A SHORT HISTORY OF KOI
By Mike McMahon
If you read much about the history of koi, you will find great
disagreement on when koi keeping began. The debate has a lot to do with how
one distinguishes a carp from a koi.
The cultivation of carp goes back to antiquity. A Chinese book from
470 B.C. teaches how to cultivate fish and refers to carp. Chinese writings from
over 2,000 years ago refer to nobles giving colored carp as special wedding gifts
to esteemed subordinates. It is not known if these colored carp were for
ornamental viewing, or fine dining. There are Japanese writings from around
200 A.D. mentioning colored carp of red, white and blue (gray) kept for
viewing. So, nearly 2,000 years ago ornamental carp were being kept in garden
lakes. In 714 A.D. the Japanese Emperor is reported to have kept colored carp
in a pond in the imperial gardens.
Keeping colored carp, known as irogoi, was largely reserved to the noble
classes until the Momoyama Era (1582-1598). Feudal Japanese society was
strongly based on the status into which a person was born. Somewhat analogous
to the serfs of medieval Europe who were bound to the land, Japanese peasants
were bound to feudal lords. In the mountains of Niigata, an area of Japan
similar to Appalachia in being known for its isolation and rural backwardness,
the peasants primarily engaged in growing rice on terraced mountainsides which
were otherwise barren. It was a particularly harsh environment known for its
extraordinarily heavy snowfalls. For four months of the year it is common for
Niigata to be buried in snow as high as the roof of the peasants’ homes. During
those winter months, the peasants survived on a diet of rice and root vegetables.
There was little protein in their diet. Around 1615 a practice began of releasing
carp into rice paddies during the summer months. It is not known exactly when
this practice came to Niigata, but by the 18th century dried carp had become a
major component of the winter diet. Fry released in the rice paddies would grow
to several inches over the course of the summer. These would then be dried to
preserve over the winter. The horrific cold of a Niigata winter, however, would
kill virtually all carp left in the rice paddies. Each year, peasants would need to
obtain fry. At some point, we know not when, some peasant decided to bring
breeding stock into their home for the winter. Ponds were dug into the floor of
their primitive structures for the parent fish to survive.
Imagine what it must have been like before there was electricity, before
any modern form of transportation, before there was any “media”
entertainment. These were uneducated peasants living in desolate mountains
where feudal custom determined everything for generation upon generation.
During the winter months they were even isolated from one another, snow
bound. Every piece of fuel was precious. Food was precious. There had to be a
realization that survival could never be assumed. For days and weeks and
months of deep snows, there would be carp living in a rough reservoir. Those
carp had to be the center of much attention. They were a source of life and their
offspring would feed the family through winters to come. It takes little
imagination to understand how much interest there must have been when there
was a carp that was red or white or even just mottled. When a peasant braved
the snows to visit a neighbor down the road, what was there to do or say that had
not been done or said for generation upon generation? It is not difficult to hear
one say: “the white one is getting a black spot.” That would be cause for a
serious discussion. The unchanging repetition of days would be broken. It
would be interesting to know what thoughts passed in the mind of that Niigata
peasant who decided one winter not to eat the red carp (or the white one, or
whatever color it was). I would like to think that he consciously thought: such a
one as that should live and have many sons.
By the early 1800s, irogoi, asagi and bekko were known in Japan. By
1829 red and white carp had been crossed, producing white carp with red on
their bellies and gill plates. By the mid-1800s, sarasa were known – white carp
with red spots on their backs. By the late 1800s, Japanese feudalism began to
die out with industrialization. Modernization, however, did not arrive quickly in
the mountains of Niigata. There, the peasants had developed their own hobby of
raising nishikigoi.
In 1914 the great Taisho Exposition was held to proclaim to the world
that Japan had much to offer in international commerce. People from all across
Japan were urged to bring their manufactured goods to the great Exposition.
The peasants of Niigata performed their duty. They came with their rice and
smoked carp. Despite the travails of travel on dirt roads across mountains, they
also brought canvas pouches with 27 (or 28 depending on the report) koi.
Young Prince Hirohito attended the Exposition and upon seeing the living
jewels, expressed admiration. Hand-colored drawings of the kohaku exhibited
appear in Japanese books published in the early 1970s. These show a very
unrefined fish with scattered red markings, far inferior to even ordinary kohaku
known today. But in 1914, these were very special fish. There were also seven
sanke exhibited, a new variety of which the peasants were particularly proud.
