The 1st Sakai Cup 2022

The Cup’s first commemorative championship goes to Yunlin Jinli!

The first Sakai Cup was held on this last November 24 at Sakai Fish Farm in Hiroshima.
The koi to be judged are about 250 jumbo Tosai (Pricing starts from 5 to 10 thousand Japanese yen), which already were sold at online auction held in April this year.
Among the judges are Kentaro Sakai, the representative of Sakai Fish Farm with the entire farm of 26 staff members, and Daishiro Shirasaka of the ZNA’s Chairman.
To begin with, each one of the 27 judges choose five favorite koi of his own, followed by vote counting to decide top fives of all. The top five koi selected receive three stars, and then the grand champion, second place and third place are selected by voting out of the five nominees. The judges got to work with non-Gosanke first, and then Gosanke.
Subsequently, from among the remaining koi except the top 5, two-starred, and one-starred koi were chosen (the former counts 36 and the latter 78). Even to have the one-star is an honor. It is too difficult an obstacle to overcome, because Sakai has set a rigid internal standard of the examination. Finally, the Tategoi award was decided from among the two-starred koi by all the judges.
After a one-vote margin and heated discussion, the Taisho Sanshoku (59cm) belonging to Yunlin Jinli (of China) was chosen as the overall champion. The winner was characterized by a well-framed figure and impressive Sumi marks. The koi’s mother was “Dragon Ball”, a child of the parents between Taisho Sanshoku and Showa Sanshoku.
The award ceremony was held at Forest Hills Garden, starting from 18:30.
This is the first Sakai Cup to be held, and President Sakai tells us why the event has been organized. He says: One reason for targeting on jumbo Tosai is that they are relatively inexpensive and that their transformation is enjoyable to see. I think that they will be able to bring more people to the event. The other is that I have a desire to provide koi lovers all over the world a new way of enjoying koi through dealers at home and overseas.
He added: In addition of prize money and large trophies, we have shields to be handed over to everyone who has earned stars. They are made with special designs. We would be very happy if everyone will be happy to have the gifts.　

(This article is originally from RINKO No.813 January 2023)

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