Visiting a breeder marusada koi farm (jiimu)

摘要

Marusada Koi Farm, Yamakoshi was founded in 1950, not a very old koi farm in the cradle of Nishikigoi. Mushigame is a very snowy area in Niigata. 'BIG WELCOME! MARUSADA KOI FARM' on the farm sign welcomes you in the snow view in winter. Toshikatsu Ikarashi welcomed us with his big smile. Ikarashi is their surname, and Marusada is their farm's name, but many koi people call him 'Jiimu' by their traditional family name. In addition, foreign koi people call him 'Toshi'. Toshikatsu looked back the summerholiday when he was alittle boy. He helped his father with culling almost every day all through the summer. He was given only two days off to play with his friends. He thought that he had been expected to succeed his father's koi farm. He got married at the age of eighteen, and began to work at the farm. Although he liked Nishikigoi, young Toshikatsu often quarreled with his father about koi farming or something.