Iwashita Koi Farm
Mr. Tadashi Iwashita One of Mr. Iwashita’s Ginrin Asagi
Iwashita Koi Farm was established around 1965 in Mushigame, Niigata.
Mr. Tadashi Iwashita is the founder and owner of this farm, and is famous for creating the first Ginrin Asagi in 1999.
Mr. Iwashita enjoys breeding rare and unusual types of Koi, especially establishing new varieties.
Iwashita Koi Farm maintains a large display greenhouse on the road into Mushigame, which houses 3 display ponds. This establishment is very popular and is always bustling with Koi keepers. Mr. Iwashita also has a breeding complex in the mountains of Nagaoka, away from the crowds, in a place named Tomoto. He has owned this area since 1982.
Because he is so busy, and something of a celebrity in the Koi keeping world, Mr. Iwashita often leaves some of his parent fish with relatives in his home village, and they help him breed each season’s harvest.
His breeding area in Tomoto consists of 2.5 acres with 30 ponds – two of these being especially large mud ponds. 12 of these ponds area for Tosai fish, with around 3000 being transfered to greenhouse ponds each Autumn.
As mentioned, Mr. Iwashita is famous for breeding the first Ginrin Asagi. It began with a curiosity just to see what one would look like, and as luck would have it, he spotted a male Asagi that displayed some ginrin scales. A very rare fish to just stumble across.
Using this Asagi as the male parent, he bred it with a female non Ginrin Asagi, repeating the process with the offspring until he had enough of them with good quality Ginrin to stablise the variety.
Thus was the “Iwashita Ginrin Asagi” bloodline born.
These Ginrin Asagi are now bred each year, and repeatedly culled until only 1000 remain. Half of these are sold to Japanese buyers, leaving a mere 500 specimens to be sold to foreign hobbyists. A very exclusive fish indeed.
Mr. Iwashita says these are quite difficult to breed as they need good, strong “Hi” on their pectoral fins, belly, and cheeks. Only around 30% of the fry meet his exacting standards.
These Ginrin Asagi often win awards at the All Japan Nishikigoi Show, taking first place in the “B Ginrin” category. This category is for all Ginrin varieties that are not Gosanke.
Mr. Iwashita is also famous for breeding the first Ginrin Matsukawabake – a relatively new variety of koi in itself.
He achieved this by breeding a female parent Koi that was a cross between a Kumonryu and a Shiro Utsuri, with a male Ginrin Matsuba with Ginrin Ochiba parentage. A very dark coloured fish indeed.
Most of the fry born to these parents are Ginrin Chagoi, stemming from their paternal Ochiba blood. This means lot of them are culled as Mr. Iwashita selects only the darkest fry with strong Ginrin to grow on. After a year or two, the white develops and the Ginrin scales become far more prominent.
Iwashita Koi Farm also breeds beautiful Goshiki koi, stemming from a female parent that Mr. Iwashita has had for over 10 years. Once he even declined a $5000 offer from a potential buyer for this fish!
Aside from the Ginrin Asagi, Ginrin Matsukawabake, and Goshiki, Iwashita Koi Farm specialises in; Doitsu Goshiki, Doitsu Ochiba, Kumonryu and Goromo.