Female Ginrin Showa – Yagenji Koi Farm
Ginrin Showa is a Showa covered in reflective ginrin scales. At heart it is still a black-based tri-color and the most dramatic of the Gosanke.
About the Showa
Showa Sanshoku, or simply Showa, is the bold one of the Gosanke: a black koi with red and white, where big, wrapping sumi gives the fish power and movement. Showa was created in 1927, early in the Showa era, by Jukichi Hoshino, who crossed Ki Utsuri with Kohaku. Early fish had yellowish hi. In the 1960s Tomiji Kobayashi crossed in Kohaku again, which gave Showa the vivid hi and cleaner white of the modern fish. Like nearly all nishikigoi, its roots are in the mountain villages of Yamakoshi and Ojiya in Niigata Prefecture, Japan, where rice farmers first noticed and kept colored mutations of the black food carp (magoi) in the early 1800s. Today the Showa programs at Dainichi, Marudo, Isa and Omosako are among the most famous in the world.
Color and pattern
Showa is a black-based fish. Sumi wraps over the back and down around the belly in bold bands, reaches onto the head (often a lightning bolt or a 'menware' split across the face), and stains the base of the pectoral fins (motoguro). Hi and white then fill the spaces between. Compared with Sanke, the sumi is larger, wraps lower, and appears on the head. The best fish have balanced hi on the head, sumi that is deep black rather than blue-grey, and enough white to keep the pattern from looking heavy.
Ginrin scales
Ginrin ('silver scales') koi carry reflective crystals in their scales, so the body sparkles as the fish moves. On white or black areas the sparkle shows as silver (gin), and on red or yellow as gold (kin), which is why Japanese shows judge these koi together in the Kinginrin class. Ginrin comes in several forms: beta-gin, where the whole scale shines flat; kado-gin, where only the edge sparkles; pearl or tsubu-gin, a raised, pearl-like center; and the newer, very intense 'diamond' ginrin. Good ginrin covers the body evenly in neat rows and holds as the fish grows.
In your collection
Gosanke are the backbone of any serious collection and the varieties most judges and breeders measure everything else against. Their colors develop over years. Hi deepens and sumi surfaces and settles as the fish matures, so a young Gosanke is bought partly on its potential: skin quality, the thickness of the hi, and the body it is likely to grow into.
What collectors look for
- Deep, glossy sumi that wraps the body in bold, flowing bands
- Motoguro, a solid black base, in both pectoral fins
- Sumi on the head that frames the face
- Strong, even hi that balances the black
- Clean white that breaks up the pattern. Young Showa sumi often keeps developing for years
- Even sparkle across the body in neat, consistent rows
- Sparkle on the sumi as well as the white and colored areas
- Ginrin that does not hide the quality of the underlying colors
