Matsunosuke – In Search of Pink Beni

[Russell Peters]

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[Russell Peters]

Toshio Sakai of Isawa Nishikigoi Center, aka Matsunosuke, has long been known as the “innovator”. He has spent a lifetime trying to improve the size, quality and long lasting beauty of Nishikigoi. With this comes the latest chapter with the further development of Pink Beni, or as Mr. Sakai would say, “Pink type Beni”. What is Pink Beni and is it actually a new development? Pink Beni is somewhat random in how it occurs. Mr. Sakai has been able to determine that certain parent fish will produce a certain percentage of Pink Beni Koi but the issue has been creating a higher percentage of high quality Pink Beni Koi. There is a big difference in the percentage of Pink Beni Koi produced and the percentage of high quality Pink Beni Koi produced. Mr. Sakai says that Pink Beni has not been difficult to produce as it is just a color type. It has been difficult for him to make ‘parents’ that produce Koi with a high percentage of quality, body, pattern and Pink type Beni. The problem is that good Koi do not always turn out to be good parents but he now has ‘parents’ that can produce more of all these qualities. They are now in a position to be able to produce more high quality Pink Beni type Koi. Mr. Sakai produces Pink Beni Sanke, Showa and Kohaku.

[Russell Peters]

I have been studying Koi with Mr. Sakai for seven years now and nothing you learn is ever given to you. Mr. Sakai has a very interesting teaching style in that he likes to “show” you Koi and talk about certain qualities that each Koi he brings out might have. It’s a process with many benefits and the greatest benefit I can think of is that, in a sense, he leads you to a point where you make your own discoveries and when you learn something, you actually own it because it wasn’t handed to you. It was presented to you in disguise and, if you asked the right question, or you came to the right conclusions then you learned something. In a sense, my discovery of Pink Beni came about in a similar fashion. Mr. Sakai did not present it to me. It was actually a discovery made by a customer as we were searching through tanks of high end Nisai. Mr. Sakai and I were looking in one tank and from another tank we heard “is this Pink Beni?” With this Mr. Sakai lit up and so began our first session on Pink Beni. This is the Sanke, with Pink Beni, that was discovered.

[Russell Peters]

What was interesting about this discovery is that what we thought was the first discovery of Matsunosuke Pink Beni actually wasn’t. The year before this same customer had purchased a 3 step sanke that has Pink Beni. As a small Nisai this Sanke stood out. It was so stunning, in it’s color, sheen and luster, that I had to ask Mr. Sakai if this Sanke was finishing at an early age. His answer was that “sometimes the quality is so good that, at an early age, it can look finished but it is not.” There was no mention of the type of Beni this Sanke had and, looking back, it fit into Mr. Sakai’s teaching mode. Making my own discoveries would ultimately be more valuable. It has been.

[Russell Peters]

Mr. Sakai has many types of Beni, all breeders do, and these types include a “persimmon” type Beni, a darker “red” beni, as with most this type tends to be more of a “hard” Beni, a “yellow” type Beni and Pink Beni. Of these there are, of course, subtle in between shades but, for the most part, these four are consistent. The one type that is most valued in Japan is the “yellow” type Beni. Mr. Sakai also calls this type “professional” Beni as it takes a professional to recognize the value of this type of Beni. It is very soft, elastic Beni that lasts a very long time and is less likely to break down. Any type of Beni will have different levels of quality. By this I mean not all Pink Beni, or “yellow” Beni or “persimmon” type Beni are the same. Some Pink Beni is better than other Pink Beni and so on. One of the things that can make the biggest difference is the type of skin that contains the Beni so it is very important that the skin quality be very good as well. How white the skin is is not what makes quality skin. A very bright white can actually be flat and stark and not give the impression of depth. The skin on a Koi that has depth, and luster, to it gives the impression of dimension, it makes the color look like it has more depth and volume.

This is a "yellow" Beni Kohaku

[Russell Peters]

Most hobbyists are looking for a darker “red” type Beni and this is where Pink Beni comes in. What is Pink Beni? Pink Beni is a purple based, darker Beni. When I talk to most people about Pink Beni the first thing they say is “it doesn’t look pink.” All one has to do is get out a color chart with “pink” based colors and go to the darker end of pink and you will see that the colors go to more of a purple base. Think purple based red and you are close to what Matsunosuke Pink Beni is. Pink Beni is not unique to Matsunosuke as many breeders have Pink type Beni and it has been around for a long time. . What is unique about Matsunosuke Pink Beni is it’s depth and that it is translucent. I am not just saying that it is thick, I am saying that it looks three dimensional. It is like looking into a piece of stained glass. You don’t just see the color, you see into the color. Most high quality Beni is thick, and in this sense has dimension, but you don’t see into it and, with the luster and sheen, you almost feel like you are looking into it but it is still one dimension .

