Hariwake Grade A Koi Carp Cyprinus Carpio

Description

Hariwake Grade A Koi Carp Cyprinus Carpio

The Hariwake (HAH-ree-WAH-keh) sub variety of koi describes two coloured koi where one of the colours is platinum, or metallic white, and the other colour is a metallic colour, either yellow, orange, or red. Therefore, a Lemon Hariwake is a koi with a platinum base colouration and a metallic lemon-yellow pattern.

It is unknown exactly when the first Hariwake koi was bred but we do know that the sub variety was created from a pairing of a Kohaku (a white koi with red patterns) and a Platinum Ogon (a metallic pure-white koi) to create a metallic Kohaku, called the Hariwake koi. We also know that the Platinum Ogon variety was first bred in 1947 by a breeder called Sawata Aoki and we know that a Hariwake koi was bred to a Shusui (Doitsu blue koi with red patterns along the side of the fish) to create the Doitsu Kujaku variety in the early 1960s. Therefore, we can conclude that the Hariwake must have been first bred between 1947 and the early 1960s. The most commonly accepted time frame is the 1950s. 

The first Hariwake koi were essentially metallic Kohaku with deep, vibrant red patterns but within a couple of decades, breeders began to expand the Hariwake variety by growing on koi with orange or yellow patterns instead of the deep red of the Kohaku. This resulted in koi with beni (orange red) or ki (yellow) patterned Hariwake koi. The most popular out of these varieties was the lemon-yellow version which quickly became the Lemon Hariwake koi variety.