Koi Dealer Interview　Osaka Prefecture / Senshu Nishikigoi: Mr. Shigeyoshi Tsujikawa

Enjoying “Tategoi” Together with Customers
Envisioning the Future Form through Sumi and Body

Retailer

Currently, there are five members (excluding one on hiatus) in the Osaka Prefecture of the promotion association. This number feels small relative to the population size, meaning each dealer carries significant responsibility.
Senshu Nishikigoi was founded in 1989 by Mr. Shigeyoshi Tsujikawa. Primarily handling the Gosanke from Sakai Fish Farm and Dainichi Koi Farm, the shop has earned strong support from hobbyists as a dealer that excels in koi shows. Regarding the recent skyrocketing prices of koi, Mr. Tsujikawa says, “We have entered a difficult era,” noting the impact on dealers. Amidst this, he focuses on acquiring koi with future potential at the best possible prices for enthusiasts. His discerning eye for identifying promising Tategoi continues to earn him deep trust.

Highly Regarded Even as an hobbyists

Driving 110,000 km in Two Years for Procurement

― Did you turn professional after starting as a hobbyist?
Tsujikawa: That’s right. Starting from when I was 23 or 24, I was in the ZNA for about 11 or 12 years. Those were good times. Around 1983, when I won a prize at the ZNA Kinki Regional Show, about three koi dealers from Osaka came to my house to try to buy my koi.
― Dealers would come to a hobbyist’s house to buy koi?
Tsujikawa: When you win a prize at a show, it gets published in the magazines. There was even a dealer who came all the way from Nagoya in a truck. However, towards the end of my amateur days, I also had some frustrating experiences. I bought two fish for 150,000 yen each. A friend said to me, “Paying 50,000 yen a month in installments must be tough. I’ll buy one from you,” so I sold it to him. Two years later, that fish won a prize at an Osaka show, and he turned around and sold it for 450,000 yen. I was so annoyed (laughs). I kept the other Sanke until it was about 55cm, and everyone said, “That’s a great koi.” Even Ikuwa-san (Ikuwa Nishikigoi Center / Osaka) said he wanted to buy it, praising its Sumi. It was when that koi came out of the pond that I decided to become a koi dealer. It was a very good koi
― Buying and selling koi was relatively “loose” back then compared to now… it was that kind of era.
Tsujikawa: Before the highways existed, dealers passing near my house would say, “I went to source fish today but didn’t find anything good. Why don’t you let me have some of yours?” It was like that.
― Everyone knew you had good koi because you entered them in the ZNA Osaka Prefecture shows. Where did you buy your koi from back then?
Tsujikawa: Mostly from Ikuwa-san in Osaka. Smaller ones I got from places like Yonago in Tottori or Yatomi in Aichi. I went to the Yatomi dealers quite often.