Breeder: Kaneko
Kaneko Koi Farm (金子養鯉場) is in Nigorisawa, Nagaoka, Niigata. Takaaki Kaneko founded it in 1961 and his son Yasuaki runs it now. By Niigata standards it is small — around 30,000 square metres, 55-odd mud ponds, about 60 parent koi — and that shows in the work.
Kaneko is a Kawarigoi and metallics farm, and deliberately not a Gosanke one: no Kohaku, no Sanke, no Showa. What they do breed is Kujaku — one of the farm's specialities — along with Matsukawabake and Ginrin Matsukawabake, Shiro Utsuri, Goshiki, Ochiba, Kikokuryu, Kumonryu and Tancho. His young Kujaku look darker than most, and that is the point: read why in how to choose a Kujaku.
Matsukawabake is the one worth explaining, because it is unlike anything else in a pond. It is a black-and-white koi that changes — the pattern genuinely shifts with water temperature and season, so the fish you look at in July is not the fish you look at in November. Some years it is mostly black, some years mostly white. If you want a koi that rewards watching rather than one that settles into a fixed picture, this is it.
Kaneko koi available now
Everything here was imported by House of Koi. We chose almost every older koi individually at the farm, and those are one-of-a-kind: each listing carries video of that exact fish with its size, sex and year born, and closes when that fish sells. Tosai are bought both ways: we pick many out of the pond ourselves, and others come as a mix we chose at the farm, in which case the listing covers a group of young koi rather than one named fish.
Our Kaneko selection leans heavily to Ginrin Matsukawabake — including tosai — plus Platinum Ogon and Shiro Utsuri. If you are choosing a Shiro Utsuri, read how we judge them first.
Live koi ship Tuesdays and Wednesdays, anywhere in the USA. Browse all available Japanese koi.
