With kind permission of KINSAI SHUPPAN.

This extract is from an issue of NISHIKIGOI monthly, September 1998.

The original Oishi Sanke were Jinbei Sanke.

Oishi's father bought his original Sanke parents for breeding from Jinbei when Jinbei Sanke were in their prime and much sort-after.

He started breeding Jinbei with Jinbei but found that most of the fry were black and very few had any red at the time of first cull. (This is a typical result when breeding Jinbei with Jinbei).

Fry were raised until they were 3 cm and then he picked to grow-on any fry that showed white skin between the black pattern.

He threw away any babies without pattern and any kohaku coloured fry. (This is how Jinbei lineage are culled)

The resulting tosai at harvest time were poor, with a very low rate of red pattern, but far to many predominately black koi. (These appeared time and time again, even after he had thrown them all away)

Oishi's next step was to inbreed with Tsubozumi type, with a lot of white back ground, which he selected from his first bred (1st generation) in order to reduce the amount of black that had shown in the fry.

As a result of this breeding he produced bright red of quality, but body shape was not good and growth was poor. He found that inbreeding different types of brother and sister worked well, but similar type of brother and sister would improve the quality, but was not so good for growth or body shape.

However when tosai selling time came round he had sanke with good pattern, but he was not happy with the results.

The next step in the advancement of his lineage was to introduce Matsunosuke blood in order to get bigger koi.

However this lead to fewer koi of sellable quality than before, instead of the koi getting bigger.

There were no sellable koi at tosai time. (They were establishing later than before and were far from finished)

Some of these had inherited Jinbei type large sumi, but the sumi of these koi would spread and fade when the koi grew to a larger size and some of these had ideal tsubozumi type, but the sumi was underlying and would never come up (eternally Tategoi).

Oishi then spent over 30 years establishing his lineage and now his parent koi are grand children or great grand children of his original parent koi.

He explained that his Sanke lineage grow big like Matsunosuke, but still has a strong Jinbei tendency on it's sumi quality. This is what makes an Oishi Sanke.

Now at first cull about 60% of fry are predominantly black, these are thrown away leaving those fry that you can distinguish black, red and white pattern.

He then culls strictly on red quality, especially for brightness and sharp KIWA (edge) He also uses this method for keeping koi for another year or two.

He also said that he keeps 10-20 pieces of male koi from his breeding which have the best quality and typical type of his lineage in order to breed from these in the future.

Photo 1

Best female breeding stock Oishi Sanke, which has been in use since 1990.

Photo 2

Male breeding stock paired with photo 1 female until 1997.

Photo 3

Male breeding stock paired with photo 1 female from 1998

In order to look for a slightly new type than before.