Breeder: Marusaka
Marusaka Koi Farm is in Minaminigoro, Ojiya, Niigata. Teruchiyo Hiroi started it in the 1950s during the postwar koi boom; it is now in its third generation under Teruyuki Hiroi, whose father Teruo made the farm's name.
Marusaka began as a Sanke farm, and the Marusaka Sanke line still carries weight — Teruo crossed a Kohaku male over his Sanke female, and the fish that came out of it founded the bloodline. A Marusaka-bred Taisho Sanke took Best in Variety at the 1980 All Japan Nishikigoi Show, and the line is known for an unusually bright, almost translucent white skin.
Today the farm is better known for metallics — Hikarimono and Hikarimoyo. That means Kujaku, Kikusui, Kin Ki Utsuri, Kikokuryu and Beni Kikokuryu, Lemon Hariwake and Ginrin Chagoi, plus Doitsu Kohaku and Doitsu Sanke. Marusaka is also one of the few farms in Niigata breeding Midorigoi, which they have worked on since the early 2000s.
Marusaka 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.
This is a small, deliberately selective collection. It currently holds Kikusui, a Metallic Ginrin Sanke (Yamato Nishiki) and an Aya Wakaba — all of which sit squarely in what Marusaka does best. Metallic koi are judged differently from matte ones: the lustre has to run evenly from head to tail without going dull across the shoulders, and the pattern has to stay readable through the shine rather than being washed out by it.
Live koi ship Tuesdays and Wednesdays, anywhere in the USA. Browse all available Japanese koi.
