In 1921, Sawata Aoki heard the story of a special carp with streaks of gold on its dorsal fin, which had been caught in the river near Hirose village about 30 kilometers away. Sawata felt compelled to walk to the area and see this carp. It was a black magoi with a shine at the base of its dorsal fin. He bought it for a high price and took it home.

After he allowed it to grow large he bred it, keeping only the very few babies that had any golden shine. Over the next 25 years he produced koi there were more and more metallic - Kin Kabuto, Gin Kabuto, Kinbo and Sakin.



In 1946 Sawata spent a small fortune, 60 yen, to buy a famous female koi of the shiro-fuji (White with shiny silvery head) type which he crossed with his own most improved metallic offspring. This was at the end of World War II and times were very hard. There was no money to buy food for the koi fry so he would catch insects all day and chew them into tiny bits to feed his fry. The people of his village believed he was crazy.

By the end of the summer there were two koi out of this group that had a shining gold sheen all over their bodies. They were also twice the size of their brothers and sisters. These were the original ogon koi (metallic golden scaled dark koi). Can there be any doubt that the special care and devotion shown by Sawata to his creations has produced generations of ogon koi that seem to be more easily tamed than any other type of koi?

Sadly, Sawata never benefited from his creation. He spent everything he had, and he and his family lived in rags, to produce a few first ogons. Later other breeders like Takehira Hoshide would acquire his ogon offspring and develop more refined brightly colored Yambukis (gold) and Platinums (silver). The first of these 2nd generation ogons sold for huge sums of money. Ogons are the basis for creating all the metallic types of koi we see today, including Kin Showa, Kujaku, Hariwake, Yamato Nishiki, and Kikiuryus.

(Sourced from http://www.mpks.org/articles/RayJordan/KoiHistory6.shtml)