Breeder info Feb 08 - Peter Waddington
(copyright Peter Waddington/Tategoi-koi Feb 2008)
Toshio Sakai – Founder and owner of the Isawa Nishikigoi centre in Yamanashi. What can anyone say about this man that has not also been said before? He is a living genius and legend and has been a true and real inspiration to me for many years.
Along with Hiroshima Sakai and Dainichi this man is equal to them both. In short, he is a master in the art of breeding and producing vibrant and healthy Nishikigoi for the world to enjoy!
To go along with this story that I have now told many times before – once again, he has been a really fantastic teacher to me since I first met him in 1982 – he has spent HOURS teaching me about Nishikigoi. I cannot relate to you, dear reader, how many times we have conversed in quiet bars and restaurants of the most important points about Nishikigoi – and how we actually did that is beyond me because Toshio speaks no English – hardly any at all, and I speak VERY LITTLE Japanese so we used simple notebooks and pens to document information and make rough sketches.
Isawa is nowhere near the wild and ancient, rural beauty of Yamakoshi, instead it is a bustling town with countless people going around their daily purposes of simply living – so, for me, the landscape is nowhere near as enjoyable of our surroundings in Niigata – which has been my home for nearly half of my whole life.
Today, Toshio breeds Kohaku; Sanke, Showa and amazing ‘Sumi-Goromo Goshiki’ plus a sprinkling of metallic varieties and has ‘secret’ ponds all over Isawa (Yamanashi Prefecture) for his ‘VERY special, and secret, Koi’.
In summer Toshio grows all his Tategoi Koi in the Yamakoshi mountainside ponds, which he owns in full but always harvests them in late October, so, in view of this, he has to transport and take all of his tategoi back to Yamakoshi from Isawa in early June and place them in his Yamakoshi mud ponds – and he then has to feed them every single day!
Back in the late 1970’s the trademark of Toshio Sakai was his incredible red pigmentation (‘HI’ or ‘BENI’) on his Koi and the amazing depth of black (‘SUMI’) together with his amazing white (‘SHIRO’) skins – and these Koi were only just ‘very pretty examples’ from his father’s ‘Tateshita’ – which he would have discarded unless Toshio’s father would have allowed him to move in and grow them, by his own expert methods, to a very acceptable and desireable perfection.!
To me, Toshio is, simply, a GOD in Koi, both him, Shintaro, and the late Mr. Hiroshi Kawakami (Torazo), plus ‘Davy’ (Naoji) Takanashi and Megumi Yoshida have taught me more than I could ever, ever know about Nishikigoi through their teachings and countless visits to Japan.
BELIEVE ME, I AM NOT A SLOW LEARNER – INSTEAD I AM JUST A PLAIN AND SIMPLE ‘JUNIOR STUDENT’ WHO IS ANXIOUS TO LEARN SO MUCH, MUCH MORE ABOUT NISHIKIGOI! AND I HAVE ALSO A FAIR TALENT OF HOW TO WRITE IT DOWN ON PAPER ABOUT MY EXPERIENCES IN THIS WONDERFUL HOBBY AND PROMOTING SUCH A ‘FANTASTIC’ PASTIME.
Toshio was the first to introduce aerated, tailored filter mat cartridges to the world and finally patented his ‘clean water system’ in Japan and the USA. He still gives Nishikigoi lectures all over Japan as well as to the rest of the world.
| 
