You Be The Judge: Kohaku

Transcription

1 You Be The Judge: Kohaku By Bryan Bateman, Mike Frady, and Jason Guevara We are pleased to present our first You Be The Judge feature as an on- line exercise in koi appreciation. Although this inaugural study will be done with still photos only, future exercises will utilize live action segments to accompany the photos, thus allowing close examination of each koi while swimming in a vat. We re still working out the details of how to make this type of format work, so stay tuned! We would like to thank Devin Swanson, of Koi Acres, for providing excellent photos of five Kohaku for this exercise. They are all show quality Japanese- bred koi, three years old, and ranging in size from 57 to 63 cm (approx.. 23 to 25 inches). The photos were taken with a Nikon D80 digital camera under the same lighting conditions in the same show vat. A B C D E Our judges are Mike Frady, Jason Guevara, and myself, Bryan Bateman. Mike is from Alexandria, Virginia, is very active in the ZNA Potomac Koi Club, and was certified in Jason is one of our outstanding Candidate Judges, who resides in Aberdeen, North Carolina, and is an active member of the North Carolina Koi and Water Garden Society. Mike and Jason can tell a little more about themselves in their introductions, but suffice it to say we are proud and very fortunate to have both of these fine gentlemen in our AKJA Judging program. We will be judging and ranking each of the five koi in three categories: Conformation, Pattern, and Quality. Conformation generally is considered about 50% of a koi s total score, with Pattern at 20% and Quality at 30%. Quality is a broad criterion that includes color quality, skin quality, and kiwa, or edging of the color plates. Some judges will use Finish as an additional and separate criterion, but for our purposes, finish will be considered as one aspect of each of the three criteria. For instance, when evaluating sumi, finish, along with depth of color, lustre, and so forth, should be considered. As is frequently done in koi shows, we will ask one judge to discuss the koi with respect to Conformation, one to lead the Quality discussion, and one to discuss Pattern. Each of the other judges

2 will be encouraged to add to the discussion any additional thoughts they may have. We will begin with only the introductory remarks on Conformation, allowing you, the readers, to then do your own judging of this criterion. The judges remarks and rankings will immediately follow. We will proceed in this manner through Quality and Pattern, finally finishing with overall rankings and concluding discussion. Conformation I, Bryan Bateman, will start us off with a discussion on Conformation. My judging career began in 2002, when I became an AKCA Candidate Judge, later Certified in In 2009 I became a member of the Judging Committee, and have continued in this capacity in our newly established American Koi Judges Association. My wife, Bay, and I, live in Clarendon Hills, Illinois, and have been active members of the Midwest Pond and Koi Society since 1990, and have also been members the Northern Midwest ZNA club since its inception in The body line, or silhouette if you will, is a good place to start when evaluating conformation. If you think of a koi as living and moving art, you would of course expect it to have a graceful, fluid appearance as it moves through the water. A koi that is too fat, too skinny, or bent in shape, will not have this visual effect. Nor will a koi with fins that don t match in size, or that has a body line that is not sea- worthy a koi should look like a good swimmer, with broad shoulders, a gradually tapering body line, and a strong, powerful caudal peduncle. There should be no lumps or indentations in the body line. The term conformation, by definition, implies conforming to something a standard of some sort. The standard recently adopted by the American Koi Judges Association addresses both conformation defects and deficiencies. A defect is a fault that results in a markdown proportional to the severity of the fault. An excerpt from the AJKA standard follows: Conformation Defects. 1) Head Area: Disproportionate size for body length/shape, crooked, misshaped, bumps or indentions or flat headed. Mouth crooked or misshaped. Eyes bulging, different sizes, not in alignment, or covered with white or red film. Gill covers turned in or out or indented. Missing, short, long or misshaped barbels. 2) Shoulder/Back Area: Too large a hump on the shoulder, back swayed or not in alignment with body shape, or bumps or indentations. 3) Chest Area: Pigeon breasted or too narrow or small 4) Abdomen Area: one or both sides are bulging or has a double belly. 5) Tail Area: Tail tube too skinny in proportion to body size/shape, tail tube too short, or pelvic area shrunken or shriveled. 6) Fins: Paired fins are not symmetrical or different sizes, fins twist or flip while swimming, part of leading ray is missing, broken or has an abnormal bump or knot, fins too short or long, or fins attached at wrong angle to body.

