Welcome to the home of
the Ki Shusui Project
Introduction to Ki Shusui
If you’re here, you probably already have interest in koi. If you're anything like me, you're "koi kichi" which means koi crazy. :)
I became a koi hobbyist in 2006 and had koi as pets. My favorite variety was shusui which is Japanese for “autumn sunset.”
Shusui
If you don't know shusui, this is a charming, doitsu (scaleless) koi variety, with pale blue or white skin, red markings on the sides and belly, with a bold blue symmetrical double line of scales along the dorsal ridge.
A clean head and face are desirable on this variety, but sometimes you'll see shusui with cute birthmarks on the face, including one called "kuchi beni" which means "lipstick." :)
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 "Stella" is a shusui.
This is "Stella" a standard shusui with some very good qualities. She has white skin, which I thought desirable for breeding ki shusui and she has a cute marking on her face called "kuchi beni" or lipstick.
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Ki Shusui
One day, either by accident or fate, I learned of the “elusive ki shusui.” This is the same variety as shusui, but instead of red lateral markings, this unusual type has yellow markings on its sides.
Wow! See the ki shusui below. It is such a terrific looking koi. But -- pretty much unavailable, because it's not easy to breed. And so, "elusive."
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| The "elusive" ki shusui. This is not my fish. She is the icon for the ideal ki shusui. |
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I read what little I could find on ki shusui, (ki means yellow) but learned that although this type of koi is rare, when it ocurred, it was often as a by-product of crossing a green koi called midori with other midori.
Midorigoi, a fish that sometimes makes ki shusui.
A midorigoi, or midori, is a cross of a standard shusui and a metallic yellow koi called "doitsu ogon."
So, this koi has both shusui and ogon genes. It made sense, therefore, if you crossed midori x midori, a yellow shusui could come this cross of koi.
The picture below is is one of my midorigoi. Her name is "Jade."
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Doitsu Yamabuki Ogon
Doitsu Ogon is a metallic koi, beautiful its own right, and is often the source of "ki" when creating midori. Ogons come in three solid color types; platinum, yellow, and orange. This is the short version. ;)
This is one of my doitsu yellow yamabuki ogons, by the name of Capone.
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Ayawakaba
"Ayawakaba," translated, means "fresh new leaves on
water." This is a variety in progress now in Japan.
Ayawakaba also shows up as a byproduct of a midori x
midori cross and also from a shusui x midori cross. It has similar genetics or even identical genetics to ki shusui. But it differs in appearance in that rather than lateral markings, the pattern on this variety crosses over the dorsal ridge.
The ayawakaba below is not mine. But, it is a pretty good example of the type.
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Hariwake
The fish, below is a doitsu lemon hariwake. I had the idea to add this variety into the general mix for its "lemon" coloration. I didn't take into account the effect of the platinum skin on the offspring. Instead of ki shusui, I got plenty of kinsui, or metallic shusui. Which I didn't want.
Well, this is how we learn. :)
Pretty as this variety is, I wouldn't add this platinum-and-yellow fish to the mix again. While a hikarimoyo or two-tone metallic fish is good looking, it didn't move the ki shusui project forward. But, an all yellow metallic fish - yellow hariwake or yellow ogon - is just the right thing. :)
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The project begins in earnest; May 2009
I have a field to the north of my garden and there is a spring in the middle of this field. I decided to put in a new mud pond and dedicate it to trying to breed ki shusui. That was in 2008. Here, under an autumn sky.
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The original breeding stock.
To begin I bought about twenty oyagoi: three shusui females, six midori, two ayawakaba males, two yellow ogon males and I added a “twist” of my own; several doitsu lemon hariwake of both genders.
A fish friend seemed dismayed by my idea for this project. He said, "I've never heard of anyone putting this combination of fish together -- on purpose!" LOL. I didn't know that. I was trying what made sense to me. And, I did have some success. Not enough success to call this project a good business model, but I did achieve several ki shusui. Pictured below is one of the two I think are the best of the batch.
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My best ki shusui. Yay!
Below, I am looking quite happy with my best ki shusui from the 2010 spawn. Her ki is not as bright as that of the iconic ki shusui, because this fish has a sky blue skin which is the standard base color of the shusui variety. When yellow overlays blue, it shows greenish or less vivid than when yellow is overlaid on white skin. The blue skin on this fish may fade toward white -- she's still very young -- and if it does, this very nice ki shusui's ki will become more buttery. Similarly, her blue dorsal scales may become more pronounced in time. This very pretty fish won a best Kawarigoi award in Koiphen's 2012 Virtual Koi Show. And she has breeding stock potential in the years to come. Yahoo!
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Slide show of my best ki shusui to date.
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The 2013 ki shusui harvest was successful! Three dozen potential ki shusui oyagoi were returned to their mud pond with hopes they will produce more of their type in 2015.
See page "Ki shusui harvest 10-2013" for photos of the best of the crop.
And here's a video of the same fish.
YouTube.com/kishusuibn
Baby ki shusui in the mud.
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