Breeder: Omosako
Omosako Koi Farm (面迫養鯉場) is in Kure, Hiroshima — not Niigata, which is part of what makes it interesting. Ryuzo Omosako started as a nishikigoi dealer in Kure in 1960 and built the breeding farm at Tochihara-cho in 1973. His sons Takayoshi and Takahiro run it now.
Omosako is a Shiro Utsuri farm, and arguably the Shiro Utsuri farm. They began breeding the variety in 1979 and spent the following decade bringing in parent koi to build the line. Their Shiro Utsuri have taken Best in Variety at the All Japan Nishikigoi Show year after year, and at the 51st All Japan show in 2020 an Omosako Kujaku took Superior Champion, third overall, which is about as high as a non-Gosanke koi has ever placed there. The farm does not breed Kohaku or Sanke at all.
Shiro Utsuri is a two-colour fish, which sounds simple and is the opposite. There is nowhere to hide: the sumi has to be heavy, glossy and deliberately placed, the shiroji has to stay genuinely white rather than drifting cream, and the boundary between them has to be clean enough to look drawn. Omosako's reputation rests on the weight and finish of that black. We go into what to look for in how to judge a Shiro Utsuri. Their Kujaku are very clean too, and Mr. Omosako taught us how to pick them young in how to choose a Kujaku.
Omosako 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.
Everything here is Shiro Utsuri, which is how an Omosako collection should look.
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