Last night will go down in my 'most memorable evenings' list. Walked into a tiny bar, and after a beer, a Japanese gentleman walked in. I overheard him ask the owner why we were there, to which, he replied that he thought it was Koi. I interrupted, saying that I had been to the bar 4 years or so ago, and that it was indeed Koi. It quickly transpired, that this gentleman was Takeo Mizuta, the owner of the Takeda Sanke that won AJS GC in 1999. Many a story followed on after that. I could probably write a book about it! :-) (Nigel, Tom, and Mizuta-san pictured below)
There's much more to this than what I have written above. But, to cut a long story short, she was supposedly owned by Shinji Matsumoto, but in fact belonged to the gent we met last night (pictured above). Takeda-san sold the Koi to Takeo Mizuta when Nisai (and as maybe male), and then grew the Koi to 91cm. Takeda-san wanted to enter her into the AJS, but Mizuta-san said that he didn't want to enter her in his name, as it would reflect badly on his company image. So, Takeda-san suggested they enter her in the name of another customer, Matsumoto-san, owner of a Golf and Country Club. Mizuta-san had many very nice stories to tell of the late Takeda-san last night. However, the foundation of even going to that bar last night runs back to another memorable evening there on my previous visit, some 6 years prior to that. I will write a much longer story on this later, probably for magazine use.
Anyway, two years ago, Mizuta-san figured that his Koi were causing him to be too distracted from his work. Whilst he still has the pond, it is empty of Koi, as he gave them all (about 35 fish) to his friends (gave, not sold).
After taking us out to another bar last night as his guests, Mizuta-san explained to me, that he is retiring from his position in his company in April next year, and becoming CEO. He said that he hadn't visited Takeda Koi farm since the late Takeda-san passed away. He said that he wished he could join us this morning in visiting the farm, but had to go to Daisen. He asked me to talk to Ya-san on his behalf, and to explain that he would like to go back there again from next year, to start buying Koi once again.
This morning, when we arrived at the farm, Mizuta-san was there. He said that because of our chance meeting the previous evening, his curiosity got the better of him, and he had to swing by to catch up on things at the farm!
