Attracted by Huge Koi, He Traveled Nationwide

The 800-Ton Pond Built Under Their Influence

― I think one of the individual characteristics and features of Kiryu Nishikigoi Center is “large koi.”
Hojo: That was about 30 years ago. There were huge Chagoi here and there, and they often won Jumbo prizes. There was a dealer in Gifu Prefecture called Mabuchi, and since they had huge Chagoi, I went there to source them many times. Anyway, when I see a huge koi, I want it.
― You were also particular about the number “1 meter,” weren’t you?
Hojo: That’s right. For people who keep Nishikigoi, it might only happen a few times in a lifetime, but I think everyone has a dream, a hope, of wanting to raise a 1-meter koi someday. 30 years ago, there were Chagoi that reached 1 meter. So back then, whenever I heard there was a huge one, I went to buy it.
― Was that also in the sense of being Mr. Hojo’s hobby?
Hojo: It probably is my hobby. Not just with koi, but with gardening, I also like big stones and trees.
― Have any koi here reached 1m?
Hojo: Of course, there are. In the lower pond.
― That’s the large outdoor pond below the road in front of the shop, right? Was it about 500 tons?
Hojo: The “Kiryu Pond” is probably about 800 tons.
― When did you build that?
Hojo: It was completed in 1996.
― The purpose was indeed to raise big Koi?
Hojo: That’s right. A few years before that, Momotaro Koi in Okayama built a 1500-ton pond. It was featured in magazines, so I wanted to see it for myself, went there to have a look, and thought it was amazing. That made me want to build a huge pond too.
― So Momotaro was the catalyst.

Hojo: But with the size of my land, I couldn’t build 1500 tons, so it became 800 tons. It’s quite long though. Well, it’s not exactly a trade secret, but at Kiryu Pond, we have two automatic feeders installed, and they release food at different times. At first, there was only one, but because the pond is large, there were always two or three koi that didn’t notice the food. So I added a second one. I thought I’d set both to release food at the same time, but for some reason, one didn’t release. I thought it was strange, but after about 4-5 minutes, it started releasing. I figured a 4–5-minute difference was fine and left it as is, which turned out to be a good thing in the end.
Around that time, there was a Mr. Sato who had won the Grand Champion at the Gunma prefectural show. I told him, that I’ve finally built a huge pond, so I can keep some koi for him. He selected about 4-5 koi for me to put in, but they all had pot bellies. Mr. Sato said, “Well, it’s the first year. I don’t know how good the pond is yet, so I’m hesitant to entrust you with good koi.” I thought that made sense and took in the pot-bellied koi. About half a year later, all of them had slimmed down and developed excellent body lines.
― Oh…
Hojo: Food comes from one feeder, and five minutes later, another feeder releases. The koi learn this cycle. They eat from the first one, and when they sense the next one is about to release, they swim over with tremendous speed. Mr. Sato told me, at his place, they were all pot-bellied and he couldn’t do anything about them, but a big pond really makes a difference. But I think it wasn’t just the size; the staggered feeding times made the koi swim vigorously of their own accord, which was beneficial. So we still keep the 5-minute stagger.
― Are the two feeders quite far apart?
Hojo: About 25 meters. It’s interesting to watch the koi. Some koi come early thinking the other one is about to dispense after eating from the first, but if it hasn’t come out because they are too early, they think “Darn it!” and go back to the original spot. Then they think it might be about to dispense again and go back and forth many times. Their speed is something else.
― It’s like they are jockeying for position.
Hojo: That’s right. Things like jets look like they have a strong current from a human perspective, but the koi inside them are moving slowly. In the case of our pond, it’s not like that; they are at full speed. That swimming speed—I think that’s good. Right now, I think the Gin Matsuba and Ginrin Kigoi from Marudo are about 85cm; I’m looking forward to the autumn harvest.
― The 800-ton Kiryu Pond also serves the role of a Tate pond, doesn’t it?

Hojo: Yes. I like gardens, so if possible, I wanted to make it a pure Japanese style with stone arrangements, but since it’s deep, it would be dangerous if a neighborhood child fell in, so I gave up on pure Japanese style. However, a pond with a simple shape is somehow uninteresting, so I built it in a shape that somewhat resembles a Japanese-style pond.
― It’s not linear, it has an interesting shape.
Hojo: Right. As for the pond’s shape, like the two automatic feeders I mentioned earlier, it has a beneficial effect on the koi. It’s zigzag, or rather, it has corners. But when you watch the koi, they seem to have a habit of swimming along the edges of the pond; they don’t just go straight down the middle. They stick to the edges. If the pond walls are winding, they swim along them. Doing so, they bend their bodies to the right or left. Koi with skewed body shapes can sometimes be corrected by this.
― The improvement of the pot-bellied koi you kept was also a result of the exercise from swimming fast and side to side?
Hojo: I think that kind of thing was good. The feeders and the pond shape, as it turned out. Also, Kiryu Pond is made of concrete blocks. It’s about 3 meters deep, so people who saw it worried, saying, “This won’t hold with concrete blocks!” I said it would probably be okay, and as it turned out, it was fine (laughs).
A 2-ton truck can carry 300 blocks. The contractor brought 300 blocks each time for the first 10 trips, so I know we used at least 3000. After that, they’d say, “We might not have a full 300 today,” and I’d say, “Just bring whatever you have,” so the numbers became uneven. I don’t know the exact total, but it’s definitely over 3000. It was a lot of work to lay them all.
― After that, you built the two-story shed overlooking the pond, didn’t you?
Hojo: Yes. At first, it wasn’t a lookout at all; it was just a garage. Some of the corrugated sheets on its roof had come loose and were flapping, so I climbed onto the roof myself to hammer in nails. While working, my back hurt, and when I straightened up, I saw the pond directly in front of me, and I thought, “It looks really good from this height.” So I ended up building the second floor halfway through.
― Looking at Kiryu san’s ponds and facilities…
Hojo: It’s a playful spirit (laughs).
― Exactly (laughs), there’s quite a bit of your hobby side incorporated, isn’t there?
Hojo: I’m running a koi shop as a business, but my customers all have different scales and various ways of doing things, which also serves as a reference. There are times I think, “If I could imitate that, I’d like to try it myself.”
― When I first came to Kiryu Nishikigoi Center, the 800-ton Kiryu Pond was already there, and after that, you renovated the private house across from the shop like a hobby house and began to do various events and such. Personally, I like that feeling of passing through the dense trees from the road above and seeing the large pond appear…
Hojo: I think the change in elevation makes it varied and nice. It also serves as a bit of exercise. I’m still working on it little by little, and one pond was added last year or the year before.