3 7) Swimming: Unable to swim effortlessly around the tank without leaning to one side or in tail up or tail down position. Unable to remain neutrally buoyant and either sitting on bottom or floating on surface. 8) Body Shape/Proportion: Too short and stubby or long and skinny, too fat especially in chest region or belly hanging. 9) Conditions and infection including hikui, carp pox, white patches or spots, and popeye, when not severe. A much more serious conformation issue is called a deficiency, and refers to a koi with an active disease, a missing anatomical structure, or a structure that does not function properly. Examples of deficiencies are a missing fin or missing the entire leading ray of a fin; a missing or non- functional eye; an active bacterial or parasite infection or severe skin condition such as hikui or carp pox. For judging puposes, a koi with a deficiency should be disqualified or judged in last place. To truly and accurately study a koi, we need to see it swim, and to have the ability to observe it from both sides as well as the top; swimming towards us and swimming away from us. We have here, however, each of our five koi captured at a moment in time. This, in a way, is nice also, as we can carefully study each part of the koi the pectoral fins, the bodyline, the head, eyes, and mouth. We may have to give the koi the benefit of the doubt, if for instance it is captured at a moment just prior to making a turn in the water, the muscles on one side may be tensed, giving the bodyline an asymmetrical appearance. Usually the fins can give us a little help here, as they may be turned or twisted somewhat in anticipation of the change of direction. The koi are pictured as A, B, C, D, and E. Please study the pictures now, looking only at the conformation. Try to put any thoughts of skin, color, and pattern out of your mind. Feel free to use your computer to enlarge, so you can examine each of the koi closely, then rank them first thru fifth place for conformation. Conformation: Discussion and Rankings Koi A. This koi appears a bit on the thin side, with what is otherwise a nice bodyline. The shadow along the koi s left side, which we have on all five fish, has to be ignored. It makes them look to be more rounded on one side than the other. The eyes and mouth appear to be normal, and the pectoral fins are nicely proportioned to the body and well shaped. Other than the thin conformation, I don t see any problems with this koi. Additional comments by Jason: Koi A appears to have short thumbs, and not as full in the body. Koi B. This koi has close to an ideal bodyline, with wide and powerful shoulders, tapering back gradually and finishing with a thick and muscular caudal peduncle. We can see, just in front of the dorsal fin, that it has a strong and prominent backbone. I can see no issues with the head, eyes, mouth, gill plates, or fins. This koi scores very high marks in conformation. Additional thoughts by Jason on Koi B: This koi

4 has one eye that is misaligned (crooked) in the socket, and also appears to have a shorter, somewhat stubby tail. Koi B, showing the left eye Koi C. At first appearance, this koi appears to be every bit as solid structurally as koi B. The caudal peduncle is thick, complementing the powerful bodyline. One concern I have, however, is the gill plates. The right plate appears to turn in somewhat, while the left is closer to normal, but also turns in slightly, possibly exacerbated by the water being extracted thru the gill when the photo was taken. Unfortunately we cannot observe this koi in all phases of respiration, so must take it for what we see in the picture. Also, the shoulder hump has a crease, particularly on the koi s left side, which is a distraction. Finally, if you look at the head, or more specifically, if you will compare the distance between the eyes to the distance from each eye to the tip of the nose, you will see that the head is short (the distances should be approximately the same). Each of these I would consider to be relatively minor defects, and the overall koi, as mentioned earlier, has a very solid and imposing structure. Koi C showing the gill plates turning in, the shoulder hump & creases Koi C showing a shorter head Koi D. Although not of the same overall volume as koi B or C, the bodyline on this koi is very good. The angle is not quite straight on. We are seeing a bit more of the koi s left side than the right, and this would account for a slight difference in the bodyline. Being most likely a female, we are seeing the typically more rounded female abdomen on the exposed left side. I will attribute this to the photo, and will assume that the bodyline is uniform on both sides as viewed from above. I can see no other conformation issues with this koi. Jason on Koi D Nice female body; may be egg- bound

