Koi Bokujo (Hokkaido) · Mr. Shutaro Uemori

In the Koi World Before He Knew It?
A Former Japan National Team Athlete on the Rise
“I’m Glad I Chose This Path”

“What’s a koi?” A young man who was never comfortable around animals once pictured his future as a professional ice hockey player. Good enough to be named to Japan’s under-18 and under-20 national teams, he had already been scouted, and the road to the big stage lay open before him. But an encounter with one hobbyist sent his life in a completely unexpected direction.
Koi Bokujo is a relatively young koi dealer: its predecessor, the koi division of Sankyo Consultant Co., Ltd., joined the Nishikigoi Promotion Association in October 2019. Mr. Shutaro Uemori (28), who runs the business single-handedly, joined Sankyo Consultant after graduating from university. He had drawn a line under a promising ice hockey career and was supposed to follow the path of an ordinary company employee—yet, for some reason, the job he was assigned was Nishikigoi…
Even so, armed with his natural grit and cheerful personality, Mr. Uemori quickly found his place in the Nishikigoi industry, expanding his sales channels through relationships with major breeders and distributors. Today, the high quality of the koi he sells is recognized not only in Japan but also overseas, and he has handled many grand award winners at national shows.
Six years on, the young man who was once bewildered by a Nishikigoi world he had never even imagined now smiles and says, “I’m really enjoying it now.” At Koi Bokujo’s Niigata indoor pond in Uragara, Ojiya City, we heard about Mr. Uemori’s life so far and the future of Koi Bokujo.

Aiming to Be an Ice Hockey Player,
He Became a Koi Dealer Before He Knew It

― First, could you tell us how you came to join the Nishikigoi industry?
Uemori: My girlfriend’s father, Mr. Yasuo Nashiki, is a hobbyist. He’s the chairman (president at the time) of a company in Hokkaido called Sankyo Consultant. He had been keeping koi, and when the company decided to take it on as a business, I was put in charge of it.
― So it was Sankyo Consultant’s koi division, so to speak. Later it became independent as Koi Bokujo. At that time, was Sankyo Consultant selling koi to customers in Hokkaido?
Uemori: Basically online. We started with things like Yahoo! Auctions.
― Come to think of it, before Koi Bokujo, you were a member of the Association’s Hokkaido branch under the name Sankyo Consultant. Are you from Hokkaido?
Uemori: It’s a bit complicated. I was born in Tokyo, lived in Osaka until the second year of junior high school, and moved to Hokkaido in the third year. I went to university in Tokyo, and when I graduated I went back to Hokkaido and joined Sankyo Consultant. But I joined intending to work in the company’s core business, so I wasn’t thinking about koi at all. For me, the only options were Sankyo Consultant’s core business or becoming a professional ice hockey player.
― I’ve heard you were an ice hockey player. Were you at a level where the professional world was within reach?
Uemori: Yes. I started at age four, and I made Japan’s national teams at under-18 and under-20.
― Really! That’s amazing.
Uemori: From my first year of university, two professional teams had approached me. Or there was the corporate league—not pro, more like a working adults’ league—where I could play hockey while holding a job. My path was going to be one of those two. I was sure I could never put on a suit and work at an ordinary company.