Page 22 - Koi Net - On-Line Koi Magazine - Issue 92

A CLOSE LOOK AT

SASHI AND KIWA

DEVELOPMENT

Stephen Grey.

Sitting in the garden again, during the week (in the
rain) having a well-earned cuppa, Anthony and I got
talking again regarding Sashi and Kiwa.

An area that we have come to understand more in
recent years is Sashi and Kiwa, and how it changes
and develops. Mainly from what we have learned from
Japan and our own experiences, such as our Yonsai
Matsue Kohaku pictured left, taken in October 2019 at
75cm, which we’ll come back too.

Stephen and Anthony Grey. We like most things though, the attributes of the Koi
needs to be right and in the case of Sashi and Kiwa the
Koi’s skin needs to be right too, such as the thickness
and quality of the Beni. As this plays a part in
determining the Sashi and Kiwa style and how it
develops and changes.
SASHI APPEARS
So first of all, Sashi
ON HI AND
Sashi appears on Hi and Sumi, in the middle skin layer
SUMI, AT THE at the front edge of a pattern. Good acceptable Sashi is
FRONT EDGE when it is even throughout the Koi and is no more than
two scales deep in the white skin, ideally being only
OF A PATTERN one scale Sashi and is often seen on younger Koi,
but due to better Koi genetics and Koi keeping skills
a larger Koi can now be relatively young and
demonstrate Sashi.

Sashi is a combination of the relationship between the
Shiroji (white) and the Beni at the leading edge of a
pattern.
So back to our Matsue Kohaku, we feel she is quite a
Matsue Kohaku as a Yonsai
at 75cm. Photographed in good example of how Sashi can change, as when we
October 2019. selected her she had deeper and not so even Sashi, we
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