[Russell Peters]

Where does Pink Beni come from? Mr. Sakai explained to me that Pink beni has been around for a long time. It was something that just occurred naturally but, at first, the Pink Beni Koi were not very good. Since they were not very good it was difficult fo people to see the Pink type Beni. Koi that had this Pink color type did not grow very big, like Koi with other Beni color types, so it was difficult to create female ‘parents’. Over time Mr. Sakai introduced Magoi into his Pink Beni lines and created Pink Beni Koi that would grow larger. With improvements from breeding, and improvements in food, Pink Beni has improved and it is something more people are beginning to notice. Pink Beni can occur on any level of quality but a lower quality Pink beni will have no sheen and gloss. It will break more easily. High quality Pink Beni will have sheen and gloss to it and it will last a very long time. High quality Beni, and how it is reflected, is also based on the quality of skin the Koi has so it makes sense that higher quality Koi, with high quality skin, will show better. That may seem like an obvious statement but you can have two Koi, with the same high quality Beni, and the Koi with the better skin will look better so it is not just about the Beni.

[Russell Peters]

Pink Beni is unsual in it’s development in that it is not always apparent, even to Mr. Sakai, at Tosai. Sometimes it is not “confirmed” that it is Pink Beni until the Koi is Nisai. Matsunosuke Pink Beni is exciting to witness and watching it develop, and change from Tosai, is worthwhile as it brings you into the experience that Mr. Sakai has spent a lifetime developing. It is the beauty of Nishikigoi.

This is a Pink Beni Magoi Showa Tosai and a Pink Beni Sanke Tosai.

[Brian Kaminski]

Great. Keep it coming.

[Marilyn]

Wow! :clap:

[SouthernStarr]

Awesome:toot:

[icu2]

Thanks Russ! :clap:

[Jeff Speck]

It's great to see you sharing what you've learned. Enjoyed reading it.

[Goki56]

Thank you Russ!!!:bow3:

[gray cat]

Thank you Russ. :like:

[powerman]

:like: :like: two thumbs up!



I'm glad you are posting this.. I think I need to look at more koi, I still have trouble seeing the "pink" in pink beni. Thanks for sharing... more pictures please :bow3:

[jimc2142003]

I thought my eyes were getting worse - I never saw the pink in the pink beni either. Thanks for posting this Russ. After reading this then looking through the pics from last years trip it becomes more apparent. The only problem is after looking through last years pics is my koi list has increased.
:like: :like: two thumbs up!



I'm glad you are posting this.. I think I need to look at more koi, I still have trouble seeing the "pink" in pink beni. Thanks for sharing... more pictures please :bow3:

[Russell Peters]

:like: :like: two thumbs up!



I'm glad you are posting this.. I think I need to look at more koi, I still have trouble seeing the "pink" in pink beni. Thanks for sharing... more pictures please :bow3:


I lost my last two years of ALL my pictures when my laptop was stolen in November. I don't really have more to post.

[Marilyn]

I lost my last two years of ALL my pictures when my laptop was stolen in November. I don't really have more to post.
That's the beauty of having your Japan threads available to us. It's one of the reasons those threads are a must read for me whenever you go to Japan.
I haven't a hope of purchasing a lot of those you have share but it expands my knowledge base so I can suss out the ones I can. :D:

[KoiN4321]

:like: Great post...I'm really enjoying all the possibilities of this hobby.

[Russell Peters]

It's great to see you sharing what you've learned. Enjoyed reading it.

So you think it's better than my normal "yes" or "no" answers?

[Jeff Speck]

So you think it's better than my normal "yes" or "no" answers?

Well... yeah, through the years I've heard it observed that you tend to write short and dismissive comments, so of course it's more pleasant when you explain your way of thinking.

I was surprised when you visited and talked a mile a minute and seemed really enthusiastic about koi.

[koiman1950]

Well... yeah, through the years I've heard it observed that you tend to write short and dismissive comments, so of course it's more pleasant when you explain your way of thinking.

I was surprised when you visited and talked a mile a minute and seemed really enthusiastic about koi.

Actually, THAT is the REAL Russ Peters.

[Redman8102]

Actually, THAT is the REAL Russ Peters.
:like:

You mean this whole time, the short and to the point guy has had all us fooled, what a clever rouse Mr.Peters… I liked this read looking forward to more… Wish I had a place to go look at HQ pink beni koi. One of these days somebody here on the East Coast (NC) is gonna get serious!

[BAVOTOI]

That's the beauty of having your Japan threads available to us. It's one of the reasons those threads are a must read for me whenever you go to Japan.
I haven't a hope of purchasing a lot of those you have share but it expands my knowledge base so I can suss out the ones I can. :D:
To Marilyn if you want pink beni RP Will make it's happens.