Page 34 - Koi Net - On-Line Koi Magazine - Issue 6

Koi business just over 60 years ago when he left school
at the age of 16 in about 1956. His father had always
liked Koi and had seen others breeding Koi in and
HIS FATHER around his village as a boy. At a very early age he had
decided he wanted to make Koi his job. Their family
WORKED were already 5th generation in this area and locally
people thought it strange that a boy so young wanted to
HARD THEN become a Koi farmer especially since after the end of
the war the area was very poor, but Seitaro’s ambition
AND DID NOT and determination was underestimated at that time and
DRINK OR so started Marusei Koi Farm.
SMOKE His father told him that for the first 5 to 10 years it was
extremely difficult for him as he had to learn everything
by himself but by the mid-1960s things started to get
better and his business started to grow and hasn’t
stopped since. In around 1963 his father built his first
Koi house, which in those days very few other breeders
had.
His father worked hard and Hironori told me that back
then his father did not drink or smoke, it was at this
point I said that I had known his father since 1982 and
had spent many many occasions drinking with him and
watching him constantly smoke. Hironori smiled and
said that back in the beginning his father thought that
drinking and smoking was a waste of money, all the
money he earn’t he would use to buy more land to make
ponds. His thinking was “more ponds mean more Koi.”
Once his father had become more established and the
business was going well, then he started drinking and
smoking and continues to this day. Today Marusei Koi
Farm is run by Hironori’s eldest brother Yoshiyuki (now
51 years old) but his father still keeps a watchful eye
over everything. They now have over 500 (maybe up to
700) mud ponds, around 200 for Tosai, over 100 for
Nisai and over 200 for bigger Koi, his father loves big
Koi and I can vividly remember seeing his Jumbo
Chagoi pre-earthquake and even shipping some of
these to customers which weighed in excess of 25 kilos.
A big smile from a UK
hobbyist as he bowls a They have around 20 Koi houses and now with
Jumbo Tosai Showa. Yoshiyuki and father Seitaro they have 4 to 5 other staff
helping run Marusei Koi Farm.
“My playground were the mountains,” Hironori said and
Hironori selecting his best remembers vividly going to the mountains with his
Nisai at Maruhiro Koi Farm. mother and brother before they even went to school in
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