5 Koi E. Other than lacking in volume, the bodylines are good in this koi. The right pectoral fin appears a bit tattered (you can see this in the shadow also). No other conformation problems that I can see. Jason agrees that Koi E is a bit on the thin side, noting that it has more of a male- type bodyline. After discussing each of our conformation rankings, we have arrived at a consensus ranking. We three were in agreement with one exception. Jason, due to the crooked eye and short tail on koi B, had ranked it quite low, whereas the rest of our team felt that it was of little distraction, and probably even more difficult to see had the koi been judged while swimming. We did, however, move koi B to second place, giving the following consensus ranking for conformation, from first to fifth: D, B, E, C, and A. Quality Now we are ready to move on to Quality. We have asked Mike to lead the discussion on this topic. In his overall ranking for quality, Mike has factored in the three basic quality elements of skin, color, and kiwa/sashi. For your judging exercise, you may find it helpful to do the same. You can make a simple chart listing the koi A thru E, and three columns following these, one for skin, one for color, and one for kiwa/sashi. I am Mike Frady. For those of you who might not know me, I am an AKJA Certified Judge and a Local Certified ZNA Judge. I am President of the ZNA Potomac Koi Club and live in Alexandria, Virginia. I am retired from the Federal Government and currently work part time at the Washington Nationals Baseball stadium as a Guest Services Supervisor. I am very excited to have the opportunity to participate in the first installment of You Be the Judge. I have been tasked with that very subjective category of Quality to discuss. While nothing is as good as looking at the koi in person, looking at digital photos does have its advantages. It is like having instant replay in professional sports; you can look at it over and over and even stop the action. One can enlarge the photo to view very small detail that might not be immediately obvious to the eye at the tank. So while it is difficult to see skin luster and sheen, it is better at examining kiwa and sashi. Skin Skin quality is difficult to determine from a photo. One can only see what the camera captures, therefore, the slight variations sheen or the luster of the skin are often lost or indistinguishable in a two dimensional photo. All the koi have nice attractive skin. They all appear to have very nice white skin which is the palate on which the pattern is painted. However, sometimes lesser quality white skin may tend to show more blood vessels earlier and longer periods when stressed. Color The Kohaku only has two colors, Red (hi) and White (shiroji). When examining the koi, one should look for uniformity of color from head to tail, depth of color, and elasticity of color in particular at this age.

6 Kiwa and Sashi Sashi is the leading edge of the pattern areas. Ideally the sashi, which is color visible through the scale but not yet at the surface, should not be more than one to one and a half scales. As the koi matures and begins to finish these areas will be less visible and finally become so tightened that they disappear. On these young koi, the sashi is visible but not uniform in all areas. Kiwa is the back edge of the pattern areas and should be sharp and well defined. The two principal types of kiwa are kamisori and maruzome. Kamisori is a pattern edge that appears as a straight line through the scales. It is often referred to as a razor edge. Maruzome is a pattern edge that tends to follow the contours of the scales, thereby appearing rounded. Maruzome is generally preferred and given more value. Quality: Discussion and Rankings Skin In the category of skin, I have ranked the koi as follows: B, C, E, D, and A. Color Koi A has lighter beni in front of the dorsal, which does not match the remainder of the beni plates. A dark area about mid- dorsal on the koi s right side is darker that the surrounding area and is distracting, unknown if the area is a shimi. The shiroji is white with a slight pink cast from being stressed. Koi B has very nice uniform beni plates from head to tail. The color flows from the head onto the shoulders with almost no variation in intensity. The color appears to have depth as multiple coats of paint. The shiroji is the whitest of the five koi. Koi C has very deep intense red color from head to tail. The plates seem to be very thick as the individual scales in the beni plates are not as distinguishable as in other koi. The shiroji has a slight pink tint, which may be the result of sashi and stress. Koi D has beni that is less uniform and appears to be less thick than either B or C. The beni plate area in front of the dorsal has a yellowish hue at the edges. The area on the koi s left side above the lateral line appears to be breaking somewhat as is the beni directly in front of the tail. The color in the middle area of the koi is the best and most uniform. The shiroji is slightly pink over the entire koi with the exception of the head which is more creamy than white.

