After that, he visited Koi shops all over the Kanto region, including those near his home, and his ‘seriousness’ increased when he saw the Koi at Bando Koi Farm.

‘Mr. Bando is a Koi shop that is oriented towards Koi shows, so the Koi I choose have changed.’

Mr. Kawakami learned the joy of entering Koi shows and won prizes at the Kanto-Koshin District Koi Show and other shows. At first, he tended to win prizes with relatively small Koi, but as he continued to enter Koi shows, he began to feel the desire to raise his Koi to a larger size and win prizes. This coincided with the time when Bando Koi Farm began to focus on selling larger Koi, as well as the smaller Koi for Koi shows. It was around this time that he came across a Kohaku that won the Kokugyo Prize.

‘I bought it when it was two years old. They said it was a male, but it had such an amazing body even then, so I knew I had to have it.’

It won the Male Mature Champion prize at the 49th Kanto-Koshin District Koi Show (2021), the 65bu Male 1st Prize at the 53rd All Japan Koi Show (2023), and this year it won its first Kokugyo prize at the 54th All Japan Koi Show. Although he had entrusted the care of the Kokugyo Prize Koi to someone else for the year leading up to the prize, Mr. Kawakami prefers to raise most of his Koi himself. 

Many of the Koi that won the 1st Prize at the All Japan Koi show and the Size Champion at the Kanto-Koshin District Koi Show were entered from his home, and he says that this gives him a different kind of satisfaction.

‘Everyone has their own way of enjoying Koi, so of course it’s fine to entrust them to someone else and enter them in Koi shows. But when you win a prize with a koi you’ve raised yourself, you gain confidence in your abilities.

The Kokugyo Prize-winning Kohaku has now returned to his home. If it grows to the 70cm+ range, he is considering entering it in the 80cm class again. As for the yellowing of the skin that is often said to be a characteristic of male koi, Mr. Kawakami says that it is not something that bothers him too much.

‘Maybe it’s because of the New Clean up (Narita Koi Farm). According to the instructions, it’s best to use it before a Koi show, but I use it every day. Well, maybe it’s because the water volume is low.’

And now, as Kawakami-san focuses on male Koi, he may be adding a new pleasure to his Koi-keeping. In the past, he would put the Koi that turned out to be female in Mud ponds in the spring, but this year he is also keeping two-year-old female Koi at home.

‘From now on, I think I’ll try to keep one or two of the good females with potential. If I don’t limit the number, the cost of the consignment breeding alone will be quite a lot… Anyway, I want to do it without overdoing it. For the past five years, I’ve been pushing myself to win awards, and my wife has been complaining a lot (lol).’

Having won the Kokugyo prize, a dream he had since he was a child, Kawakami’s Nishikigoi life seems to be slowing down a little. He will probably focus on participating in Koi shows with the aim of winning top prizes, prioritising his evening drinks while enjoying the Koi.

‘I think I’ll just aim for the All Japan Koi show. But people might say, ‘He’s always losing because of what he says’ (laughs). I want more people to keep Koi, so I’m advertising on Instagram. Koi shop owners don’t like it when I say that the Koi that won a prize was cheap (laughs). There’s a tendency to think that you can’t win prizes at Koi shows unless you spend a lot of money, so I want people to know that you can do it even with facilities like mine.