I have some pictures of koi doing no good sitting on my hard disk, so I’ll post some depending on the interest level. I’ll start with some that I captured as KS shut down. Other than some number relating to posts that no longer exist, I have no information as to attribution. If you do and want to comment that would be good.
The third photo is one which Ray Jordan used in his talks about the history of the development of koi. Today, we would probably call it an Ochiba Utsuri or some such thing. It is actually an example of the original Showa developed by Hoshino in the 1920s from crossing Kohaku with Ki Utsuri. It was such a wonderful koi at the time that the variety was named Showa in honor of the new emperor ushering in the new Showa Era..... and today, hardly anyone would want the drab thing taking up space. Showa did not become what we recognize today until 1964 when Tomiji Kobayashi crossed Kohaku back into Showa. It is Kobayashi-san's creation that we know as Showa today, but he could not have done it without nearly 40 years of hard work by others trying to refine the original Hoshino Showa. But, even the Showa created by Kobayashi would all be culled today by any self-respecting Japanese breeder. It is the work done over the past 50 years at Dainichi and by breeders who learned by first working at Dainichi, that resulted in the grand fish we see today.
The different, the unusual I guess there will always be room in my ponds for such creatures heck that's what I like the most about breeding koi seeing them in person. I sold one of those unusual koi during our last show last March the gentleman saw the beauty in that koi and said to me I'm going to grow her and bring her back to the show, Rob thanks for starting this conversation