Carp diem with Mikee Romero
MANILA, Philippines - In the Japanese culture, koi, the pond-residing ornamental carp often characterized by bright red-orange spots, are a big deal. They symbolize good luck, bring blessings to a marriage and signify wealth and status among bigtime Nippon businessmen, a given especially since some fish, the beautifully-marked prized ones, can go for as much as several million yen.
But for Mikee Romero, the young chief executive officer of shipping company Harbour Center and a great supporter of local basketball (he was manager of the country’s gold medal-winning basketball team at the last South East Asian Games while his PBL team bannering his company’s name has won the championship six consecutive times, the last in 2008), koi is neither an incitement for more good fortune nor a marriage strengthener. “I just like them,” explains Romero in a simple, soft-spoken manner that surprises most people who have yet to know him. “I like looking at them,” he adds, before jumping into the brief story of how he discovered and came to appreciate the appeal of the Japanese fish. Basically, while working in Singapore in 2000, he would stare at the koi-filled pond of his Singaporean partner in between meetings. He purchased his first fish the same year and within a few years was already joining elite auctions in Japan to purchase potential prize-winning koi alongside some of the country’s biggest colllectors.
In 2005, he bid for and won High Note, a young Sanke Koi (characterized by its black and red markings on its predominantly white body) that was to become his most successful and prized investment yet. In 2007, Romero and High Note won the Kokugyo Award at the 37th All-Japan World Koi Show in Tokyo, Japan, basically an award that pegs the winner as Japan’s National Fish. Winning the top prize over 3,000 other entries is exalting enough, being the first non-Japanese to win it is the unexpected icing that thoroughly sweetens the deal. The win has upped High Note’s value by as much as 10 times and has established Romero as a real deal collector to contend with.
High Note, bought from the Sakai Fish Farm which has been breeding champion koi for the last 30 years, is now in the same farm in Hiroshima being primed to win the top prize in a heavier weight category. In the same farm, Romero has about 10 or so more fish bearing prize-winning potential. (Romero explains that master koi breeders know to segregate the fry from those with Class A potential to those just meant for prettifying a pond, even if their spots haven’t fully manifested.)
The koi that Romero has in his residence may not have the same aristocratic bloodline but they are no less fascinating or impressive. He has about 15 in his pond, most of them Kohaku (white koi with red patterns) and Sanke. In the same pond, he also has one Ochiba Siguri (metallic green koi) and a few Shiro Utsuri (black koi with white patterns). Most of these pond swimmers are the size of his seven-year-old daughter Mandy’s thigh; the biggest would probably measure around 12 inches in girth. “They would probably win in local competitions or in shows in Singapore or Thailand,” Romero shares. One of them, he concedes, might actually win second place in a show in Japan. By no means is he downsizing the value of his ornamental pond pleasers. His set-up and filtration system alone is double the size of his pond (roughly three meters deep and 10 square meters big) and automatically, and impressively, feeds the fish six times a day. All these for swimmers that afford him brief but intensely satisfying pockets of relaxation.
Apparently, Romero is not one of those fish owners who can only stare pensively at his pretty procurements and let others do the dirty work. Standing before his pool, his clothes drenched and getting wetter still as he tries to maneuver a gigantic net roughly the size of a bay window to scoop up a fish, Romero is every inch the pet owner. Never mind that his choice animal doesn’t wag a tail in greeting or sidle up his side to show affection. He knows where to pet the koi to calm them down, turning them upside down and stroking them on their underbelly or turning them in a circle in the water. He’s also developed an eye for discerning a beauty, pointing out how the whites of this particular fish are pearlized (brilliant white) or how the patterns of another are balanced, or how this one is big enough to impress international show judges. Romero is very much a hands-on owner, every inch the effusive collector.
“In Japan, koi is like a commodity you can trade,” he relates, wiping his damp palms onto his cargos. As he bends down again to “calm down” another fish at the same time you take in the trophy-laden trophy next to the pond, you know, for sure, that Romero isn’t going to be trading any of his fish anytime soon. He’s not in it for the money. Nor the luck. Just like his sporting endeavors, it’s all about passion and definitely, all about pride.