7 Koi D Koi E has beni that is not uniform and has light and dark areas. While sometimes the camera and lighting can cause issues with colors, this appears to not be the case with Koi E. As far as thickness and elasticity, this koi may be one of the best. The individual scales are less prominent through the beni than in other koi. The shiroji has however, a pink cast showing continued stress levels. Ranking for Color: C, B, E, A, D Kiwa and Sashi Koi A has slight maruzome kiwa, however it is far less than perfect. The sashi is uneven and so undefined that it causes the pattern edges to be blurry. Koi B has very nice maruzome kiwa along the right side of its body; however, the left side is neither maruzome nor kamisori. The sashi is much more defined and is very nice. Koi B Koi C has the beginnings of nice maruzome kiwa; however as of now it is not very refined. The scallops are evident on both sides of the body at the middle beni plate. There is very little sashi on the leading edges of this koi.

8 Koi C Koi D has nice maruzome giwa on the leading plate from the head. The back half of the koi also has nice kiwa. The sashi is a little uneven particularly in the tail region and the right side of the koi s body near the dorsal. Koi D Koi E has very uneven kiwa. The edges are blurry and not uniform. The lack of consistency of kiwa is a distraction when viewing the pattern areas. The sashi is also blurry and uneven. The koi needs more time to develop and to tighten / refine its edges.

9 Koi E Ranking for Kiwa / Sashi: B, C, D, A, E Other factors impacting quality: Koi A has beni that almost reaches the top of the dorsal. While not improper, it is not as attractive as a kohaku without that much red in the dorsal. Koi B s beni plate does not extend to the eyes on the head. The familiar U shape between the eyes of the beni plate is preferred. However, the koi does have a very nice white odome. Koi C seems a little fat in the photo. This makes the koi s head to appear smaller than the body. The beni does extend high into the dorsal in the rear pattern area. The nose is a little pointer than the other competitors. It does have a nice white tail stop (odome). The weak side plate of Koi D is distracting from the visual picture of this koi. There also appears to be a shimi on the side of the koi. The koi also has a red eye lid.

10 Shimi on side of Koi D Koi E has a red eye lid which is also distracting. Overall Quality Ranking: (1 st place is 1, 2 nd is 2, etc, lowest total is winner) KOI Skin Color Kiwa / Sashi Other Overall Place Points A B C D E MY OVERALL RANKING: B, C, E, D, A The consensus ranking for Quality varies only slightly from Mikes rankings because both Bryan and Jason felt that Koi D was third best in this category. Our teams consensus ranking for Quality, then, is as follows, from First to Fifth: B, C, D, E, A Pattern Hello I am Jason Guevara, M.D. an AKJA, AKCA, and ZNA Candidate Judge. I live in Pinehurst, NC and work as an Orthopedic Surgeon. I spent 20 years in the Navy and separated as a Commander. I was raised with koi in the Bay Area 42 years ago and am honored to be included in the very first You be the Judge. Today I will be talking about Pattern and what is good and what s not preferred. Pattern makes up 20% of the judging criteria but is almost 100% important for people looking to buy koi. A small koi is very dependent on the pattern whereas a larger koi has to have a great conformation. Bryan has done a wonderful job discussing Conformation and Mike with Quality. I will say on a Kohaku the Kiwa and Sashi will define the pattern edge and Mike has demonstrated what is ideal. Dr. Kuroki established what the criteria for a refined Kohaku pattern are many years ago.

