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Koi “ B “ has better sumi. Good sumi has to be blue black and shiny but how it get there ( finished) .

There are many sumis, they are different and one better than other.

Omasako knows his blood line and sumi development. He said if you know my fish you can see and tell the different.

It is easy too see and understand sumi when it fully develop but it is hard to understand sumi that still developing.


The best way to study sumi is to forget blood line and brand name and go back to basic. First learn and understand one type of sumi at a time. Seeing the sumi ( not finished as yet ) when it is a tosai and when it develop to be nisai. It looks and change different at the age of one to two and to three years old fish.

The finished sumi of tosai will not stay 100%. Most of them will go down, some of them will come back and some will not, the one that have good root will come back out again. That is why some time they call “ baby sumi” .

The sumi that has the root when it go down it will come back but sumi don’t have root when it go down it will not come back.

Every breeder has “A” sumi when they breed showa or shiro utsuri. It will fully develop sumi but it just an average sumi.

A sumi develop sumi from the rim of scale to the center of scale.
B sumi develop sumi from center of scale and develop outward to the rim of scale. This is example of other type of sumi. How different of sumi at the age of 2 and 5 years old.

Sumi starting with the root( sinking under skin ). The darker blue, deep and even is better. This is a basic rule. There are sumi starting to develop without root and it is a good sumi. You can see in Musashi-line. This is a Dainishi showa, you can see sumi at 2 and at 5 years old. The sumi have a lot of windows at the age of 5 yrs old. If you look at the age of 2 yrs old the sumi showing the weak root or there is no root in some part of sumi.


Let's look above picture. When selecting tosai, nisai, sansai, if the fish had sumi on the head, on the grill plate or motogoro the fish is not automatically has quality sumi.

Sumi on the grill plate, on head and mouth and motogoro can tell the quality of sumi but you got to know what you are looking for.

If the fish had only sinking sumi how can we tell the sumi quality of the fish?

In my experience if shiro utsuri or showa had good sinking sumi on the grill plate, the motogoro will come out.

Many hobbyist, judges when they are selecting shiro utsuri or showa for tategoi or show fish, if the fish don’t have motogoro they don’t like them. As you know there are many high quality shiro utsuri or showa don’t have motogoro!

My point is the motogoro are not the most importance. They can appear and disappear especially in the young fish. Understanding quality of beni, shiroji, quality of sumi, quality of sinking sumi (sumi not develop as yet), and how they are going to develop. I think those are the most importance of all.