THE HISTORY OF THE MARUYAMA KOI FARM AND THE "KAGURA" KOHAKU
by
Ray Jordan
Texas Koi & Fancy Goldfish Society
based on seminars and conversations with Futoshi Maruyama
in San Antonio, Texas April 3-6, 2004
One of the goals of the
annual Texas Koi & Fancy Goldfish Societies annual spring fish sale &
seminars is to bring high quality but affordable koi to Texas along with an
english speaking Japanese koi dealer, Mr. Megumi Yoshida and a guest Japanese
koi breeder. If you were able to attend our club’s 10th annual
spring fish sale and seminars (the first weekend in April 2004) you could have
met and talked koi with Futoshi Maruyama the current second generation
owner/operator of Maruyama koi farms located in Isawa,
Yamanashi, Japan.
Maruyama Koi farms has a
very rich and interesting history. Futo’s father, Gensuke Maruyama, started
breeding koi in the 1960’s. Gensuke-san founded Maruyama Koi Farm and rapidly
became a successful koi breeder. Maruyama koi have won many Grand Champion
awards including national and regional shows in Japan as well as other shows all
around the world. Maruyama koi farms also breeds Sanke and Showa but majority of
production today is Kohaku.
Gensuke-san became close friends
with Mr. Minoru Mano (the deceased founder of Dainichi Koi Farm) in the mid
sixties, soon after Maruyama Koi Farm opened for business. Both were in their
late twenties and they often visited each other to discuss Koi breeding and how
to improve the overall quality of their koi. Then Gensuke met Mr. Itaru Suda,
another koi breeder in the Niigata area, and discovered an outstanding Suda-san
bred Kohaku, which had a striking and unique shiny Hiban, (quality of red
pattern), brilliant pure white skin, and a strong body shape. Gensuke-san
decided to purchase Kagura to be his main “seed” koi and work to develop a
new kohaku bloodline with Kagura’s bright shiny red and clean pure white color
quality. This koi was given the nickname "Kagura"(Japanese for
tortoise) because her beni pattern looked like a tortoise shell. Shiny sheen to
skin and color is one attribute that separates ordinary koi from exceptional koi.
The same color tone of red or white looks different on koi with a bright shine
to their skin. This is similar to how the same color would look on cotton vs
silk material.
That was the very beginning of
the Maruyama Koi Farm and the story of the legendary "Kagura". Today
this type of brilliant red shiny red beni is called “Kagura” beni.
The Kamenoko kohaku produced
"Hime" (Japanese for Princess) who was named the National Fish of the
Year for two consecutive years.) and another kohaku named
"Seven" (1st step looked like the number seven) who was the
overall winner of the 17th Koi competition in Tokyo. "Yamato" is
another very famous Maruyama kohaku who became Grand Champion of the 28th nation
Rin Yu Association competition. Other famous Japanese koi breeders such as
the Sakai Koi farm in Hiroshima bought other legendary and famous Maruyama
kohakus to take an active role as a “seed” Koi in their own successful
breeding programs.
Breeding jumbo sized Koi became
a new goal in the eighties. It was very difficult breeding large-sized Koi and
still maintaining the "Kagura-Beni" qualities. Generally, early on,
the color of Koi that grew large had a tendency to lose the deeper brighter red
quality. Gensuki-san kept trying different combinations of male and female koi
to achieve the jumbo quest. Gensuki-san, with the encouragement of friends like
Mr. Minoru Mano, and the help of his son Futoshi eventually succeeded in
producing the highest quality jumbo Koi with "Kagura-Beni". Gensuki
& Futoshi Maruyama have successfully changed the world of breeding Koi and
continue to keep innovating to produce even higher quality Koi.
“Kagura” exceeded
Gensuke’s dreams and produced a successful line of both male and female seed
Koi and many famous show koi as well. It is accepted that today's Japanese
Kouhaku, well known for their jumbo size and bright shiny red and white could
not have been accomplished without "Kagura" and Maruyama Koi Farms.
Futo showed photo’s of his
families koi farm in Isawa Japan. The farm consists of several koi houses to
keep koi in winter and about 50 mud ponds ranging in size from 1/10 acre baby
ponds to 3+ acre ponds for growing up to15 larger koi. Although Maruyama is
famous for Kohaku they have also had success breeding Showa and Sanke with “Kagura-beni”.
Baby koi are hatched in early
summer and culled monthly for four months. Of 500,000 to 1,000,000 eggs hatched
from each set of parent spawnings at most only 1,000 babies from each set of
parents are kept over the winter in warm water koi houses. In the spring the 1
yr old baby koi (Tosai) are sexed and approximately 100 females from each parent
spawning are kept to grow in mud ponds their second summer. In total about 1,000
female koi are kept and grown into two year old (Nisai) to be harvested the next
fall. From these 1,000 two year old females about 100 are selected to be kept
and grown a third summer (Sansai). Very few koi are kept after the third summer.
Only those showing exceptional potential for future parent koi or highest grade
champion quality show koi for very wealthy customers. Female koi are usually
grown for 6 years old at a minimum before being used for breeding.
I have visited the Maruyama koi farm on two
trips to Japan. I hope to visit with Futo many more times and admire and
hopefully buy more Maruyama Koi. Since my first visit I have been blown away by
the beauty of Maruyama kohaku. I decided to buy a stunning three year old
Maruyama kohaku in 2001 and left her to grow two more summers with Futo before
shipping her home to my pond in Texas in early 2003.
To be able to hear about the
history of Japanese koi breeding, breeders, and the important contributions of
Maruyama koi farms, is an exciting opportunity. Learning about their unique
history makes buying and keeping Maruyama kohaku all the more exciting and
satisfying. You can learn more about Maruyama koi farms by visiting their
website at: http://www.kagura-beni.jp/index.htm