11 Patterns can be big, small, lopsided, irregular, and just cool. We want to find what is the most pleasing to your eye and hopefully the pattern will improve with age. The most important thing about pattern is what will look good in your pond. A small pattern (Komoyo) will look good on a small koi but look disproportionate as the koi enlarges. That said a large pattern (Omoyo) will sometimes overwhelm a small koi but will be fantastic when the koi grows into it. The pattern should be balanced from side to side and front to back. On a Kohaku the Hi (red) should be kept above the lateral line and off the fins, eyes, and gill plates. If there is a small Motoaka (Hi on the front pectoral fin) it will be acceptable when the body grows and covers the area on the armpit. Streaks of Hi in the fins are not desired. The dorsal fin looks most elegant when it is white and the pattern goes around the fin rather than through it. It is OK to have a little Hi in the dorsal fin but then the pattern is not as well defined side to side. Over the years patterns have been refined from a single full- length pattern with no breaks in it to multiple steps. A single pattern that has a lot of cut ins will look like a lightning- strike zigzag pattern (Inazuma). A 2 step is called Nidan, 3 step a Sandan, and a 4 step a Yondan. There are flowery and bold patterns and now even 5 step patterns. The more steps will increase the degree of difficulty in each step must have uniform Hi, sharp Kiwa, and symmetric Sashi. A Kohaku has only two colors and therefore a sharp, clean, and crisp pattern is very important to demonstrate the beauty and elegance of the koi. When I see my koi eat sometimes I only get a glimpse of their head so pattern there is important. When I examine a pattern I look from front to back in three segments. Each segment must be balanced and hopefully have both colors in it. The Kohaku with a bald (only white) head is a Bozu (priest) and not liked. There must be red on the head and if it is only on the forehead it s Bongiri and not proportioned like a receding hairline of color. The ideal pattern is a U- shape that begins at the nares, does not cover the eye and is above the gill plates. If the beni (red) travels all the way from the nose to shoulder (Hanatsuki) this will give the head a pointy appearance. Kuchibeni is a red nose or lipstick pattern and can be forgiven if the beni is present at the tail junction to balance the pattern. Many koi enthusiasts love a Kuchibeni (Rudolph nose) but this is not preferred when judging. The body pattern should have a nice Maki (side wrapping) and not look like small stepping- stones on the dorsum. If there is three red scales together this is considered a pattern step. When you examine the body pattern the importance of the Sashi and Kiwa come into play. The better the Shiroji (white) then the better the Hi just like a painting where the contrast is more striking on a snow white background and a persimmon Hi pattern. The last and very important area is the tail section. I love a beautiful Odome. This is the last marking before the tail. If the area before the tail is about 2 cms then this give a wonderful elegance and power when the koi is swimming. Pattern: Discussion and Rankings

12 Now that we understand the pattern let s take this knowledge and apply it to the koi in question. Even though Kiwa and Sashi have been considered above under Quality, I will add my thoughts here as well. Koi A has a beautiful symmetry in that it has a white nose and nice Odome. The first step keeps the eyes and gill plates clean. The second step highlights the two larger steps with a triangle appearance. The kiwa is not uniform and the sashi looks ok. Koi B has more of a flowery Komoyo pattern. The Maki is short of the lateral line giving a top heavy appearance. The Bongiri is distracting in that the Hi pattern needs to come toward the nose otherwise the head pattern looks like a receding hairline. Very crisp Kiwa and sashi. Koi C has a beautiful classic Sandan 3 step pattern and excellent Maki. The small Hi spot on the right eye is not ideal but does balance the left sided Hi spot. The Odome is a little too close to the tail but nice nonetheless. Kiwa and sashi are refined. Koi D is a Yondan 4 step. The head Hi comes nicely to the nares but covers the left eyelid and goes down to the left gill plate. The second step is too far lateral to balance the first and third steps. The Odome step is present but very small. The kiwa is a nice maruzome pattern but the sashi is irregular at the tail. Koi E Is a Sandan that has adequate maki. The Hi is unfortunately not just on the eyelid like Koi C and D but goes into the left eye. When I talked about balance earlier this pattern has a Zubonhaki all red tail section making the back heavier than it should be. The kiwa and sashi are the least refined. Some additional thoughts on Pattern from Mike: Not much to say about pattern. Each has a nice pleasing look with traditional white nose and some with a tail stop. Might sound crazy but the ones with less conformation and lesser quality probably have the most traditional looking patterns. Koi B needs more beni on head but the way the plates weave down the back is nice, not a large koi pattern. The small hi patch at the tail of D is not very nice so I marked it down. No tail stop to balance nose on E. Nice 3 step patterns on A and C. Some additional thoughts on Pattern from Bryan: Koi A has a pattern that is very pleasing to the eye, flowing nicely from head to tail. The second, smaller, off- set step fits right into the space, like a puzzle piece, and the third step has an attractive double cut- in just before the odome, giving an interesting finish to this pattern element. At first glance, Koi B certainly has an eye- grabbing pattern. I like the two lazy C shapes of the second and third hi plates. The three steps are nicely in proportion to each other. The two problems, as

