobs in the world. If they have a bad harvest with the weather and other factors then the numbers can be much lower. It does however show that these breeders really want to offer the very best Koi they can produce. It would be easy to relax the culling process and mass produce average Koi but these guys refuse to do that and thats why they produce so many good Koi. They never allow ‘rubbish’ to get through. This is one of the reason why the Japanese will always produce the best Koi in the world. Tradition and pride.