Following the Exposition, the sanke were presented to Prince Hirohito and
placed in the Imperial Palace moat. When the pleasure of the Imperial family
became known, noble classes across Japan followed suit. The koi hobby had
burst out of Niigata.
During the 1920s and 30s, there was a flowering of koi development. In
the July 1988 issue of the Japanese magazine Rinko, Dr. Takeo Kuroki, one of
the most highly respected authorities on koi during his long lifetime, shared the
story of the development of the ogon by Sawata Aoki, a Niigata peasant. In
1921, Mr. Sawata was walking along a mountain path toward the river, carrying
his lunch, when he met up with a boy who had caught a carp with golden scales
on its flanks. Sawata was so deeply impressed that he bought the fish at the first
price asked. He spawned the fish and selected from the offspring the ones with
the most golden color. After four or five generations, he had produced ones with
golden heads, silvery heads and other varieties. He purchased more breeding
stock until he became too poor. He wanted a new breed known as gin-fuji, but
the price was 60 yen, the cost of a large bag of rice. That was too expensive for
him. If he had bought the fish, his family would have gone hungry. Knowing
her father’s troubles, his daughter left home to work as a health nurse for six
months. Upon returning home, she gave her father her salary of 60 yen to
purchase the parent fish. From the spawnings that followed, two ogon with an
entirely golden, shiny body were produced. “It was just after the end of the war
(World War II) and food was scanty, however, his family supported him to feed
the koi by reducing their own food. In spite of rain or wind, Mr. Sawata went to
and from the pond with an empty stomach to feed the koi with locusts that he
had caught and crushed with his teeth. After many years effort, at the age of 74,
he finally succeeded in producing the ogon.
World War II brought food shortages and especially cold winters to
Niigata. Many of the men were drafted to the military or ordered into weapons
factories. Most of the nishikigoi of Niigata died out or were eaten or were
shipped off as food for the military. But some intrepid peasants kept breeding
stock. After 1945, electricity became available. The remnants of feudalism were
eliminated. It became allowable for peasants to adopt their own surnames, and
the peasants of Niigata became entrepreneurial.
By the early 1960s there was a technological invention that
revolutionized koi keeping. The plastic bag became available. It was
immediately possible to transport fish in oxygenated bags with far greater ease
than had ever existed before. By the mid-1960s, a great koi keeping “bubble”
developed in Japan as people all across the country got into the hobby. The fad
took Japan by storm. In the late 1960s the first all Japan show was held. The
largest size group was “over 20 inches,” hardly large by today’s standards. The
grand champion of the first all Japan show was a nice showa. What was the
pinnacle of koi development in 1969 is shown by photographs to be a fish any
koi keeper could obtain today. With the explosion of koi keeping, a highly
organized hobby developed in Japan. Shows at local, regional and national
levels were regularly held. Competitions were reported in the press. Indeed,
hard bound books were produced of national shows depicting photographs of
every winning fish in every variety and size.
By the late 1970s, however, the bubble burst, at least so far as the
peasants of Niigata were concerned. The growth of show competition fish
meant the mass production of ordinary quality koi in the mountains had little
market. The koi farmers of Niigata began rigorous culling on a scale never
before followed. With that culling came the development of the highly refined
varieties known today. The advancements in koi production are evidenced by
the typical size of a one-year koi in 1983 compared to 2003. It is common now
for a one-year koi to be 7-11 inches long, with a few specialized breeders
producing jumbo tosai over 15 inches long. In 1983, the typical one-year koi
was only 3-4 inches. The koi production market has continued to change. The
popularity of koi keeping world wide has caused koi farms to develop in
countries around the world. Niigata no longer has a hold on the world market.
However, Japanese koi farmers are more dependent on international markets
than ever. The economic slump suffered by Japan in the mid-1990s has
dramatically altered the market. In the early 1990s, 70% of their koi were sold
in Japan. In 2003, the ratio reversed. Over 70% were being exported.
So, when did koi keeping begin? Thousands of years ago if irogoi are
considered koi. Or, only about 100 years if one thinks of koi as having pretty
patterns. However, if you think of koi as the highly refined champion stock of
today, those fish did not appear until long after World War II. However a koi is
defined, there is something special to be appreciated about the fact that the
colorful fish that captured the imagination of a snowbound peasant now capture
the fancy of people worldwide, despite there being far more diversions than ever
could have been imagined by a Niigata rice farmer daydreaming of which carp
would be spawned when the snows melted.
—Mike McMahon—
(with apologies to those who prefer their history precise)