Description
Utsurimono Japanese Koi Carp Cyprinus Carpio
Shiro Utsuri (SHEE-roh OOT-soo-ree) koi have a sumi (black) body with a shiro (white) pattern over the top. The pattern of a Shiro Utsuri koi is often described as a checkerboard with its alternating sections of sumi and shiro. The variety is quite a simple variety compared to, say, a Goshiki but its simplicity is often one of the main attractions. The sumi and shiro provide a beautiful and dramatic contrast that always stands out and is often visible from quite a distance!
The first Shiro Utsuri koi were bred in the late 1920s, but it is unknown exactly how they were bred and what they were bred from. The most common theory involves the Shiro Bekko koi variety which is a white koi with black patterns as this is the reverse of a Shiro Utsuri koi, which is a black koi with white patterns. However, this is just a theory, and the truth is, and likely always will be, completely unknown! All we do know is that the Shiro Utsuri was first shown to the koi keeping hobby in 1931 and very quickly became a very popular variety with a massively high demand for the variety.
Due to this popularity of the Shiro Utsuri koi and its relative easiness to breed in comparison to the Ki Utsuri and the Hi Utsuri, many breeders have invested a lot of time and effort into refining and improving the Shiro Utsuri variety. Ever since the first generations of Shiro Utsuri koi, breeders have been working to develop and perfect the Shiro Utsuri by improving the quality of the pattern and the colours. Unlike the Hi Utsuri and the Ki Utsuri, a Shiro Utsuri koi can be bred from two Shiro Utsuri parents (breeding two Hi Utsuri or two Ki Utsuri koi results in very poor quality, muddy-looking koi without any of the beautiful Utsuri patterns). Therefore, selective breeding can be used to improve the general quality of this variety. This process involves taking the two nicest parent koi and breeding them to create fry who are generally of equal quality to the parent koi. Some of these fry will be of worse quality than the parents and others will be of higher quality than the parents and these higher quality koi are then chosen to be bred together to create the next generation. This results in each generation being generally higher quality than the previous, thus slowly improving the variety.
These improvements have meant that Shiro Utsuri have become a very competitive koi, often receiving titles and awards at koi shows ever since 1991 when the variety was first entered. In Japan, koi shows are often held indoors, and this means that Shiro Utsuri koi do particularly well because the artificial lighting really makes the contrast of the sumi and shiro colours stand out. However, the Shiro Utsuri were never considered for the biggest prizes or the championship titles because they had one major disadvantage compared to the Gosanke koi and that was size. The Shiro Utsuri is quite a small variety compared to Gosanke and Chagoi koi, with the koi often reaching no more than 90cm in length.
By selectively breeding for size as well as quality, the Omosako koi farm was able to produce the first Shiro Utsuri over 100cm. In fact, this koi then went on to win the championship title at the All-Japan Koi Show in 2013 and became the first Champion Shiro Utsuri. Since then, Omosako have had a very strong presence at koi shows with Shiro Utsuri and are considered to be the best breeder of Shiro Utsuri koi in the world.