13 mentioned by Jason, are the lack of hi on the head and the dorsal orientation of the pattern elements, lacking the desirable maki. Koi C displays a classic three- step pattern. The slightly offset maruten step may not be ideal, but I don t find it distracting. The maki is excellent. Koi D also has an interesting and artistic pattern. The hi plate on the caudal, though quite small, serves its purpose. The pattern on Koi E is a bit busy. The all- important white tail- stop (ojime) is missing, or too small, which lowers the dignity of the pattern. Our consensus ranking for pattern, from First to Fifth, are: C, A, D, B, E. FINAL RANKINGS CONSENSUS RANKINGS IN EACH OF THE THREE CATEGORIES: Conformation Quality Pattern D, B, E, C, A B, C, D, E, A C, A, D, B, E Well, I guess it s crunch time now. We have taken a very close look at each koi, and we have arrived at consensus rankings in the three categories of Conformation, Quality, and Pattern. Interestingly, no one koi has ranked first in more than one category, with D, B, and C each winning once. At this point, in a live koi show, the head judge would ask for a show of hands for first, second, and third. Before we do this though, we should step back for a moment and review what we have so far. In the all- important category of Conformation, Koi D took the honors. It didn t fare so well in Quality and Pattern however, taking thirds in both. Still, being the only koi to finish top three in all three categories puts it in the running for sure. With B and C both winning a category, as well as taking a second place in one other category, we can pretty much narrow it down to these three koi, with A and E finishing in the bottom two spots. We have to consider now how close these three koi were to each other in each criterion. In other words, taking a look at Koi C, which took fourth in Conformation, is it really that far behind Koi D? What if we assign points to Conformation, and we find that Koi D receives 45, Koi B receives 44, Koi E receives 42, and Koi C 41? Four points difference out of 100 is not very much! So even though Conformation for our purposes comprises 50% of the total, this differential can be overcome by greater point differences in Quality and Pattern. This is only an arbitrary example, but important when making a final decision! As judges we must also consider the intangibles, which come into play more in a live competition than in a photo competition. We cannot see the personality of a koi in a picture, nor can we observe its

