Page 24 - Koi Net - On-Line Koi Magazine - Issue 5

As befitting a company that has been going for 100 years
the business has a unique and very interesting story to
tell. His Grandfather, Torakichi Kawakami, started the
company. At that time his Grandfather had a store that
sold sake before his interest turned to Koi. In the
beginning he did not breed Koi but would go around and
buy Koi from other farmers who were breeding Koi locally
in the mountains, he became one of the very first Koi
wholesalers even before the well-known Koi wholesalers
of that time, Miyaishi and Miyakoya, had started.
This early involvement of going around and looking to
PEOPLE FROM buy Koi from other breeders would benefit Tsuyoshi
many years later. His Grandfather would sell these Koi all
THIS AREA OF over Japan, in those days transporting Koi was a difficult
NIIGATA TOOK task. If they were not selling to people locally then they
would have to deliver Koi by taking trains. Firstly they
KOI TO THE would go to Nagaoka Station and then travel with the Koi
to their final destinations. These journeys could take up
1924 TOKYO to two days and the Koi were transported in wooden
EXHIBITION boxes and throughout the journey they would splash the
water in the wooden boxes by hand to create oxygen to
keep the Koi alive. When travelling on really long
journeys they would even arrange to change water in
such cities as Osaka. Other breeders have told me that
this was the only way they could sell and deliver Koi
around the rest of Japan.
In those days Koi were not sold by quality but by weight
and in the beginning the breeders would get a better
price for their Koi when sending to Kyoto or Osaka
than if they sent to Tokyo. Even Kawakami san can
remember as a boy when his Father sold Koi by weight
and travelling with the Koi by train to deliver them
around Japan.
Kawakami san is unsure exactly when his Grandfather
started breeding Koi but it seemed a logical step for
them as a family because they were dealing so much
with Koi. It has been well documented that at the 1924
Tokyo Exhibition people from this area of Niigata took Koi
to the exhibition, I wondered if his Grandfather had been
one of the people that went but Kawakami san was
unsure and did not know. After his Grandfather started
the Koi business his Father, Hiroshi Kawakami, started
Kawakami san
examines one of his working with Koi he was the only son of five children and
High Grade Kohaku. as in many cases it is expected that the number one son
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