14 swimming motion the way it moves through the water, or its position when at rest. In a close competition, these can be deciding factors. Also, how accepting can we be of some of the faults we have discussed in each koi? We must balance these things when making our final decision, and go back to looking at the koi as a whole, and appreciate all of the positive aspects of each koi. Conclusion: Final Rankings and Discussion There are probably as many different methods used to evaluate koi are there are judges doing it, but the objective is the same to pick the most beautiful koi. We hear much talk about the importance of accentuating the positive, and we all agree with this, but in order to place a group of koi in their proper order, we must look closely for faults in conformation, quality, and pattern. By ranking our koi in each of these three categories, we can form somewhat of an objective template for gathering our thoughts towards a final ranking. We don t wish to get hung up on these rankings however, and an example will show how different results could come from how they are interpreted. If we use a point system based solely on placement (5 points for first, 4 for second, etc.), our koi receive the following total points: Koi A (6), Koi B (11), Koi C (11), Koi D (11), Koi E (6). A three- way tie for first! If we take it a step further, and weigh the categories, using 50% Conformation, 30% Quality, and 20% pattern, our scores become (using multipliers of 5, 3, and 2 respectively), Koi A (16), Koi B (39), Koi C (32), Koi D (40), and Koi E (23). So D becomes our winner, with B a close second, and C a distant third. This is still not a totally valid method however, because we are not taking into account that the five koi may be extremely close in one category, while widely separated in another. So now we would need to assign points to each koi for each category. We could have, for instance, scores (based on 50 possible for Conformation) of 45, 44, 42, and 41 for our top four koi, and on pattern, scores (based on 20 possible) 19, 17, 15, and 12. This 7- point differential between first and fourth in Pattern offsets the 4- point difference in Conformation, possibly changing our ranking once again. Now try to imagine yourself going through this process for each size and variety throughout an entire koi show. Not only would be miss the Saturday night banquet, we would likely be judging well into the following week! Our judging team agreed on the rankings within each category. When it came down to a final ranking, however, we had some differences of opinion. Much discussion followed. It was apparent that our top three fish were B, C, and D, but in what order? We felt that all three were very close in both Conformation and Pattern. Quality, however, began to come to the fore as quite possibly the determining criterion, as B and C stood out from the crowd. We all agreed, then, that Koi D was our third place koi. We were also comfortable with E in fourth and A in fifth place. I would like to digress for a moment, and share an experience we had while visiting Koi Acres recently. We had made our final decision on ranking the five koi, so I didn t feel guilty about very likely seeing the same koi in person. In fact, I was counting on it! Only four of them were on the premises (Koi E was missing), and all swimming in the same holding tank. I was particularly anxious to see how the quality component compared with the photographs, as it is difficult to assess skin quality and depth of color from a digital reproduction. True to the photographs, B and C did indeed stand out. Both had deep,

15 even beni, and translucent, lustrous, porcelain shiroji. Try as I might, I could not see the eye problem on koi B. It was turbulent and the koi were moving constantly (as they tend to do!), so I cannot say for certain that the eye may not have been slightly off- set. Perhaps one could observe this better in a show vat. At any rate, this is one advantage that still photography has. Looking at Koi C, the gill plates and flaps would indeed flare when the koi was extracting water during respiration, and would be perfectly flat the rest of the time. If the photo had been taken at the right moment, we would not have seen the gill region in this unflattering condition. The creases in the shoulder hump did seem a bit excessive much like in the photo. Moving to Koi D, I was pleased to see that it did have a very nice body line perfectly uniform on both sides, tapering evenly back and finishing with a strong tail. The beni looked quite thin much more so than in the photo. The shimi referred to by Mike in his discussion earlier was now quite apparent. This experience reinforced my opinion that, as nice as photos can be, we really do need to see a koi swimming to maximize our evaluative abilities. Back to our judging. Much discussion was had concerning Koi B and Koi C. In B you have the dorsal- oriented pattern and the lack of beni on the head, and the questionable eye. On C you have the gill issue and the head (excessive hump/creases). Each of our judges gave their closing statements, and each felt that their choice for first place was the right one but unfortunately they were still not in agreement! When this occurs (and it often does), the Head Judge must make the call. I felt that the two were extremely close. The case could (and was) made for either one. I went with B. It scored higher in Conformation, and the pattern, in spite of what could be considered lacking in some respects, I find quite beautiful. I think that in the future, as these two koi develop and mature, C may take the lead as it grows into its body. It is more tategoi- type. But for today, B is our winner. So there you have it. B, C, D, E, A. Thank you for participating in our exercise! We hope you enjoyed it, and we are looking forward to our next one which will most likely be Sanke, and we are already working on a video format. B C D E A

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